Francesca Cappelletti | |
|---|---|
 Francesca Cappalletti (left) and First Lady Jill Biden (right) tour the Borghese Gallery in October 2021 | |
| Born | b. 1964 |
| Nationality | Italian |
| Education | University of Rome |
| Occupation | Art historian |
| Employer | Galleria Borghese |
Francesca Cappelletti (born 1964) is an Italian art history professor known for verifying the authenticity of the Caravaggio painting The Taking of Christ with Laura Testa while they were students at the University of Rome. [1] [2] [3]
Cappelletti graduated from the University of Rome and studied at the Warburg Institute in London and the Collège de France in Paris. [4] She is a Professor of Art History at the University of Ferrara. [5]
Cappelletti, along with Laura Testa, found the first recorded mention of The Taking of Christ in an ancient and decaying account book documenting the original commission and payments to Caravaggio, in the archives of the Mattei family, kept in the cellar of a palazzo in the small town of Recanati, an archive that is no longer accessible to the public. [6] Testa and Cappelletti were working on a hunch by Caravaggio scholar Roberto Longhi that a painting attributed to Gerard van Honthorst might, in fact, be by Caravaggio. [7] Cappelletti discovered a 1972 history of the National Gallery of Scotland's collection which discussed a bequest of 28 paintings purchased from the Mattei family by William Hamilton Nisbet, implying that the painting might be in the United Kingdom. [8] The painting was discovered in a Jesuit community residence in the early 1990s by Sergio Benedetti and is on indefinite loan to the National Gallery of Ireland.
Cappelletti published the results of her research first in the Italian publication Arte e Dossier and then in The Burlington Magazine in 1993. [9] [10] The discovery of the painting and the research leading up to it became the subject of the book The Lost Painting: The Quest for a Caravaggio Masterpiece by Jonathan Harr. In it, Cappelletti is described as "a free woman within the lingering, and dwindling, constraints of a profession largely dominated by men." [11]
Michelangelo Merisida Caravaggio, known as simply Caravaggio, was an Italian painter active in Rome for most of his artistic life. During the final four years of his life he moved between Naples, Malta, and Sicily until his death. His paintings have been characterized by art critics as combining a realistic observation of the human state, both physical and emotional, with a dramatic use of lighting, which had a formative influence on Baroque painting.
Giovanni Francesco Barbieri, better known as Guercino, or il Guercino[ɡwerˈtʃiːno], was an Italian Baroque painter and draftsman from Cento in the Emilia region, who was active in Rome and Bologna. The vigorous naturalism of his early manner contrasts with the classical equilibrium of his later works. His many drawings are noted for their luminosity and lively style.
The Caravaggisti were stylistic followers of the late 16th-century Italian Baroque painter Caravaggio. His influence on the new Baroque style that eventually emerged from Mannerism was profound. Caravaggio never established a workshop as most other painters did, and thus had no school to spread his techniques. Nor did he ever set out his underlying philosophical approach to art, the psychological realism which can only be deduced from his surviving work. But it can be seen directly or indirectly in the work of Rubens, Jusepe de Ribera, Bernini, and Rembrandt. Famous while he lived, Caravaggio himself was forgotten almost immediately after his death. Many of his paintings were reascribed to his followers, such as The Taking of Christ, which was attributed to the Dutch painter Gerrit van Honthorst until 1990. It was only in the 20th century that his importance to the development of Western art was rediscovered. In the 1920s Roberto Longhi once more placed him in the European tradition: "Ribera, Vermeer, La Tour and Rembrandt could never have existed without him. And the art of Delacroix, Courbet and Manet would have been utterly different". The influential Bernard Berenson stated: "With the exception of Michelangelo, no other Italian painter exercised so great an influence."
Benvenuto Tisi was a Late-Renaissance-Mannerist Italian painter of the School of Ferrara. Garofalo's career began attached to the court of the Duke d'Este. His early works have been described as "idyllic", but they often conform to the elaborate conceits favored by the artistically refined Ferrarese court. His nickname, Garofalo, may derive from his habit of signing some works with a picture of a carnation.
The Taking of Christ is a painting, of the arrest of Jesus, by the Italian Baroque master Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio. Originally commissioned by the Roman nobleman Ciriaco Mattei in 1602, it is housed in the National Gallery of Ireland, Dublin.
The Calling of Saint Matthew is a painting by Caravaggio, depicting the moment at which Jesus Christ inspires Matthew to follow him. It was completed in 1599–1600 for the Contarelli Chapel in the church of the French congregation, San Luigi dei Francesi in Rome, where it remains. It hangs alongside two other paintings of Matthew by Caravaggio, The Martyrdom of Saint Matthew and The Inspiration of Saint Matthew (1602).
Caravaggio created one of his most admired altarpieces, The Entombment of Christ, in 1603–1604 for the second chapel on the right in Santa Maria in Vallicella, a church built for the Oratory of Saint Philip Neri. A copy of the painting is now in the chapel, and the original is in the Vatican Pinacoteca. The painting has been copied by artists as diverse as Rubens, Fragonard, Géricault and Cézanne.
John the Baptist was the subject of at least eight paintings by the Italian Baroque artist Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio (1571–1610).
Giovanni Battista Caracciolo (1578–1635) was an Italian artist and important Neapolitan follower of Caravaggio. He was a member of the murderous Cabal of Naples, with Belisario Corenzio and Giambattista Caracciolo, who were rumoured to have poisoned and disappeared their competition for painting contracts.
The Supper at Emmaus is a painting by the Italian Baroque master Caravaggio, executed in 1601, and now in London. Originally this painting was commissioned and paid for by Ciriaco Mattei, brother of cardinal Girolamo Mattei.
Francesco Furini was an Italian Baroque painter of Florence, noted for his sensual sfumato style in paintings of both secular and religious subjects.
Jonathan Harr is an American writer, best known for the nonfiction work A Civil Action.
The Lost Painting: The Quest for a Caravaggio Masterpiece is a non-fiction book by the author of A Civil Action, Jonathan Harr. The book traces the recent discovery of a Caravaggio painting, by comparing two copies of the painting and trying to figure out which one is the original The Taking of Christ. The book is an extension of an article that first appeared in The New York Times. One of the people whose life is recounted in the book is the Oxford philosopher and ontologist of the infosphere Luciano Floridi.
Mattei was one of the most powerful noble families of Rome during the Middle Ages and early modern era, holding high positions in the papal curia and government office. The family amassed significant art collections under art enthusiasts such as Ciriaco Mattei.
Sergio Adriano Benedetti was an Italian art historian and formerly Head Curator and Keeper of the Collection of the National Gallery of Ireland.
Sir John Denis Mahon, was a British collector and historian of Italian art. Considered to be one of the few art collectors who was also a respected scholar, he is generally credited, alongside Sacheverell Sitwell and Tancred Borenius, with bringing Italian pre-Baroque and Baroque painters to the attention of English-speaking audiences, reversing the critical aversion to their work that had prevailed from the time of John Ruskin.
Clovis Whitfield is an art historian and art dealer based in London, where he runs Whitfield Fine Art. He is a member of the Society of London Art Dealers.
Domenico Fiasella was an Italian painter of the Baroque period, mainly active in Genoa. He was nicknamed Il Sarzana, after his birthplace.
Roberto Longhi was an Italian academic, art historian and curator. The main subjects of his studies were the painters Caravaggio and Piero della Francesca.
Ciriaco Mattei was an Italian nobleman of Rome and of the House of Mattei and one of the most prolific art collectors of his time.
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