MARATTI, Carlo

An inscription in Latin tells us the the portrait was painted in Rome in 1663 when the sitter was twenty-four.

The flower garland was executed by Mario Nuzzi, nicknamed Mario dei Fiori (1603-1673). He painted the flowers on several other paintings by Maratti, too.

The painting is a replica of the fresco executed for the gallery of the Palazzo Quirinale in 1657, revised in the 1690s. Another variant is in the Louvre, Paris.

In the background the Calvary can be seen.

The story is taken from the Metamorphoses of the Roman poet Ovid. After Apollo had offended Cupid in his capacity as an archer, the god of love shot two separate arrows out of spite. One of these struck Apollo himself, who became inflamed with love for Daphne, the daughter of the river god Peneus. With the other, with opposing effect, he hit Daphne, who as a result fled Apollo’s advances. Maratti depicts the point at which Apollo almost catches up Daphne and she is rescued by changing into an olive tree. In the foreground lies Peneus, recognisable as river god by his crock of flowing water.

Carlo Maratti, a native of the Marches and a pupil of Andrea Sacchi, was one of the leading painters of the Rome of his day. The prestigious commission for this painting came from Louis XIV of France. In it the king consciously followed the image of the Sun King by selecting a theme with the sun god Apollo in the main role. The moment in the story chosen here is very traditional and well-loved in the pictorial arts. A famous and virtuoso model is Bernini’s group in the Galleria Borghese in Rome. Even so, Maratti’s work was rejected by the French court when his work arrived in 1681. The Acad�mie that the king had founded, with its ideals of unity of place, time and action, reproached Maratti for depicting the river god Apianus in the background, although Ovid mentions only later in the story that this god lamented Daphne’s lot together with Peneus.

In accordance with the art theory of the time, which encouraged rivalry between artists, many French artists attempted to improve Maratti’s composition by observing the academic rules in their own works with the same theme. In this way Maratti’s painting became not only one of the first, but, ironically enough, also one of the most influential manifestations of classicism at the French court. Maratti’s figures also contain various borrowings from classical antiquity and Renaissance models. His Apollo follows the Apollo Belvedere in the Vatican. The nymph to Apianus’ right strongly resembles a print by Marcantonio Raimondi based on Raphael. Later Ingres and Manet sought inspiration from similar sources for their Odalisque and Le D�jeuner sur l’herbe respectively.

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The tranquil calm of this scene was derived from cleverly following Raphael’s model. It sums up the way that Maratti managed serenely to dominate the image he painted. Pietro da Cortona’s exuberance had by now subsided. From this we can deduce that Roman art was losing its impetus after the death of Bernini (1680) and was about to enter a phase of soporific academicism.

When Maratti began his painting on the large two-story Salone of the Palazzo Altieri, he was planning to paint the entire ceiling not just the centre of the ceiling. However, his employers felt that the pictorial program was not appropriate for a number of reasons. Maratti therefore painted the centre panel composed in the style of church ceilings. Called the Trionfo della Clemenza (Triumph of Clementia), the ceiling presents an allegorical glorification of Pope Clement X Altieri and his nephews, which in a play on his name celebrates a central personification of Clementia (Mercy). Around her twines an allegorical composition that immortalizes the pope’s happy and peaceful reign.

The numerous pentimenti, found in the painting, illustrate the artist’s inventiveness and creativity as a draughtsman and painter.

This altarpiece possesses a richness of colour that is unusual for Maratti. He was, in fact, influenced by looking at Venetian painting, which can also be seen from the way the composition is laid out as well as the expressions and gestures of the characters. Maratti had an eclectic ability to quote from others but always toned it down in a sober and controlled fashion. Indeed, this might be seen as his main claim to fame. Otherwise he was an isolated figure trying to handle the difficult passage between one style and another, between one generation and the next.

Andre Le N�tre (1613-1700) was a French garden designer. He is famous for designing - among others - the garden layout in Versailles.

The sitter of the allegorical portrait was identified as Francesca Gommi, the artist’s third wife. While the painter and Gommi did not marry until 1700, the two had lived together for many years prior to their legal union.

Apart from demonstrating the favours granted by important Roman patrons, Maratti’s portraits are also perhaps the most lively and penetrating part of his work. He took pains to capture the exact physiognomy of his sitters in whom he sometimes seemed to uncover an incurable feeling of melancholy hiding just below the surface. Here his admiration for Raphael’s portraits is evident, but he has added a more stylish air to suit the tastes of the high Baroque.

The painting was executed shortly before the death of the Pope who was on the throne from 1667 to 1669. It is signed on the paper sheet on the table.

A leading figure in Rome’s cultural world in the second half of the seventeenth century, Carlo Maratti is a good example of both the strengths and weaknesses of the Baroque. His technical ability was unsurpassed as was his knowledge of formal models. At the same time he seemed to struggle to be creative in a truly innovative fashion. He grew up in the classically-inspired atmosphere of Nicolas Poussin’s circle and had close contacts with Bellori, a man of letters. Maratti studied sixteenth-century painting admiringly (especially Raphael and Correggio) and joined the group of Emilian artists who had succeeded the Carracci.

Most of his career was spent in Rome where he painted numerous large altarpieces, excellent portraits and fresco cycles, such as the one in Villa Falconieri at Frascati. He was praised as “Raphael reincarnate” and became leader of the Roman school after the deaths of Pietro da Cortona and Bernini. His painting was typically polished and flawlessly stylish. He attracted imitators and admirers all over Italy.

This composition of the Holy family depicts the Virgin and Child reading, with St Joseph in the background.

Maratti was the pre-eminent exponent of late Baroque classicism in Rome. The major inspiration for the present painting was Correggio’s large altarpiece of the Holy Night with its striking nocturnal lighting. The painter has not only directly borrowed the pose and position of Mary and the Christ Child from Correggio’s altarpiece, but also the youthful grace of the Virgin’s features. Inn their use of light, both artists clearly evoke the light of God promised in the Old Testament, which became a reality with the birth of Jesus.

Maratti executed mostly large religious paintings, portraits and Madonnas. With this Virgin beside the sleeping Child surrounded by St Catherine of Alexandria and four angels, Maratti alludes to the Virgin and Child paintings of the late fifteenth- and early sixteenth-century Italian masters. The pyramidal composition, the use of sfumato, and the grace and sophistication of the Virgin’s pose are inspired by Maratti’s knowledge of the works of Leonardo da Vinci, Raphael, and Parmigianino.

Philip Neri’s position on the diagonal and his outstretched hands bring the viewer into his vision of divine love. The dynamic diagonal, the sculptural, turning bodies, the fulsome clouds, and especially the vision visited upon the saint are grand Baroque elements. These, and the sophisticated colour scheme, make this one of Maratti’s masterpieces.