Painters and Sitters in Early-Seventeenth Century Rome

Portraits of the Soul

By (author) Brepols Publishers

Book cover: Painters and Sitters in Early-Seventeenth Century Rome

Extent: 336, 336 pages

Publisher: Brepols Publishers

Subjects: Art & Art History, Early Modern & Renaissance Studies, Italian Studies

Series: Irreplaceable Portraits

Series volume number: 2

Language: English

Hardback (Published)

(October 2023)

ISBN: 9782503590837

Price: $188.00

In stock

Portraits of poets, courtiers, buffoons and the artists themselves are examined in the context of the development of portraiture and the cultural environment of early seicento Rome.


Significant innovations in portraiture occurred during the transitional period from the end of the sixteenth-century to the early seventeenth-century in Rome. Portraits by Annibale Carracci, Valentin de Boulogne, Anthony van Dyck, Simon Vouet and Gianlorenzo Bernini display a loosening of formality and a trend towards movement. These artists produced a portrait type that was more inclusive of the viewer, more communicative, more revealing of a private face. The portraits in this study were less likely to celebrate achievements, family or social standing, titles, rank or station. Instead they portray individuals who exist apart from their professional personae. They reveal unique and characteristic traits of their subjects captured at a particular moment in time. They used subtle affetti, painting technique and colour to express mood and atmosphere and evoke the presence of the sitter. The sitters include poets, courtiers, buffoons and the artists themselves, and each composition is attentive to the thoughts, emotions and imaginative life of the individuals.

  • By (author) Brepols Publishers