Giovanni Antonio Burrini

Giovanni Antonio Burrini ( born April 25, 1656 in Bologna, † January 5, 1727 ) was an Italian painter. He worked in the style of the High Baroque and the Rococo, mostly in his hometown, but also - a few - other places. He is considered an important representative of late Bolognese school with neovenezianischem impact. His main creative period was about 1680 to 1695, after which the quality of his work was down significantly. The history of art judged him differently.

Origin and teaching

Burrini was born on 25 April 1656 in a poor family, his father earned a living for the family with the sale of offal.

He received his first artistic training by Domenico Maria Canuti and a short time later by Giulio Cesare Venenti. Part of his training was copying pictures of Bolognese painters, as well as works of the Carracci family. Canuti left Bologna to Rome in April 1672 Burrini received his further education after Lorenzo Pasinelli. Already on Pasinelli he came into contact with the principles of Venetian painting, in Bologna numerous works of Venetian art at that time were present. Therefore, although not absolutely necessary, Burrini nevertheless took a trip to Venice. Here he came especially with the art Paolo Veronese and Jacopo Tintoretto and his descendants in contact. Specifically, an Adoration of the Magi by Veronese, now in the National Gallery in London, he probably studied in detail, only a slightly different structure from the preliminary drawing on the same subject has been preserved. He received First own orders, though still busy with his studies under Pasinelli, after his return from Venice.

1680-1695

Among the major orders of his early work is an Adoration of the Kings, which he created for the patrician family Ratti. The image came to Rome, where it explicitly praised Carlo Maratta. Also for this family he created a vision of the Lord. On the orders of the Duke Francesco Pico della Mirandola about 1681 he entered into direct competition with his classmates and colleagues Giovan Gioseffo Dal Sole, the Duke ordered both each a large-sized image. His work, a Martyrdom of St. Victoria was completed in about 1683, probably also spent in gratitude for the rescue of Vienna during the Second Siege of Vienna, together with the relics of saints in the corresponding band of the saints in the cathedral of Mirandola. Another major work from the early period is a representation of the martyrdom of St. Eufemia, created for the church Eufemia in Ravenna. Overall Burrini painted predominantly during this time after the Venetian style. In 1683, following the departure of Carlo Cignani to Forli he could take over his workshop.

In addition to the panel paintings he acquired a great reputation as Freskierer. Together with other artists, including, for example, Giuseppe Maria Crespi, Marcantonio Chiarini, Cesare Pronti, Ercole Gaetano Bertuzzi, Tommasso Aldovrandini and Enrico Haffner he created for Bolognese patrician houses, but also churches, a series of frescoes. These frescoes of the houses of the families are Ratti (now destroyed) and Marchesini as well as those for the Coelestinerkirche in Bologna. Burrini increasingly got orders outside of Bologna. He frescoed about 1683 Villa Albergati in Zola Predosa. He left Bologna for a long time, worked in Novel Lara in the frescos of the Palazzo del Conte 1685, these frescoes are lost, and from 1688 in Turin for the church of Santa Teresa, these works were destroyed during the Second World War.

On his return to Bologna he frescoed continue patrician houses, those of families Bugami and Alamandini. His main creative period is seen 1680-1695

Late work from 1695

Burrini married late and had to supply within a few years a family with numerous offspring, resulting in significant - had consequences for the quality of his work from 1695 - negative. He was forced to accept more orders than he would have with a careful working speed can process. This meant that he began to work carelessly, which resulted on the part of its customers that he received fewer and fewer orders. He created many oil paintings during this period, of which a large number are still there, but reach far, with one exception, not the quality of his main creative period. Of his later works the martyrdom of St. Catherine in the church of Santa Caterina di Bologna Saragozza only shows its previous capabilities.

Burrini participated in 1709 as a founding member of the Accademia Clementina in Bologna, he led it as the seventh director ( Principe ) 1723/24.

In addition to numerous sons Burrini had a daughter who was born on December 3, 1700, Barbara, whom he apparently preferred. He began to train them in the painting. She left the family, however, hastily, as he evidently very gängelte, some pen notes provide information about it. Nevertheless, she was a painter who worked mainly portraits, copied other artists next created a series on the 14 Stations of the Passion of Christ for a Bolognese church.

History of Art Reviews

Had his first biographer ( Gianpietro Zanotti, Storia dell'Accademia Clementina, Bologna 1739 ) Burrini still da Cortona and Luca Giordano called the Bologna Pietro, then the assessment of his work changed later. It highlights the virtuosity of his brushwork and his Venetian coloring, along with its pithy style, his talent, imagination and originality in the themes treatment, the main criticism is always that it is him not ultimately able to find a actually own picturesque style. Too much he was influenced by the Carracci, Veronese or Tintoretto, to really leave their own traces in his work. Corrado Ricci judge him simply as sent, in Thieme -Becker, he comes as "more happier imitators " away.

The surviving works and drawings

A goodly number of his oil paintings is still in Bologna to find other museums in the Emilia- Romagna region, but also in the major European art museums. In addition to the paintings and Freskierungen to Burrini did not show as a draftsman. Zanotti describes its ability to graphically work their way into the painting style of other artists. The Graphic Collection of the Hessian State Museum in Darmstadt has three drawings, two of which proved of Burrini, a very safe attributable. It is an Adoration of the Shepherds, a Presentation in the Temple and the Adoration of the Magi mentioned after the painting by Veronese in London. The three leaves belong to a series of sketches for twelve paintings on the life of Jesus Christ, they were executed in oil on copper. These actual paintings are now lost. In addition to the three leaves in Darmstadt to this group of drawings include a Descent from the Cross in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, a birth of Mary in the Louvre in Paris, also in the Louvre attributed to two leaves Adoration of the Magi and stoning of St. Stephen. The Graphic Collection of the National Museums in Berlin boasts the same series still has a Presentation in the Temple and the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam over a sheet of capture Christi.