Guido Reni, Luca Ciamberlano and the Oratorians: Their Relationship Clarified

• Autores: Olga Melasecchi, D. Stephen Pepper
• Localización: Burlington magazine, ISSN 0007-6287, Vol. 140, Nº 1146, 1998, págs. 596-603
• Idioma: inglés
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• Resumen

  • It is rare for the art historian to be able to pinpoint an event which reflects a broader change in the course of contemporary artistic developments. In this article we aim to show that just such a shift took place in the patronage of the Oratorian Order around 1609 when the engraver Luca Ciamberlano assumed responsibility for a series of engravings representing scenes from the life of Philip Neri, with Guido Reni becoming the principal artist responsible for the designs.' In taking control of the project, it appears that they replaced Cristoforo Roncalli, previously the favoured artist of the Roman Oratory, and his pupil Bartolomeo Cavarozzi.2 A similar switch was also taking place at more or less the same time in the decoration of the small oratories flanking the church of S. Gregorio Magno,3 and clearly represented a deliberate changing of the guard from the old Oratorian style of depiction - a kind of subdued Mannerism - to Guido Reni's modern style of delicate naturalism. The patron responsible for employing Roncalli at S. Gregorio had been Cardinal Cesare Baronio and it was following his death in 1607 that the new Commendatore of the Oratorians, Scipione Borghese, brought in Guido Reni. The same individuals in all likelihood played nearly identical rOles in the project for the print series, as we shall suggest.