ex.tempore

Giacomo Balla: From Divisionism to the Futurist Universe (Part One, Divisionism and the Photographic Real)

A note on images For reasons of copyright, I have not reproduced most of the works discussed in the text. Instead, each article is followed by a short gallery of selected works, with links to museum, collection or institutional pages where images can be viewed. Other works mentioned in the essay may also be foundContinue reading “Giacomo Balla: From Divisionism to the Futurist Universe (Part One, Divisionism and the Photographic Real)”

Giacomo Balla: From Divisionism to the Futurist Universe (Part Two, Futurism: Light, Speed and Force)

Giacomo Balla: From Divisionism to the Futurist Universe (Part Three, Late Figuration and the Modern Image)

Giacomo Balla: From Divisionism to the Futurist Universe (Part Four, Futurism Beyond the Easel)

The frame, the easel, the room Balla’s Futurism did not move beyond the easel in a single leap. It first strained against the picture itself. In the works of speed, force-lines and iridescent interpenetration, the image no longer behaves like a stable view placed before the spectator. It presses against the limits of the support,Continue reading “Giacomo Balla: From Divisionism to the Futurist Universe (Part Four, Futurism Beyond the Easel)”

Giovanni Antonio Galli, known as Lo Spadarino: L’angelo custode and Convito degli dei

Overview The contemporary understanding of Giovanni Antonio Galli, known as lo Spadarino (Rome, 1585–1652), has been hard-won. His biography is fragmentary, his corpus remains uncertain, and much of the scholarship depends on close documentary and stylistic work. Rather than attempt a full reconstruction, this article begins from the more stable parts of the record, beforeContinue reading “Giovanni Antonio Galli, known as Lo Spadarino: L’angelo custode and Convito degli dei”

Battistello Caracciolo: Painting after Caravaggio in Naples (Part 1).

Part One: Caravaggio, Naples, and the First Inheritance Overview Giovanni Battista Caracciolo, known as Battistello, was born in Naples in 1578 and died there in December 1635. In 1598 he married Beatrice di Mario da Gaeta, with whom he had a large family, and by the beginning of the new century he was already activeContinue reading “Battistello Caracciolo: Painting after Caravaggio in Naples (Part 1).”

Battistello Caracciolo: Painting after Caravaggio in Naples (Part 2).

Part Two: Ribera, Lanfranco, and the Wider Neapolitan Field That darker current was associated above all with Ribera. His arrival in Naples around 1616 did not simply displace Caravaggio, but changed both the character and the reach of the local naturalist tradition. Causa’s distinction between the two painters is less a judgement of artistic greatnessContinue reading “Battistello Caracciolo: Painting after Caravaggio in Naples (Part 2).”

Battistello Caracciolo: Painting after Caravaggio in Naples (Part 3, Gallery).

Part Three: Selected Works by Battistello Caracciolo Battistello Caracciolo, Due putti vendemmianti / Two youths with grapes, 1605–10; oil on poplar panel; 58.5 × 70.5 cm; Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide. Credit: Wikimedia Commons. First published by Raffaello Causa in 1950, while it was in the Moretti collection in Rome, this small early panelContinue reading “Battistello Caracciolo: Painting after Caravaggio in Naples (Part 3, Gallery).”

Tradition and Transformation: Velázquez’s Las Hilanderas / The Spinners / The Fable of Arachne (c. 1655–60).

Diego Velázquez, Las Hilanderas (The Spinners, or The Fable of Arachne), c. 1657–58, oil on canvas, Museo Nacional del Prado, Madrid. (Credit: Wikipedia). « Ce qui m’a le plus ravi en Espagne, ce qui, à lui seul, vaut le voyage, c’est l’œuvre de Vélasquez. C’est le peintre des peintres ; je n’ai, cependant, été nullementContinue reading “Tradition and Transformation: Velázquez’s Las Hilanderas / The Spinners / The Fable of Arachne (c. 1655–60).”

Irreversible Consequences: Mancini and Manet

(Credit: Wikimedia Commons). At first glance, Antonio Mancini’s Dopo il duello (1872) and Édouard Manet’s Dead Toreador (c. 1864; exhibited independently as L’Homme mort in 1867) appear to belong to quite different pictorial worlds. Mancini’s painting centres on the frightened reaction of a child confronted with the aftermath of a duel, while Manet’s image presentsContinue reading “Irreversible Consequences: Mancini and Manet”