Centres of Italian Painting in the18th Century
Following on from Florence, Venice and Rome in the 16th and 17th Centuries, all the Italian cities awoke to their glorious past during the 18th Century. Malvasia wrote about the lives of the painters of Bologna, De'Dominici about those of Naples. Despite the political and economic circumstances of the time which were often not favourable, great painters established the artistic reputations of their cities by reviving their artistic traditions. Giuseppe Maria Crespi, in Bologna, was the heir of an exceptional century. A painter of historical scenes and portraits, as well as vivid scenes of everyday life, he is representative of tradition whilst at the same time being an innovator.
In Naples, Francesco Solimena took up the torch from Luca Giordano. Like him, Solimena was a great decorator. His allegories and ceremonial portraits illustrated the dazzling civilization established by the Austrian dynasty in Naples. Francesco Trevisani, who originally came from Venice, became the greatest Roman painter of his generation, a symbol of the attraction exerted by this centre on Italian and foreign painters.
|
