Giulio Carpioni Biography
Giulio Carpioni (Venice, 1613 – Vicenza, 29 January 1678) was an Italian painter and engraver. Probably born in Venice in 1613, Carpioni was a pupil of Padovanino who he followed to Bergamo in 1631. It is possible that shortly after the painter went to Rome, in order to complete his classicistic preparation through the study of Titian's Bacchanalia and the works by Nicolas Poussin. From 1636 he is documented in Vicenza where he lived almost continuously until his death. His most excellent works appear in the museums of Vienna and Budapest, Bordeaux, Dijon, Dresden; in Italy they are present in Florence, Padua, Ancona and of course in Vicenza, where he spent most of his life. Among the many works painted by Carpioni are: the Dolfin Glorification (1647), the Grimani Allegory (1651), the altarpiece with Saint Anthony of Padua, the Virgin and two saints and the Triumph of Silenus in the Gallerie dell'Accademia in Venice. Also important are the frescoed cycles in Vicenza in the Oratorio delle Zitelle, in the Oratory of San Nicola da Tolentino and in Caldogno in the Villa Caldogno. In addition to religious subjects, Carpio's painting draws inspiration from the topics of classical mythology, as in the famous Bacchanals and the stories of Hercules, Pan and Apollo. In the seventeenth century in Vicenza, Carpioni's style contrasted with the baroque style of Francesco Maffei, as can be seen, for example, in the stylistic differences present in the paintings of the two artists in the Oratory of San Nicola da Tolentino in Vicenza, where the painter was present on two occasions . The canvases on the ceiling of this oratory are the last works painted by the artist, who died just as he was completing the cycle of canvases to be inserted into the stucco of the ceiling. Carpioni's training is a synthesis of various elements, that is, the aspiration towards the neo-Titian classicist ideal and the naturalistic inclination derived from the knowledge of Carlo Saraceni, Jean Le Clerc on the one hand and the Veronese experiences of the trio Alessandro Turchi, Marcantonio Bassetti and Pasquale Ottino on the other. To these components must be added the study of the naturalism of Lombard painting, the realism of the Roman Bamboccianti, the grotesque charge of Pietro Vecchia and, finally, the classicist instances of Poussin transmitted to him by the engravings of Pietro Testa, Odoardo Fialetti and Simone Cantarini. In the sixth decade his production will be characterized by ideals of rigorous formal and chromatic austerity.