A new interpretation of the “gentil huomo famoso pittore” Giovanni Maria Morandi

Pietro De Sebastiani's definition of Giovanni Maria Morandi as a “gentil huomo famoso pittore” in connection with his role as curator of the artistic collection of the Salviati family admirably sums up the dual personality of this intriguing painter who lived between the second half of the 17th century and the first two decades of the 18th. A gentleman because he had good connections with Roman high society by virtue of his chivalrous qualities, but also an accomplished professional in the academic world and in national and international artistic circles. Giovanni Maria Morandi was certainly a man of his own century, his fame not outliving the three hundred years separating his time from our own. Born and raised in grand-ducal Florence and protected by the Salviati family, he spent most of his life in Rome where he established a reputation as a portraitist for popes, cardinals and aristocrats and as a painter of refined altarpieces. In the works painted during his long career, which clearly reveal the influence of orthodox classicism, he showed remarkable skill in sympathizing with his clients' expectations, in understanding the highest aspirations of the Roman aristocracy. Based on an analysis of both direct and indirect data relating to his later years, this article for the first time attempts to sketch a comprehensive portrait of the painter. The list of works inventoried in his workshop in view of a later sale document all the major episodes of his professional career: his early paintings for Jacopo Salviati, the great public works commissioned by popes and famous men of that time, and the works of his later years. The aim is to make an evaluation of the current state of studies on Giovanni Maria Morandi and establish a new basis for future research on this artist.

Index

Francesco Aceto Church area and altarpieces by "primitives" in San Lorenzo Maggiore in Naples: from the "Saint Louis" by Simone Martini to the "Saint Jerome" by Colantonio. II
read abstract » pp. 2-61
Gianluca Amato The wooden 'Crucifixes' of Giuliano, Antonio and Francesco da Sangallo
read abstract » pp. 62-123
Fernando Gilotta A new krater by the Fould Painter
read abstract » pp. 124-125
Jacometto Veneziano and the humanists. A proposal for the 'Portrait of Luca Pacioli and Guidubaldo da Montefeltro' of the Museo di Capodimonte
read abstract » pp. 126-149
'Portraits' for Jacometto Veneziano, Marco Basaiti and Andrea Previtali
read abstract » pp. 150-158
Leonardo da Vinci in the Castello Sforzesco in Milan: a citation from Luca Pacioli for the “Sala delle Asse”, or “room of the mulberry trees”
read abstract » pp. 159-166
Alessandra Pattanaro A 'Male Portrait' by Girolamo da Carpi from Palazzo Spreti in Ravenna
read abstract » pp. 167-172
Stefano L'Occaso Lattanzio Gambara at Maguzzano
read abstract » pp. 173-177
Elena Rame A drawing by Lattanzio Gambara for the 'Martyrdom of Saint Stephen' at Vimercate
read abstract » pp. 178-179
Gennaro De Luca A new interpretation of the “gentil huomo famoso pittore” Giovanni Maria Morandi
read abstract » pp. 180-191
Fabio Sottili The 'Portrait of Count de Bonneval' by Violante Siries and the turqueries of the Sansedoni family
read abstract » 192-197