self-portrait by Salvator Rosa, 1640. "Of Silence and Speech, Silence is better" says the inscription. National Gallery, London

Salvator Rosa (1615 - March 15, 1673) was an Italian Baroque painter, poet and printmaker, active in Naples, Rome and Florence. As a painter, he is best known as an "unorthodox and extravagant" and a "perpetual rebel" ^[1] proto-Romantic. His life and writings were equally colorful. Image File history File links No higher resolution available. ... Image File history File links No higher resolution available. ... Self Portrait is a 1970 double album by Bob Dylan. ... Londons National Gallery, founded in 1824, houses a rich collection of over 2,300 paintings dating from the mid-13th century to 1900 in its home on Trafalgar Square. ... Events June 2 - First Récollet missionaries arrive at Quebec City, from Rouen, France. ... is the 74th day of the year (75th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... 1673 (MDCLXXIII) was a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar (or a common year starting on Wednesday of the 10-day slower Julian calendar). ... Adoration, by Peter Paul Rubens. ... Printmaking is a process for producing a work of art in ink; the work (called a print) is created indirectly, through the transfer of ink from the surface upon which the work was originally drawn or otherwise composed. ... Romantics redirects here. ...

Early Biography

He was born in Arenella, in the outskirts of Naples: either June 20 or July 21, 1615. His father, Vito Antonio de Rosa, a land surveyor, urged his son to become a lawyer or a priest, and entered him into the convent of the Somaschi fathers. Yet, Salvator showed a preference for the arts, thus secretly worked with his maternal uncle Paolo Greco to learn about painting, and soon transferred himself to his own brother-in-law Francesco Francanzano, a pupil of Ribera, and afterwards to either Aniello Falcone^[2], contemporary with Domenico Gargiulo^[3], or Ribera himself. Some sources claim he spent time living with roving bandits^[4]. At the age of seventeen he lost his father; his mother was destitute with at least five children, and Salvator found himself without financial support. For other uses see, Naples (disambiguation) and Napoli (disambiguation) Location of the city of Naples (red dot) within Italy. ... is the 171st day of the year (172nd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... is the 202nd day of the year (203rd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Events June 2 - First Récollet missionaries arrive at Quebec City, from Rouen, France. ... The Somaschi Fathers (Somaschi for short), officially Clerici Regulares Congregationis Somaschae (abbreviated as C.R.C.S.), are a charitable religious congregation of regular clerics, founded in the sixteenth century by Saint Jerome Emiliani and named after the mother-house at Somasca. ... Francesco Francanzano (1612-1657) was an Italian painter of the Baroque period, active mainly in Naples. ... Penitent Saint Peter by Giuseppe Ribera Giuseppe Ribera (January 12, 1591 - 1652) was the name given in Italian to Jusepe (de) Ribera or José (de) Ribera, also called Lo Spagnoletto, or the Little Spaniard, a leading painter of the Neapolitan or partly of the Spanish school, who was born near... Aniello Falcone (1607-1656) was an Italian battle-painter. ... Domenico Gargiulo (1609–10 - c. ...

Life

Apparition of the spirit of Samuel to Saul, 1668, Louvre

He continued apprenticeship with Falcone, aiding him complete his battlepiece canvases. In that studio, it is said that Lanfranco took notice of his work, and advised him to relocate to Rome, where he stayed for from 1634-6. Image File history File links Size of this preview: 442 × 599 pixelsFull resolution (663 × 898 pixel, file size: 494 KB, MIME type: image/jpeg) Please see the file description page for further information. ... Image File history File links Size of this preview: 442 × 599 pixelsFull resolution (663 × 898 pixel, file size: 494 KB, MIME type: image/jpeg) Please see the file description page for further information. ... Samuel may refer to: Samuel (Bible), seer and prophet Book(s) of Samuel in the Bible Samuel of Nehardea, Jewish Talmudist Sam (name), meaning He (God) has hearkened[1]. Samuel L. Jackson (born 1948), Actor Adriana Samuel (born 1966), Brazilian volleyball player Gene Samuel (born 1961), Trinidad and Tobago road... For other uses, see Saul (disambiguation). ... This article does not cite any references or sources. ... Giovanni Lanfranco (born: 26 January 1582, Parma, Italy - died: 30 November 1647, Rome) was an Italian baroque painter. ...

Returning to Naples, he began painting haunting landscapes, overgrown with vegetation, or jagged beaches, mountains, and caves. Rosa was among the first to paint "romantic" landscapes, with a special turn for scenes of picturesque often turbulent and rugged scenes peopled with shepherds, brigands, seamen, soldiers. These early landscapes were sold cheaply through private dealers. This class of paintings peculiarly suited him. Though the concept of the sublime had roots in the connoisseurship of Antiquity, the picturesque was a new category in the incipient Romantic sensibility of the 18th century. ...

He returned to Rome in 1638-39, where he was housed by Cardinal Francesco Maria Brancaccio, bishop of Viterbo. For the Chiesa Santa Maria della Morte in Viterbo, Rosa painted his first and one of his few altarpieces with an Incredulity of Thomas. Country Italy Region Lazio Province Viterbo (VT) Mayor Giampiero Gabbianelli Elevation 326 m Area 406,28 km² Population  - Total 60,537  - Density 148. ...

While Rosa had a facile genius at painting, he pursued a wide variety of arts: music, poetry, writing, etching, and acting. In Rome, he befriended Pietro Testa and Claude Lorraine. During a Roman carnival play he wrote and acted in a masque, in which his character bustled about Rome distributing satirical prescriptions for diseases of the body and more particularly of the mind. In costume, he inveighed against the farcical comedies acted in the Trastevere under the direction of Bernini. Christ Preaching, known as The Hundred Guilder print; etching c1648 by Rembrandt Etching is the process of using strong acid to cut into the unprotected parts of a metal surface to create a design in intaglio in the metal (the original process - in modern manufacturing other chemicals may be used... Pietro Testa (1611-1650) was an Italian High Baroque painter of Rome. ... Seaport by Claude Lorrain Claude Lorrain (Lorraine, c1604 - Rome, November 23, 1682) was a French painter considered to be one of the greatest landscape painters. ... Logo of the rione A typical narrow alley in Trastevere seen from the lower slopes of the Gianicolo hill Piazza Santa Maria in Trastevere at night Trastevere is rione XIII of Rome, on the west bank of the Tiber, south of Vatican City. ... A self portrait: Bernini is said to have used his own features in the David (below, left) Gian Lorenzo Bernini (Giovanni Lorenzo Bernini) (December 7, 1598 - November 28, 1680), who worked chiefly in Rome, was the pre-eminent baroque artist. ...

While his plays were successful, this also gained him powerful enemies among patrons and artists, including Bernini himself, in Rome. By late 1639, he had had to relocate to Florence, where he stayed for 8 years. He had been in part, invited by a Cardinal Giancarlo de Medici. Once there, Rosa sponsored a combination of studio and salon of poets, playwrights, and painters --the so called Accademia dei Percossi ("Academy of the Stricken"). To the rigid art milieu of Florence, he introduced his canvases of wild landscapes; while influential, he gathered few true pupils. Another painter poet, Lorenzo Lippi, shared with Rosa the hospitality of the cardinal and the same circle of friends. Lippi encouraged him to proceed with the poem Il Malmantile Racquistato. He was well acquainted also with Ugo and Giulio Maffei, and housed with them in Volterra, where he wrote four satires Music, Poetry, Painting and War. About the same time he painted his own portrait, now in the National Gallery, London. Lorenzo Lippi Lorenzo Lippi (1606, Florence - 1664, Florence) was an Italian painter and poet. ... A view of Volterra. ... Londons National Gallery, founded in 1824, houses a rich collection of over 2,300 paintings dating from the mid-13th century to 1900 in its home on Trafalgar Square. ...

Landscape.

In 1646 he returned to Naples, and appears to have sympathised with the insurrection of Masaniello, as a passage in one of his satires suggests. His actual participation in the revolt is dubious. It is alleged that Rosa, along with other painters--Coppola, Paolo Porpora, Domenico Gargiulo, Dal Po, Marzio Masturzo, the two Vaccari and Cadogna--all under the captaincy of Aniello Falcone, formed the Compagnia della Morte, whose mission it was to hunt down Spaniards in the streets, not sparing even those who had sought some place of religious asylum. He painted a portrait of Masaniello--probably from reminiscence rather than life. On the approach of Don Juan de Austria, the blood-stained Compagnia dispersed. Image File history File links No higher resolution available. ... Image File history File links No higher resolution available. ... 1646 (MDCXLVI) was a common year starting on Monday (see link for calendar) of the Gregorian calendar (or a common year starting on Thursday of the 10-day slower Julian calendar). ... Masaniello, an abbreviation of Tommaso Aniello (1622 - July 16, 1647), was an Amalfi fisherman, who became leader of the revolt against Spanish rule in Naples in 1647. ... Paolo Porpora (1617 - 1670) was an Italian painter painter of the late-Baroque, who was active mainly in Naples and specialized in floral still lifes. ... Domenico Gargiulo (1609–10 - c. ... Marzio Masturzo (17th century) was an Italian painter of the Baroque period, active near his natal city of Naples. ... Aniello Falcone (1607-1656) was an Italian battle-painter. ... Don John of Austria (February 24, 1547 - October 1, 1578), also known as Juan De Austria and Don Juan de Austria, was the illegitimate son of Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor and a military leader whose most famous victory was at the Battle of Lepanto. ...

Other tales tell that from there he escaped and joined with brigands in the Abruzzi. Although this incident which cannot be conveniently dove-tailed into known dates of his career, in 1846 a famous romantic ballet about this story titled Catarina was produced in London by the choreographer Jules Perrot and composer Cesare Pugni). Categories: Regions of Italy | Abruzzo ... Pas de Quatre: Carlotta Grisi, Marie Taglioni, Lucile Grahn and Fanny Cerito The Romantic period in ballet occurred in the early to mid 1800s, and roughly corresponds to Romanticism movements in art and literature. ... Lithograph by J. Branard of Lucile Grahn in the title role of the Perrot/Pugni Catarina. ... This article is about the capital of England and the United Kingdom. ... Jules-Joseph Perrot (born August 18, 1810 in Lyon, France; died August 18, 1892 in Paramé) was a dancer and choreographer who created some of the most famous ballets of the 19th century. ... Maestro Cesare Pugni, London, circa 1843 Cesare Pugni (31 May 1802?, Genoa?, Italy — 26 January 1870, St. ...

Finally he returned to stay in Rome in 1649. Here he painted some important subjects, showing the uncommon bent of his mind as it passed from landscape into history Democritus amid Tombs, Death of Socrates, Regulus in the Spiked Cask (these two are now in England), Justice Quitting the Earth and the Wheel of Fortune. This last satirical work raised a storm of controversy. Rosa, endeavouring at conciliation, published a description of its meaning (probably softened down not a little from the real facts); none the less he was nearly arrested. It was about this time that Rosa wrote his satire named Babylon, under which name Rome was of course indicated.

A landscape by Salvator Rosa.

Much enmity still brooded there against him. An allegation arose that his published satires were not his own, but filched. Rosa indignantly denied the charges, although it is true that the satires ~deal so extensively and with such ready manipulation in classical names, allusions and anecdotes, that one is rather at a loss to fix upon the period of his busy career at which Rosa could possibly have imbued his mind with such a multitude of semi-erudite details. It may perhaps be legitimate to assume literary friends in Florence and Volterra coached him about the topic of his satires, as compositions, remaining none the less strictly and fully his own. To confute his detractors he now wrote the last of the series, entitled Envy. Image File history File links Size of this preview: 800 × 524 pixelsFull resolution (1600 × 1048 pixel, file size: 182 KB, MIME type: image/jpeg) File historyClick on a date/time to view the file as it appeared at that time. ... Image File history File links Size of this preview: 800 × 524 pixelsFull resolution (1600 × 1048 pixel, file size: 182 KB, MIME type: image/jpeg) File historyClick on a date/time to view the file as it appeared at that time. ... A view of Volterra. ...

Among the pictures of his last years were the admired Battlepiece and Saul and the Witch of Endor (latter perhaps final work) now in Louvre, painted in 40 days, full of longdrawn carnage, with ships burning in the offing; Pythagoras and the Fishermen; and the Oath of Catiline (Pitti Palace). This article does not cite any references or sources. ... Early 20th century photograph of the Palazzo Pitti, then still known as La Residenza Reale following the residency of King Emmanuel II between 1865 to 1871 when Florence was the capital of Italy. ...

While occupied with a series of satirical portraits, to be closed by one of himself, Rosa was assailed by dropsy. He died a half year later. In his last moments he married a Florentine named Lucrezia, who had borne him two sons, one of them surviving him, and he died in a contrite frame of mind. He lies buried in the Chiesa degli Angeli, where a portrait of him has been set up. Salvator Rosa, after struggles of his early youth, had successfully earned a handsome fortune.

He was a significant etcher, with a highly popular and influential series of small prints of soldiers, and a number of larger and very ambitious subjects. Etching is an intaglio method of printmaking in which the image is incised into the surface of a metal plate using an acid. ...

Artistic legacy

Rosa was indisputably a leader in that tendency towards the romantic and picturesque. It is an open question how influential his work was in the following decades or in following centuries. Wittkower rightly states that it is his landscapes, not his grand historical or religious dramas, that Rosa truly expresses a novel and innate spark; he may have dismissed them as frivolous cappricci in comparison to his other themes, but these academically conventional canvases often restrained his rebellious streak. In general, in landscapes he avoided the idyllic and pastoral calm countrysides of Claude Lorraine and Paul Brill, and created brooding, melancholic fantasies, awash in ruins and brigands. The contrasts between the artists of his day is illustrated by the lines of Poetry written in 1748: Whate'er Lorraine light touched with softening hue/ Or savage Rosa dashed, or learned Poussin drew^[5]. He influenced Gaspar Dughet's landscape style. Seaport by Claude Lorrain Claude Lorrain (Lorraine, c1604 - Rome, November 23, 1682) was a French painter considered to be one of the greatest landscape painters. ... Paul (1554-1626) and Mattheus (1550-1583) Brill (or Bril) were brothers, both born in Antwerp, who were landscape painters who worked in Rome after earning papal favor. ... Les Bergers d’Arcadie, set in Ancient Greece. ... Gaspar Poussin, born Gaspar Dughet (1613 - May 27, 1675) was a painter. ...

In a time when artists where often highly constrained by patrons, Rosa had a plucky streak of independence, which celebrated the special role of the artist. Our wealth must consist in things of the spirit, and in contenting ourselves with sipping, while others gorge themselves in prosperity. He refused to paint on commission or to agree on a price beforehand, and he chose his own subjects. He painted in order to be carried away by the transports of enthusiasm and use my brushes only when I feel myself rapt^[6]. This tempestuous spirit became the darling of British Romantics.

Satires

Alexander the Great in the studio of Apelles, etching, c. 1662

The satires of Salvator Rosa deserve more attention than they have generally received. There are, however, two recent books taking account of them--by Cesareo, 1892, and Cartelli, 1899. The satires, though considerably spread abroad during his lifetime, were not published until 1719. They are all in terza rima, written without much literary correctness, but remarkably spirited, pointed and even brilliant. They are slashingly denunciatory, and from this point of view too monotonous in treatment. Rosa here appears as a very severe castigator of all ranks and conditions of men, not sparing the highest, and as a champion of the poor and down-trodden, and of moral virtue and Catholic faith. It seems odd that a man who took so free a part in the pleasures and diversions of life should be so ruthless to the ministers of these. Image File history File links Size of this preview: 357 × 598 pixelsFull resolution (500 × 838 pixel, file size: 160 KB, MIME type: image/jpeg) Salvator Rosa: Alexander in Apelles studio, c. ... Image File history File links Size of this preview: 357 × 598 pixelsFull resolution (500 × 838 pixel, file size: 160 KB, MIME type: image/jpeg) Salvator Rosa: Alexander in Apelles studio, c. ... For the film of the same name, see Alexander the Great (1956 film). ... Another Apelles was the founder of a Gnostic sect in the 2nd century; Apelles (gnostic). ... Terza rima is a rhyming verse stanza form that was first used by the Italian poet Dante Alighieri. ...

The satire on Music exposes the insolence and profligacy of musicians, and the shame of courts and churches in encouraging them. Poetry dwells on the pedantry, imitativeness, adulation, affectation a and indecency of poets--also their poverty, and the neglect with which they were treated; and there is a very vigorous sortie against oppressive governors and aristocrats. Tasso's glory is upheld; Dante is spoken of as obsolete, and Ariosto as corrupting. The tone or style of this article or section may not be appropriate for Wikipedia. ... Dante in a fresco series of famous men by Andrea del Castagno, ca. ... Ludovico Ariosto (September 8, 1474 _ July 6, 1533) was a Ferrarese poet, author of the epic poem Orlando furioso (1516), Orlando Enraged. He was born at Reggio, in Hungary in 1518, and wished Aniosto to accompany him. ...

Painting inveighs against the pictorial treatment of squalid subjects, such as beggars (though Rosa must surely himself have been partly responsible for this misdirection of the art), against the ignorance and lewdness of painters, and their tricks of trade, and the gross indecorum of painting sprawling half-naked saints of both sexes. War (which contains a eulogy of Masaniello) derides the folly of mercenary soldiers, who fight and perish while kings stay at home; the vile morals of kings and lords, their heresy and unbelief. Masaniello, an abbreviation of Tommaso Aniello (1622 - July 16, 1647), was an Amalfi fisherman, who became leader of the revolt against Spanish rule in Naples in 1647. ...

In Babylon ofrece Rosa represents himself as a fisherman, Tirreno, constantly unlucky in his net-hauls on the Euphrates; he converses with a native of the country, Ergasto. Babylon (Rome) is very severely treated, and Naples much the same.

Envy (the last of the satires, and generally accounted the best, although without strong apparent reason) represents Rosa dreaming that, as he is about to inscribe in all modesty his name upon the threshold of the temple of glory, the goddess or fiend of Envy obstructs him, and a long interchange of reciprocal objurgations ensues. Here occurs the highly charged portrait of the chief Roman detractor of Salvator (we are not aware that he has ever been identified by name); and the painter protests that he would never condescend to do any of the lascivious work in painting so shamefully in vogue.

A number of biographies and fictionalizations of the life of Rosa exist:

• Domenico Passeri speaks of him in Vite de Pittori
• Salvini, Satire e Vita di Salvator Rosa
• Baldinucci
• Bernardo de' Dominici, Vita di Rosa (1742, Naples)
• In England, Lady Morgan in A Life, and Albert Cotton in A Company of Death' romanticized his life.
• Rosa is also the fictional hero of the novella Signor Formica, 1819, also known simply as Salvator Rosa, by E.T.A. Hoffmann.
• Salvatore Rosa is a 19th century Italian Opera by A. Carlos Gomes, with libretto by Antonio Ghislanzoni, after the novel Masaniello by Eugene Mirecourt.
• The 1846 ballet Catarina by the choreographer Jules Perrot and the composer Cesare Pugni was produced in London at Her Majesty's Theatre, and was inspired by the alleged story of Rosa's dealings with Brigands of the Abruzzi.

Filippo Baldinucci (1625—1697), Italian writer on the history of the arts, was born at Florence. ... Bernardo de Dominici (1683-1759) was an Italian art historian and painter of the late-Baroque period, active mainly in Naples, painting landscapes, marine vedute, and genre scenes such as characteristic of Bamboccianti. ... ETA Hoffman Ernst Theodor Amadeus Hoffmann (January 24, 1776 - June 25, 1822), was a German romantic and fantasy author and composer. ... Antonio Ghislanzoni (25 November 1824 – July 16, 1893) was an Italian journalist, poet, and novelist who wrote many librettos for Verdi, among other composers, of which the best known are La forza del destino and Aida. ... Lithograph by J. Branard of Lucile Grahn in the title role of the Perrot/Pugni Catarina. ... Jules-Joseph Perrot (born August 18, 1810 in Lyon, France; died August 18, 1892 in Paramé) was a dancer and choreographer who created some of the most famous ballets of the 19th century. ... Maestro Cesare Pugni, London, circa 1843 Cesare Pugni (31 May 1802?, Genoa?, Italy — 26 January 1870, St. ... A perfomance at Opera House, Haymarket, predecessor of Her Majestys Theatre in circa 1808. ... Categories: Regions of Italy | Abruzzo ...

References

• This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain.
• Wittkower, Rudolf (1980). Art and Architecture in Italy, 1600-1750. Pelican History of Art (Penguin Books Ltd), pp 325-7. 

Encyclopædia Britannica, the eleventh edition The Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition (1910–1911) is perhaps the most famous edition of the Encyclopædia Britannica. ... The public domain comprises the body of all creative works and other knowledge—writing, artwork, music, science, inventions, and others—in which no person or organization has any proprietary interest. ... Rudolf Wittkower was a German art historian. ...

References

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Salvator Rosa

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External links

• Notes on etchings titled The genius of Salvator Rosa.
• Artcyclopedia entry on Salvator Rosa online.

Salvator ROSA The Blog created by one of his descendant.http://rosasalvator.over-blog.com/