Important Nero Playing the Lyre before the Fire of Rome, 16th century Italian school, school of Vincenzo Campi ...

Important Nero Playing the Lyre before the Fire of Rome, 16th century Italian school, school of Vincenzo Campi (Cremona, 1530/1535-1591)
Oil on canvas, canvas measures: 112 x 94 cm, framed measures: 124 x 105 cm. Origin: important Madrid private collection. Vincenzo Campi (Cremona, 1530/1535-1591). Italian painter. Belonging to a family of painters and architects, Vincenzo developed his apprenticeship in the domestic environment in Cremona. He collaborated with his brothers Giulio and Antonio and his earliest known works, dated to the 1560s, show few original details. His Pietà for the cathedral of Cremona responds to the demands that were being made from the Counter-Reformation spheres for a religious image in which expository clarity was combined with a certain sentimental and pious tone. Little by little, Vincenzo's painting became more interested in the representation of genre scenes, that portray daily life with greater naturalism. This approach to the reproduction of more realistic figures is transferred to his religious work, as shown by The Crucifixion (Prado), which it has been said was seen by the young Caravaggio. At the same time, Vincenzo knew how to incorporate into his painting the novelties that were taking place in Venetian painting, emphasizing color and chiaroscuro. In this way, he followed several parallel lines in his work. On the one hand, he continued to compose everyday scenes, occasionally including humorous themes influenced by Flemish painters such as Beuckelaer and Aertsen. In addition, he carried out, first in collaboration with his brother Antonio and later alone, perspective decorations such as those made in the frescoes of San Paolo Converso in Milan. Finally, He continued making altar paintings in which he developed a naturalism of such great intensity that it has been seen as the closest precedent to the work of Caravaggio. The Prado Museum has three works by Vincenzo Campi. Happy Table and Kitchen Still Life represent his way of approaching still life, while The Crucifixion is a sample of his religious painting. Reference bibliography: Klerck, Bram de, The Brothers Campi: Images and Devotion. Religious Painting in Sixteenth-Century Lombardy, Amsterdam, Amsterdam University Press, 1999. Happy Table and Kitchen Still Life represent his way of approaching still life, while The Crucifixion is an example of his religious painting. Reference bibliography: Klerck, Bram de, The Brothers Campi: Images and Devotion. Religious Painting in Sixteenth-Century Lombardy, Amsterdam, Amsterdam University Press, 1999. Happy Table and Kitchen Still Life represent his way of approaching still life, while The Crucifixion is an example of his religious painting. Reference bibliography: Klerck, Bram de, The Brothers Campi: Images and Devotion. Religious Painting in Sixteenth-Century Lombardy, Amsterdam, Amsterdam University Press, 1999.