GIROLAMO TROPPA

(Rocchetta Sabina, c. 1636 - Rome, 1706) Lucretia Oil on canvas, 96.5X73.5 cm. After the first studies conducted by Verani in 1961, Girolamo Troppa's personality was delineated by Stella Rudolph in 1977, and in 1980 it was Busiri Vici who dedicated an essay of considerable critical value to him, revealing himself as an attentive collector of the painter. Girolamo Troppa, despite being one of the most interesting personalities of late 17th-century Roman painting, inexplicably struggles to be recognized as a leading figure, by virtue of his gloomy and naturalistic temperament, essentially in antithesis to the Baroque painting in vogue. In fact, by finding expressive harmony with the creations of Mattia Preti, Pier Francesco Mola and Giacinto Brandi, Troppa was able to create an elegant and cultured dialogue with incipient classicism, evoking Carracci models with modernity without neglecting the innovations introduced by Ghezzi, Giminiani and Giovanni Battista Gaulli with whom he collaborated at the Collegio Romano, asserting a conscious and intentional stylistic and cultural autonomy. Demonstrating this thesis, then, stands with measured precision the canvas presented here, which documents the elegant synthesis of pictorial trends, authoritatively placing itself between Giacinto Brandi's chiaroscuro Lanfranchism, Marattesque wisdom and, through a classicist sprezzatura, looking to Reni's Emilian examples. Note in this regard the expressive vividness of the face, the elegant color scores of the robes that facilitate the illusion of scenic depth bounded by a curtain in the background. The work finds comparison with Lucretia from the collection of Carlo Croce (Cf. Petrucci 2021, pp. 260-261, no. 14c) and with Judith with the Head of Holofernes (Petrucci 2021, pp. 264, no. 31c), demonstrating the author's ability to compose by taking advantage of the most diverse stylistic registers. Reference bibliography: A. Busiri Vici, A forgotten painter of the late seventeenth century Gerolamo Troppa, in Scritti d'Arte, Rome 1990, pp. 430-440, fig. 4 E. Schleier, Additions to Girolamo Troppa painter and draughtsman, in Antichità Viva, XXXII, 5, 1993, pp. 16-23 E. Schleier, Girolamo Troppa, in Altomani 2004, pp. 167-177, no. 16 F. Petrucci, Girolamo Troppa, Un protagonista del barocco romano, edited by F. Petrucci, Todi 2021, ad vocem