Salvator Rosa – Italian Baroque painter and pioneer of Free Art

Salvator Rosa undoubtedly ranks among the most fascinating figures of Italian Baroque painting . His art was characterized by an independent spirit and a profound engagement with ancient philosophy , which he expressed in his works, but also in his satires and cantatas.

Exactly 350 years ago, he died in Rome, leaving the art world an unforgettable legacy. Deutschlandfunk reported on it (audio available as a stream or download).

Salvator Rosa was an Italian painter known for his romantic landscapes and his bold, powerful painting style. His artworks are renowned for their vibrant colors and strong compositions. In this article, we will take an in-depth look at the life, work, and oeuvre of Salvator Rosa and explore how we can still draw inspiration from it 350 years after his death.

Introduction

You have heard a lot about Salvator Rosa and his art – but have you also looked into how and in what historical context this dazzling Baroque painter created his works of art?

This article will take you on a journey through the art historical documentation of Salvator Rosa's masterpiece . We will delve into his personality, ideas, and inspirations to view his works with a well-informed eye. We will also examine his techniques to see how he created his artworks. Through thorough analysis, we will explore the full spectrum of his art and celebrate its incredible diversity.

I am delighted to accompany you on this art historical journey!

Who was Salvator Rosa?

Salvator Rosa was an Italian painter, printmaker, poet, and actor of the 17th century ( Baroque period ). His name translates as 'Savior of the Rose' . He was born in Naples and was known for his landscape and history paintings, which exude a strong, dramatic atmosphere.

Without a doubt, he was one of the most fascinating and complex figures in 17th-century Italy. His character and lifestyle can certainly be described as unorthodox and extravagant. He was frequently taken as a hero and role model by painters of the Romantic movement in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. He was primarily a landscape painter , but the range of his subjects was unusually broad, encompassing portraits and allegories. He also depicted scenes of witchcraft, influenced by Nordic prints.

Rosa's training took place in Naples, where he was born, and the main influences on his early work were Ribera and Aniello Falcone , a painter best known for his battle scenes. After visits to Rome in the late 1630s, Rosa worked in Florence and its surroundings (1640-1649) before returning to Rome, where he eventually died.

His witch scenes demonstrate his interest in the irrational and less conventional intellectual pursuits of his time. These also formed the backdrop for his etchings and satires.

His paintings are vibrant, full of strong emotions and feelings. His artworks are unique and possess a distinctive style that differed from the then-prevailing Neapolitan Mannerism . He was a master of contrasts , combining light and dark colors, human and animal figures, and landscapes. His figures are lively and sometimes whimsical, but always with a touch of humor.

In the following self-portrait from 1647, he depicts himself inscribing a skull with the Greek words: “Behold, whither, eventually.” The cypress wreath is a symbol of mourning, while a book by the Roman Stoic philosopher Seneca According to the inscription, the painting was a gift to Rosa's friend Giovanni Battista Ricciardi (1624–1686), a brilliant literary figure from Pisa.

Childhood, youth and education

He was born in Arenella on the outskirts of Naples : either on June 20 or July 21, 1615. His father, Vito Antonio de Rosa, a surveyor, urged his son to become a lawyer or a priest and entered the monastery of the Somaschi Fathers.

Nevertheless, Salvator showed a predilection for the arts, secretly working with his maternal uncle, Paolo Greco, to learn about painting, and soon switching to his own brother-in-law, Francesco Francanzano, a pupil of Ribera, and later either to Aniello Falcone, with Domenico Gargiulo, or Ribera himself. Some sources claim he spent time with roving bandits.

At seventeen he lost his father; his mother was destitute with at least five children, and Salvator found himself without financial support.

He continued his training with Falcone and helped him complete battle paintings Lanfranco have taken notice of his work and advised him to move to Rome , where he remained from 1634 to 1636.

Return to Naples and a turn towards romantic landscapes

Upon returning to Naples, he began painting evocative landscapes overgrown with vegetation or rugged beaches, mountains, and caves. Rosa—also Salvatoriello —was among the first "romantic" landscapes , with a particular affinity for picturesque, often turbulent and rugged scenes populated by shepherds, bandits, sailors, and soldiers. These early landscapes were sold cheaply through private dealers. This type of painting suited him especially well.

 

Back in Rome – comedies, satire, and hostilities

He returned to Rome in 1638-39, where he stayed with Cardinal Francesco Maria Brancaccio, Bishop of Viterbo. For the Chiesa Santa Maria della Morte in Viterbo, Rosa painted his first and one of his few altarpieces depicting the disbelief of Thomas. While Rosa was a genius at painting, he pursued a variety of arts: music, poetry, writing, etching, and acting.

In Rome, he befriended Pietro Testa and Claude Lorraine . During a Roman carnival, he wrote and performed in a masked play in which his character hurried through Rome distributing satirical remedies for ailments of the body and especially the mind. In costume, he railed against the farcical comedies performed in Trastevere under the direction of Bernini

While his plays were successful, this also earned him powerful enemies among patrons and artists in Rome, including Bernini himself. At the end of 1639, he was forced to move to Florence, where he remained for eight years. He had been invited, in part, by Cardinal Giancarlo de' Medici . There, Rosa sponsored a combination of studio and salon for poets, playwrights, and painters—the so-called Accademia dei Percossi ("Academy of the Fallen").

He presented his paintings of wild landscapes to the strict art milieu of Florence; although influential, he gathered few true pupils. Another painter-poet, Lorenzo Lippi , shared the Cardinal's hospitality and the same circle of friends with Rosa. Lippi encouraged him to continue with the poem Il Malmantile Racquistato . He was also well acquainted with Ugo and Giulio Maffei and lived with them in Volterra, where he four satires : Music, Poetry, Painting, and War.

Around the same time, he painted his own portrait, now in the Uffizi Gallery.

The Revolt of Masaniello and the Compagnia della Morte

In 1646 he returned to Naples once more and appears to have sympathized with Masaniello's uprising , as a passage in one of his satires suggests. His actual participation in the revolt is doubtful. It is claimed that Rosa, along with other painters—Coppola, Paolo Porpora, Domenico Gargiulo, Dal Po, Marzio Masturzo, the two Vaccari, and Cadogna—all under the leadership of Aniello Falcone, founded the Compagnia della Morte (Company of Death) , whose mission was to hunt Spaniards in the streets, sparing not even those who had sought religious refuge.

During this time, he painted a portrait of Masaniello – probably more from memory than from life. When Don Juan de Austria approached, the bloodstained Compagnia dispersed.

Other stories recount that he fled from there and joined the bandits in the Abruzzo region. Although this incident cannot be easily reconciled with known dates of his career, a famous romantic ballet based on this story, titled Catarina, in London in 1846 by choreographer Jules Perrot and composer Cesare Pugni .

La Fortuna almost ended up in jail

Finally, in 1649 he returned to Rome. Here he painted some important subjects that showed the unusual inclination of his mind as he transitioned history painting

Democritus Amidst Graves , The Death of Socrates , Regulus in the Barbed Barrel (these two are now in England), Justice Leaving Earth , and Fortuna . This last satirical work sparked a storm of controversy. Rosa, seeking reconciliation, published a description of its meaning. Nevertheless, he was nearly arrested. Around this time, Rosa wrote his satire Babylon , which of course referred to Rome.

This sparked even more hostility towards him. Accusations arose that his published satires were not his own, but plagiarized. Rosa indignantly rejected these accusations, although it was true that his satires dealt extensively with classic names, allusions, and anecdotes, often using distorted content.

To this day, experts are baffled as to whether Salvatoriello might have saturated his mind with a multitude of semi-scholarly details during this period. It may be legitimate to assume that literary friends in Florence and Volterra instructed him on the subject matter of his satires. The compositions, however, remained strictly and entirely his own. To refute his critics, he now wrote the final part of the series, entitled Envy .

Among the paintings of his last years were the much-admired battle scene and Saul and the Witch of Endor (the latter perhaps even his very last work).

While working on a series of satirical portraits, Rosa contracted dropsy. He died six months later. In his final moments, he married a Florentine woman named Lucrezia, who bore him two sons, one of whom survived him. The restless and unconventional Baroque painter is buried in the Chiesa degli Angeli , where a portrait of him stands. After struggling for survival in his early youth, Salvator Rosa had successfully amassed a considerable fortune by the time of his death.

What kind of art did he create?

Salvator Rosa was a master of art and an artist who should not be forgotten. He created many impressive and unique paintings and drawings that reflect his artistry and talent.

His works are remarkable for their diverse motifs, which he often took from nature and mythology, and for his artistic techniques, compositions, and applications of color.

His paintings are famous for their lifelike colors, which he often combined with his unusual, often somber compositions. He was also known for his landscape paintings, which he frequently used as a backdrop for his mythological scenes. His landscapes depict romantic and realistic impressions of the landscape he gathered on his travels to Italy.

He also created significant etchings, including a very popular and influential series of small soldier prints and a number of larger and very ambitious subjects.

Rosa was undeniably a leader in this trend towards the Romantic and the picturesque. How influential his work was in the following decades or centuries remains an open question. Wittkower rightly observes that it is his landscapes, not his grand historical or religious dramas, in which Rosa truly ignited Baroque art scene

He may have dismissed them as frivolous capricci compared to his other subjects, but these academically conventional canvases often restrained his rebellious streak.

In general, he avoided the idyllic and pastoral tranquil landscapes of Claude Lorraine and Paul Brill , creating brooding, melancholic fantasy scenes overrun with ruins and bandits. The contrasts between the artists of his time are illustrated by the lines of poetry written in 1748:

Whate'er Lorraine light touched with softening hue/ Or savage Rosa dashed, or learned Poussin drew

He significantly influenced the landscape style of Gaspar Dughet .

In an era when artists were often severely restricted and disciplined by patrons, Rosa possessed a bold streak of independence that celebrated the artist's unique role. Her wealth, she believed, should lie in intellectual pursuits and in being content with simple pleasures while others gorged themselves on material possessions.

He refused to paint on commission or agree on a price beforehand, choosing his own subjects. He painted to be swept away by storms of enthusiasm, using his brushes only when he felt inwardly ecstatic. This tempestuous spirit became a favorite of the British Romantics.

Which are his most famous works?

Salvator Rosa numerous important paintings , including:

• • Heroic Battle , oil on canvas, between 1652 and 1664, 351 × 214 cm, Louvre Museum, Paris
  • Philosophy (c. 1645), Self-Portrait, 94 x 116.3 cm, National Gallery , London
  • The Doubt of Saint Thomas , altarpiece from 1638, Museo Municipale di Viterbo
  • Portrait of Lucrezia (his wife) , around 1650, Palazzo Barberini, Rome
  • Democritus in Meditation , 1651, Statens Museum for Kunst, Copenhagen
  • Humana fragilitas , 1656, Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge
  • La Fortuna , 1659, J. Paul Getty Museum, Malibu
  • Saul and the Witch of Endor , 1668, Musée du Louvre, Paris
  • Jason and the Dragon , 1668, Musée des beaux-arts de Montréal
  • Landscape with Mercury and the Lying Woodcutter , between 1650 and 1654, 202.1 x 125.7 cm, National Gallery, London
  • Return of Astraea , ca. 1640-1645, Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna
  • Marina del Porto , 1640, 399 x 233 cm, Galleria Palatina, Florence
  • Batalha antiga (Ancient Battle) , 17th century, 129 x 94 cm, Museu Nacional de Belas Artes (MNBA), Rio de Janeiro
  • A coastal landscape with shipwrecks and ruins , ca. 1673, 163.5 x 73.8 cm, private collection
  • Portrait of a Man , 1640, State Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg
  • Rocky landscape with a hunter and warrior, ca. 1670, 192 x 142 cm, Louvre Museum, Paris
  • Witches' Sabbath , between 1635 and 1654, 73 x 87 cm, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston
  • Faun with grapes , 17th century, Muzeum Okręgowe w Rzeszowie (Galeria Dąmbskich), Poland

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  Each of these artworks is distinguished by its unique and richly detailed scenes. Landscapes, mountains, waterfalls, coastlines, battles, portraits, and biblical and mythological scenes are the core themes of the Italian Baroque painter.

  But not only the landscape, but also the figures he depicted in his works were incredibly vivid and impressive. These figures were often mythical beings, such as centaurs, satyrs, and even demons. His works testify to his talent as both a painter and a poet, both for telling and visualizing a story.

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  His drawings and prints are also noteworthy, especially his “Capricci” series, which he created in the 17th century. Most of his works are now in museums, and many remain highly sought after.

  Auctions and art sales in recent years through the largest and oldest auction house in the German-speaking world – the Dorotheum prices of up to 127,000 euros for the Italian Baroque painter

  

   

• With his unique style, Salvator Rosa has left a lasting mark on Italian art history . His artworks are exhibited in galleries and museums worldwide and are considered by many to be masterpieces of art history.