SEICENTO FIORENTINO
Sacred and Profane Allegories
1 to 18 May 2012
Moretti Fine Art will stage their fifth exhibition of Italian Old Masters at the
New York gallery at 24 East 80th Street. The Seicento, or the 17th century,
refers to Italian cultural and social history during this tumultuous period,
characterised by several wars, conflicts and invasions as well as the patronage
of the arts and architecture. It was also the period which saw the end of the
Renaissance and the beginning of the Counter Reformation and the Baroque
era together with advancements in Italian science, philosophy and technology.
One of the highlights of the exhibition, Susanna at the Bath with Maids by
Ottavio Vannini, is a glorious example of the work of this iconic Florentine
artist. Born in Florence, he trained in Rome under Anastasio Fuontebuoni
and in Florence under Domenico Passignani. This picture presents Susanna
at a well, bathing with the help of her handmaidens while the two elders in
the background are plotting to falsely accuse her of adultery. The large
marble fountain is reminiscent of the Ferrucci fountain at Palazzo Pitti. (price
$475,000) This date of the painting corresponds to the artist’s return to
Florence for the execution of the fresco at the Villa of the Imperial Hill
(Villa del Poggio Imperiale) and that of his well-known work Rebecca and
Eliezer at the Well, c.1626-27, now in the Kunsthistorisches Museum in
Vienna.
The exhibition will be curated by Francesca Baldassari, an independent
scholar in Florence, who has achieved international recognition for her
expertise on Florentine painting of the 17th and 18th centuries. She is the
author of monographs on Tuscan artists of the period, Carlo Dolci, Cristoforo
Munari, Giovanni Domenico Ferretti and Simone Pignoni as well as two
important books on the period, in both English and Italian, La collezione
Piero ed Elena Bigongiari. Il Seicento fiorentino tra favola e dramma and La
Pittura del Seicento a Firenze. Indice degli artisti e delle loro opera. In
addition she has contributed significant studies to artists working outside the
Florentine Seicento and Settecento such as the Emilian artist Guercino and
Amedeo Laini and Giacinto Gimignani, both from Pistoia.
The exhibition will be accompanied by a fully illustrated catalogue.
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