STROZZI'S TWO MUSICIANS by Joan K. Yanni

STROZZI'S TWO MUSICIANS

by Joan K. Yanni

                                        

Baroque art is a contrast to the contained, intellectual art of the Renaissance. It is characterized by vitality and passion, movement and energy. Sharp diagonals cut across paintings, and the artist sets his subjects at the front of the canvas, inviting the viewer into his picture. As Baroque architecture uses twisted columns, convoluted scrolls and elaborate decoration, and Baroque sculptures spiral toward the sky (see MAG's Rape of Proserpine (68.2) after Bernini), Baroque painting uses vivid color, strong emotion and passion, and sharp contrasts of light and dark.

The Gallery's Two Musicians (53.8) by Bernardo Strozzi is an excellent example of Baroque painting. Two men look out of the large canvas at the viewer: a young, ingenuous boy ready to play a violin and an older, bearded man tuning his lute.  They are leaning over a parapet, on which rests a shawm, an early wind instrument of the oboe class. They could be master and student, a contrast between idealistic youth and experienced old age. They seem to extend out of the painting toward the onlooker, and the gnarled, veined hand of the older man looks real enough to grasp as, foreshortened, it comes forward out of the picture frame.  A curving, golden shawl—a Baroque trick—leads us into the picture.  With his rich colors and fluid brush, Strozzi invites us to touch the hands and marvel at the sheen of the fabric. The musicians' faces glow with light against the dark background of the painting.

Musicians were a favorite subject of Strozzi's, and a popular one as well. Sixteen versions of this composition survive; MAG's is considered by some Baroque experts to be the first and finest of the group.  A version of the painting in the private collection of the Duke of Devonshire was for years listed as a Caravaggio before being attributed to Strozzi.

Bernardo Strozzi was one of the most influential Italian painters of the early 17th century. He was born in Genoa around 1581 and trained as a painter with the Sienese master Pietro Sorri. In 1599 he entered the Capuchin monastery in Genoa, and some of his paintings of St. Francis, painted in dark, monochromatic browns with the saint emerging from a dark background, date from this period.

In 1610 he was granted permission to leave the monastery temporarily to support his ailing, widowed mother and unmarried sister. He became a secular priest and was able to continue painting.  Strozzi was influenced by many painters working in Genoa, from Tuscan mannerists to Milanese masters. His works also show the influence of Flemish painters Peter Paul Rubens and his pupil Anthony van Dyck, who had both worked in Genoa. (See Van Dyck, Portrait of an Italian Nobleman (68.100); Rubens, The Reconciliation of King Henry III and Henry of Navarre (44.24); and Studio of Rubens, Odysseus and Nausicaa (61.27) in the same gallery.)

Around 1620 Strozzi began to employ a more lively naturalism, perhaps influenced by Caravaggio. His realistic figures and use of chiaroscuro reflect the works of the flamboyant painter—Strozzi may have encountered Caravaggio's work on a visit to Rome around 1615—but Strozzi's figures are crowded into a more confined space, and color is as important as chiaroscuro in his painting.  His Calling of St. Matthew, resembling Caravaggio's own version of the subject, and Adoration of the Shepherds show this influence. In his last ten years in Genoa Strozzi became a portraitist of merit and also painted frescoes, but few survive. Best preserved are three works in the Palazzo Centurione at Sampierdarena.

In 1631, since Strozzi's mother had died and his sister had married, the Capuchins demanded that Strozzi return to the monastery. Some biographies report that he was granted a dispensation and allowed to go to Venice, others simply say he fled Genoa for Venice. In any case, his standing in the secular church was not impaired, since he was known in Venice as "Il prete Genovese" (The Genoese priest) and he was made a monsignor in 1635. In Venice he became one of that city's leading portrait painters, receiving commissions from the Doge—the city's chief magistrate—and other prominent nobles.

Strozzi had arrived in Venice at an opportune time. Painting in that city at the beginning of the seventeenth century was in a decline after the great work of Titian and Tintoretto. In Genoa Strozzi had studied the Venetian masters; in Venice he brought his study to fruition with works of vibrant and intense color, powerful modeling of human bodies, and a sense of humanity. Influenced by the work of Veronese and Domenico Feti, he was able to revitalize Venetian painting, to rekindle the creative spirit there. In the last thirteen years of his life in Venice he produced some of his most outstanding work. He died there in 1644.

Sources: Michael Milkovich, Bernardo Strozzi, Paintings and Drawings, 1967; The Baltimore Museum of Art, Three Baroque Masters: Strozzi, Crespi, Piazzetta, 1944; curatorial files.