- Pietro Longhi
Pietro Longhi (
November 5 ,1701 –May 8 ,1785 ) was a Venetian painter of contemporary scenes of life.Biography
Pietro Longhi was born in
Venice in the parish of Saint Maria, first child of the silversmith Alessandro Falca and his wife, Antonia. He adopted the Longhi last name when he began to paint. He was initially taught by the Veronese painterAntonio Balestra , who then recommended the young painter to apprentice with the Bolognese Giuseppe Maria Crespi, who was highly regarded in his day for both religious and genre painting. He was married in 1732 to Caterina Maria Rizzi.Among his early paintings are some altarpieces and religious themes. In 1734, he completed frescoes in the walls and ceiling of the hall in
Ca' Sagredo , representing the "Death of the giants". Henceforward, his work would lead him to be viewed in the future as the VenetianWilliam Hogarth , painting subjects and events of everyday life in Venice. The gallant interior scenes reflect the 18th century's turn towards the private and the bourgeois.Many of his paintings show Venetians at play, such as the depiction of the crowd of genteel citizens awkwardly gawking at a freakish Indian
rhinoceros (see image). This painting chroniclesClara the rhinoceros brought to Europe in 1741 by a Dutch sea captain and impresario fromLeyden , Douvemont van der Meer. This rhinoceros was exhibited in Venice in 1751. [Note artists' fascination with the species as evidenced byDürer's Rhinoceros more than two centuries earlier] There are two versions of this painting, nearly identical except for the unmasked portraits of two men inCa' Rezzonico version. [ Other version in National Gallery, London] Ultimately, there may be a punning joke to the painting, since the young man on the left holds aloft the sawed off "horn" (metaphor forcuckold ry) of the animal. Perhaps this explains the difference between the unchaperoned women.Other paintings chronicle the daily activities such as the gambling parlors (Riddoti) that proliferated in the 18th century. [Compare it to
Francesco Guardi 's contemporary painting [http://www.wga.hu/cgi-bin/highlight.cgi?file=html/g/guardi/francesc/1/guard101.html&find=Ridotto|Painting of the Ridotto] fromPinacoteca Querini Stampalia ] In some, the insecure or naive posture and circumstance, the puppet-like delicacy of the persons, seem to suggest a satirical perspective of the artists toward his subjects. Nearly half of the figures in his genre paintings are faceless, hidden behind Venetian Carnival masks. [Spike JT. p203] Like Crespi before him, Longhi was commissioned to paint seven canvases documenting the seven Catholicsacraments . [Now inPinacoteca Querini Stampalia along with his scenes fromt the hunt ("Caccia")]Longhi is well-known as a draughtsman, whose
drawing s were often done for their own sake, rather than as studies for paintings. Pietro's son, Alessandro, was also an accomplished painter.A paraphrase of
Bernard Berenson states that "Longhi painted for the Venetians passionate about painting, their daily lives, in all dailiness, domesticity, and quotidian mundane-ness. In the scenes regarding the hairdo and the apparel of the lady, we find the subject of gossip of the inopportune barber, chattering of the maid; in the school of dance, the amiable sound of violins. It is not tragic... but upholds a deep respect of customs, of great refinement, with an omnipresent good humor distinguishes the paintings of the Longhi from those of Hogarth, at times pitiless and loaded with omens of change".Notes
References
*cite book | author= John T Spike| year=1986| title= Giuseppe Maria Crespi and the Emergence of Genre Painting in Italy| chapter= | editor= Centro Di, Kimball Museum of Art, Fort Worth, Texas, USA| others= | pages= p189-206| publisher= | id= | url= | authorlink=
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