![]() Molinari’s drawings are characterized by a particular freedom of handling and expression. Among his pupils were Federico Bencovich and Giambattista Piazzetta, as well as the young Giovanni Battista Piranesi.Īlthough many of Molinari’s drawings were previously attributed to his Venetian contemporary Giovanni Antonio Pellegrini (1675-1741), a stylistically coherent corpus of his drawings has recently been established through connections with paintings by the artist. ![]() When he died in 1704, at the age of forty-nine, Molinari was at the height of his success. He soon began to develop a lighter, more colourful style, however, and this can be seen in the much of the work of his mature career, which was marked by a series of important, large-scale commissions and altarpieces for churches in Venice and the Veneto. The 17th century Venetian artist Antonio Molinari was trained in the studio of Antonio Zanchi, and his early work is marked by the same tenebrism as his master. While the present sheet cannot be related to any extant painting by Molinari, it may be noted in passing that the artist often depicted muscular, seated male nude figures in his numerous paintings of mythological subjects. These include drawings of Alexander and Diogenes and The Baby Moses Tramples on the Pharoah’s Crown, as well as The Rape of Helen and Cornelia, Mother of the Gracchi, all of which are related to paintings by Molinari. Among the large corpus of drawings by Molinari in the Museum Kunst Palast in Düsseldorf are several examples which, although less finished and resolved than the present sheet, nevertheless offer several stylistic points of comparison. Of similar technique, style and dimensions to the present sheet is a drawing by Molinari of The Virgin and Child with the Archangel Michael, Saint Anne, Saint Joseph and Another Saint in the Louvre, which is a preparatory study for an altarpiece in the church of San Michele Arcangelo in Valnegra. This drawing is more finished, and less sketchy, than most of Antonio Molinari’s drawings, which are drawn in a somewhat more abbreviated style.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |