Orazio borgianni biography of william

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He was instructed in the art of painting by his brother, Giulio Borgiani, called Scalzo. During his lifetime, he was respected enough to secure prestigious commissions, including altarpieces for Roman churches like Santa Maria in Vallicella. A lively self-portrait of an earnest, somewhat foppish Borgianni is in the Rome Galleria Nazionale d'Arte Antica.

His early biographer was his contemporary, Giovanni Baglione, who leans heavily on anecdote.

In esse si coglie la maturazione dell'artista nel contrasto di luci, che è già alla base della sua tecnica, e nella costruzione scenica che viene sovvertita a favore di un più evidente coinvolgimento emotivo.

Maestro d'arte

L'opera del Borgianni, che non ebbe una scuola e non lasciò allievi diretti, ebbe tuttavia un'indubbia influenza in Italia, ad esempio su Giovanni Serodine, Giovanni Lanfranco, Domenico Fetti ed anche il giovane Guercino; ma soprattutto produsse forti riflessi sulla pittura della Spagna, paese con cui continuò a intrattenere rapporti anche dopo il trasferimento a Roma grazie ai suoi principali committenti, l'ambasciatore Don Francisco de Castro ed il suo segretario Juan de Lezcano.

Durante i suoi soggiorni nella penisola iberica a Pamplona, Saragozza, Madrid, Toledo, Borgianni realizzò un gran numero di opere con le quali esercitò grande influenza sui pittori spagnoli del primo barocco, in particolare su Luis Tristán.

Tra le opere conservate in Spagna particolare rilievo hanno le tele della chiesa di Porta Coeli di Valladolid (realizzate a Roma nel 1611), il Cristo che medita sulla croce e il David che decolla Golia (ma anche quest'ultimo fu dipinto al suo rientro a Roma).

He is said to have had a temper; riding one day in a coach, at Rome, he saw some artists, among whom was Caravaggio, laughing at him; he sprang from the carriage, seized a bottle of varnish from the shop of a druggist, and threw it at the heads of the offenders.

As an engraver he etched a

Resurrection.

A composition of many figures; marked two Marys and St.

John; dated 1615.

St. Modern scholarship, particularly the 1990s rediscovery of documents linking him to Spanish patronage, has prompted a reassessment. Milan: Skira Editore S.p.A. page 159.

Further Reading

Liedtke , Walter A. (1984). Christopher giving his hand to the Infant Jesus.

St. The patronage by Philip II of Spain induced him to visit that Spain, where he signed an inventory in January 1605.

His ability to merge Caravaggesque tenebrism with a lingering Mannerist grace makes him a pivotal, if understudied, figure in the transition to the Baroque.

Debates persist over the attribution of certain works, particularly those from his Spanish sojourn, where documentation is sparse. Caravaggio's Rome: 1600-1630. Yet Borgianni's figures often lack Caravaggio's raw immediacy; instead, they exhibit a polished, almost enamel-like surface, as seen in the smooth modeling of Saint Christopher (c.

193.

Bryan, Michael (1886). The Adoration of the Shepherds in the Prado, for instance, has been variously assigned to Borgianni and his circle, complicating efforts to define his exact output. From his time in Spain, there remain two of his paintings in the Prado Museum: St Christopher and the Stigmatization of St Francis.

On his return to Rome he was patronized by the Spanish ambassador, for whom he painted several pictures, and he was also employed in painting for the churches.

Robert Edmund Graves, ed. What remains clear is that his art embodies the stylistic pluralism of the early Seicento—a moment when the rigid hierarchies of Mannerism gave way to the dynamic experimentation of the Baroque.