Largely as a result of Leonardo's innovative work for the Sforza court
in Milan, a rich vein of naturalism developed in North Italian art
during the late fifteenth century. Questioning the strongly classicizing
idealized style dominant in areas south of the Apennines, artists in
the region of Lombardy turned to an investigation of the natural world
based on direct observation and adherence to strict visual truth. This
heritage of realism continued to be of key importance for more than two
hundred years, finding its greatest expression in the art of Caravaggio
and eventually influencing the course of Baroque painting throughout
Europe. Religious scenes, portraits, and landscapes were all transformed
by this new naturalism, which also spurred an interest in still lifes
and genre scenes as subjects for paintings.
Painters of Reality
titled after an exhibition held in Milan more than fifty years ago, is
the first study in English of this major aspect of Italian art. It
builds on the work of the art historian Roberto Longhi. Reexamining the
subject in light of copious subsequent scholarship, the authors of this
volume contribute major essays that define and discuss naturalism as it
appeared in both Lombard paintings and drawings. There is also a fresh
consideration of the North Italian predecessors whose influence is
apparent either directly or indirectly, in the paintings of Caravaggio.
More detailed discussions of the subject center on the precise elements
that constituted Leonardo's "hypernaturalism": the important schools of
paintings that arose in Brescia, Bergamo, Cremona, and Milan; and
Caravaggio's most notable successors in northern Italy, who kept Lombard
realism alive into the eighteenth century.
Among the 136 paintings
and drawings, many never before seen outside of Italy, are influential
drawings by Leonardo and major paintings by Caravaggio. Other
acknowledged masters in the history of European art are represented,
including Lorenzo Lotto, Giovanni Girolamo Savoldo, Giovanni Battista
Moroni, and Giacomo Ceruti. Works also appear from significant but less
widely known artists such as Sofonisba, Anguissola, Vincenzo Campi,
Moretto da Brescia, and Fra' Galgario.
Painters of Reality brings
together a group of scholars to illuminate why Lombard artists were
influential in their own time and why they still hold appeal for modern
audiences.
This catalogue is issued in conjunction with an exhibit
held at the Museo Civico "Ala Ponzone," Cremona, from February 14
through May 2, 2004, and at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York,
from May 27 through August 15, 2004.
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