- NameSalvator Rosa
- Sexmale
- Nationality/DatesItalian, born 1615, dead 1673
BiographySalvator Rosa was active not only as a painter and
engraver, but also as a poet, satirist and actor. He
was born in Naples, where he was trained to execute
battle scenes, landscapes and genre pictures
by his brother-in-law Francesco Fracanzano and
by Aniello Falcone. Jusepe de Ribera’s realism
profoundly influenced Rosa, and an apprenticeship
with the Spanish painter is possible. Rich
and expressive brushstrokes, dark tones and
dramatic chiaroscuro distinguished Rosa’s technique,
and according to the biographer Giovanni
Battista Passeri he made oil sketches on paper directly
from nature. In 1635 Rosa moved to Rome,
where he initially enjoyed the patronage of Cardinal
Francesco Maria Brancacci. There he came
into contact with and was inspired by the works
of the Bamboccianti, though he later rejected their
low-life subjects. In the late 1630s Rosa’s style
became more classical, inspired by the examples
of Nicolas Poussin and Claude Lorrain. Dating
from 1640 are the pendants Landscape with
Erminia and Harbour Scene (Galleria Estense,
Modena), painted for Francesco I d’Este, Duke
of Modena. During the 1640s Rosa was in Florence
at the invitation of Cardinal Giovanni Carlo
de’ Medici. Works from this period include some
of his allegorical portraits, such as Lucrezia as Poetry
(Wadsworth Atheneum, Hartford), and his
paintings with scenes of witchcraft, like the Scene
of Witches (National Gallery, London). In 1649
Rosa returned to Rome, where he endeavoured to
gain acceptance as a history painter, with works
like the Death of Atilius Regulus from about 1652
(Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond). In the 1650s
and early 1660s Rosa created a series of grand
and rugged landscapes of the kind for which he
is most celebrated, and increasingly his works
became more expressive. The Finding of Moses
(Detroit Institute of Arts, Detroit) is from 1660.