1690 - GIUSEPPE CESARI, KNOWN AS CAVALIER D'ARPINO

GIUSEPPE CESARI, KNOWN AS CAVALIER D'ARPINO Rest on the Flight into Egypt Oil on canvas, 140x179 cm Giuseppe Cesari, known as Cavalier d’Arpino, was born in Arpino in 1568 and moved to Rome in 1582, where he trained as an artist under the guidance of Cesare Nebbia and Girolamo Muziano. During this period, he participated in the decoration of the Vatican Loggias and other rooms of the Apostolic Palace, showcasing his skills as a painter. He joined the Academy of San Luca as early as 1583 and served as its prince in 1599, 1615, and 1629. Throughout his career, he served as a mentor to artists who would go on to leave a profound mark on 17th-century painting, such as Guido Reni and Caravaggio. He received major commissions from the papacy and royal courts, working in Rome, Naples, and other Italian cities, and moved in the highest ecclesiastical and political circles of the time. Cesari was one of the leading exponents of late Roman Mannerism, with a style characterized by elegant forms, brilliant colors, and remarkable technical virtuosity, evident in both large-scale fresco decorations and small-format paintings. His painting is distinguished by a precious and refined taste, in which one can recognize the influences of Raffaellino da Reggio and Francesco Vanni, along with a particular fondness for illusionistic and luministic effects. The artist participated in major decorative projects, including those at San Luigi dei Francesi and San Giovanni in Laterano in Rome, as well as at the Carthusian monastery of San Martino in Naples. Between the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries, his workshop was one of the most renowned in the capital, serving as an important point of reference in the transition from Mannerist culture to the new Baroque style. The painting in question stands out for its considerable size and high quality of execution. It bears similarities to the Adoration of the Shepherds and the Adoration of the Magi in the Aldobrandini Chapel at Santa Maria in Via in Rome, painted by the artist around the mid-1590s. Both works share similarities in chromatic sensibility, the facial features of the figures, and the particular attention paid to still-life elements. The marked interest in landscape and naturalistic rendering, also evident in the painting under consideration, can be linked to the documented connections between Cavalier d’Arpino and the Flemish painter Paul Brill (Antwerp, 1554 – Rome, 1626), who was active in Rome as early as the 1570s and played a leading role in a renewal of landscape painting. Cesari, too, offers a depiction of nature characterized by a particularly rich use of color, in which the foliage, water, and sky convey the vitality of creation. It is important to note, however, that in no other work of his did the artist devote such a large portion of the composition to the landscape. The high quality of the work confirms the level Cavalier d’Arpino had attained by the end of the sixteenth century, when his position in the Roman art scene was already well established. Bibliography: S. Bolzoni, “The Drawings of Cavalier Giuseppe Cesari d’Arpino: A Supplement,” in *Master Drawings*, Vol. 61, No. 3, 2023, pp. 331–356; p. 335, fig. 12.