Ippolito Scarsella Detto Scarsellino Biography
Ippolito Scarsella, known by his stage name Scarsellino (Ferrara, 1550 or 1551 – Ferrara, 28 October 1620), was an Italian painter. Ippolito Scarsella, known as Scarsellino, was born in Ferrara around 1550. He was the son of Sigismondo Scarsella, also a painter, whose important works, however, are not remembered. It was his father who introduced him to painting, nurturing his aspirations and encouraging him towards his future profession. Scarsella left Ferrara at the age of 17. It's certainly not a first visit to Bologna. However, we remember a rather long internship at the Veronese workshop, operating in Venice, where the painter met other painters of the great Venetian school. Here he assimilates the mannerist style and the revolution of movement and color imposed by Titian. Having returned to Ferrara, Scarsella began to operate on his own and opened his own shop. These are the last years of the Government of the Estense Dynasty. An inspired and fast painter, his name was soon associated with a large number of works. Perhaps precisely because of the large quantity of works left behind, critics have never fully appreciated the work of this talent. His is instead a high quality painting, imbued with the late mannerist style in vogue at the time. A good part of the paintings are commissioned by Religious Institutes and even today in Ferrara it is easy to find works by Scarsellino in the major churches. But works from his workshop are scattered in all corners of the world. Not to mention the paintings that were lost, stolen or destroyed during the Second World War. Some like those present at the Roman Villa Borghese are considered true masterpieces of mannerist art. However, quantity has almost never undermined quality. Scarsella always painted even when he seemed to suffer the high school of the Carracci. Scarsellino died on 28 October 1620 in a barber's shop, still soapy, suffocated by phlegm and coughing. Critics have not yet given him his due.
