Giovanni Antonio Pellegrini 1716-1718 a Venetian Painter in the Low Countries*

Giovanni Antonio Pellegrini 1716-1718 A Venetian painter in the Low Countries* Bernard Aikema and Ewoud Mijnlieff I. Ouring the Renaissance and Baroque periods, many Netherlandish artists travelled to Italy. On the other hand, hardly any Italian artist visited the Netherlands during this time. The one noteable exception co this mie is Giovanni Antonio (usually called Gianantonio) Pellegrini (1675-1741), a first-rate painter who stayed in the Low Countries for some years in the early eighteenth century, producing a number of important works (fig. I).' This remarkable episode in the artistic relations between Italy and the Netherlands is the subject ofthis article. Together with Sebastiano Ricci (1659-1734) and Jacopo Amigoni (1682-1752), Pellegrini belongs to the most important Venetian history paint ers from the early 18th century. Ricci had rediscovered the decorative value of Paolo Veronese's bright colour schemes and had developed a new, gra cious mode of representation, which was destined co become a main trend not only in Venice, but also abroad. Amigoni and even more so Pellegrini were the first co be influenced by Ricci's work. Both painters produced rela tively few works in their place ofbirth. Instead, they travelled undefatigably through Europe, triumphing with their art at the courts of the noble and 1 rich ofFrance, England and the German countries. Their vast international Gianantonio Pellegrini, Self-portrait, production has rightly been recognized as a major Venetian contribution co 1718-1719. 18th century European art. London, Colnaghi (formerly). At one time in his career, from September 1716 till the end of 1718, Pellegrini lived in the Netherlands for a longer period, working in Antwerp, Amsterdam, The Hague and perhaps other places as well. Strangely enough, this sojourn ofmore than two years - a relatively long period for an itinerant artist like Pellegrini - has never received much attention in art-historical literature. This is to be regretred, especially as his series of painted decora tions in the Low Countries can certainly bear comparison with his betrer known works in England. There is, moreover, the remarkable feature that the principal works are still co be found at their original locations. In this contribution we intend co analyze fully the Netherlandish painterly produc tion of Gianantonio Pellegrini. Further, we shall tackle the question if Pellegrini's work had any influence on Outch decorative artists of the 18th century. Finally, we shall try co establish co what extent his arrival may be seen as a consequence ofa more general interest in contemporary Venetian art on the part ofcertain people in the Low Countries. We begin with a brief sketch ofPellegrini's career up to his arrival in Antwerp. 216 Bernard Aikema and Ewoud Mijnlieff IJ. Gianantonio Pellegrini was born in Venice in 1675.2 At an early age, he was apprenticed to the Lombard painter Paolo Pagani, with whom he went to Moravia in 1690 for six years. There the work ofthe local artists Michael Willmann and Johann Christoph Liska with their loose brushwork and rich colour schemes must have made some impact on the young artist, laying the foundations for his own future style, characterized by dissolving forms and marvellous, bright colour effects. About 1700, he stayed in Rome for two years, where the works ofthe great masters ofBaroque decorative art, Pietro da Cortona, Giovanni Battista Gaulli and Luca Giordano, made an indeli bIe impression on him. Early in the 18th century Pellegrini established his name in Venice with some monumental painterly works (decorative cycles in the Scuola del Cristo, in the Palazzetto Correr at Murano and in Palazzo Albrizzi, and the Moses and the Brazen Serpent in the church of San Moisè) which betray Roman influence as weIl as that ofSebastiano Ricci. Pellegrini's great chance came in 1708 when the special envoy Lord Manchester invited him and his colleague, Sebastiano's nephew Marco Ricci, to come and work in England. Gianantonio was not the first Venetian artist ofthe first rank working abroad - Antonio Bellucci had preceded him but he was the first representative ofthe renewed Venetian manner to do so. And, once more, the Venetian manner would conquer the Europe of the Ancien Régime. In England he reached his mature style in a series ofdecorative cycles with allegorical subjects and themes from classical mythology (Castle Howard, Narford Hall- originally in Burlington House, Kimbolton Castle) whose festive colourism mainly derives from Veronese. The brushwork and the composition ofthe figures also betray a knowledge ofthe art ofRubens. Bestowed with honours Pellegrini left England in 1713. He had plan ned to try his luck in Paris, but first he went to Düsseldorf, where he felt attracted by the court ofthe Elector Palatine Johann Wilhelm von der Pfalz, one ofthe major artistic centres ofEurope. Gianantonio and his wife Angela - the sister of the famous pastel paintress Rosalba Carriera - were received with open arms by the Bolognese man of letters Giorgio Maria Rapparini, secretary to the Elector and head of the local Italian community, who had already been in contact for some time with Rosalba and other Venetian artists. 3 Johann Wilhelm, whose attention was drawn to Pellegrini by Rapparini, ordered a large painting from the artist which met with such a success that the painter obtained the commission ofdecorating a major part of the country seat Bensberg. Pellegrini's series ofpictures with scenes from Johann Wilhelrn's life for the Elector's audience room (now mainly at Schleissheim near Munich) are perhaps the most successful works he ever produced. The cycle was modelled upon Rubens' Maria de' Medici series for the Luxembourg (which Pellegrini may have known through Audran's print ed reproductions from 1710) and seems to contain some echoes ofthe deco ration of the Oranjezaal at the Huis ten Bosch near The Hague as weIl (which the artist may have visited on his journey from England to Germany) (fig. 2).4 Pellegrini was evidently inspired by the splendid collec tion of Rubens oil sketches owned by Johann Wilhelm, as is especially clear from his own bozzetti and modelli made in preparation for the paintings at Bensberg. In the years following the period in Düsseldorf: Rubens' influ ence on Pellegrini is particularly evident..

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