"Scenes of Witchcraft: Night", Salvator Rosa NFT on XRPL

"Scenes of Witchcraft: Night", Salvator Rosa

Collection: Cleveland Originals

In the pitch black of night, two groups of men are gathered in a forest. To the left, travelers apprehensively pause to watch a magician conjure terrifying apparitions. Since the Middle Ages, necromancy, the act of communing with the dead, was associated with male sorcerers. In Rosa's painting, the wizened necromancer who stands tall and resolute directly below a classical column is reminiscent of Moses, a predecessor to Renaissance depictions of sorcerers. Rosa's learned magicians not only invoke associations with philosophers and intellects, but they would have also referred to the artist himself and the intellectual elite with whom he associated in Florence. Just as a powerful magician could conjure strange creatures with his wand, so too could Rosa shape a strange world with his originality, intelligence, and the skillful use of paint and brush. Artist Bio: Salvator (or Salvatore) Rosa (Naples, July 22, 1615 – Rome, March 15, 1673) was a versatile Italian artist of the 17th century, active in Naples, Rome, and Florence, in various fields (painter, engraver, actor, musician, poet). As a painter, he has been described as "unorthodox and extravagant" and an "eternal rebel," considered a proto-romantic. His most expressive and imaginative works gained appreciation in the 18th and 19th centuries, influencing masters such as Giambattista Tiepolo and Fragonard. Biography He was born in Arenella, on the outskirts of Naples, to Vito Antonio de Rosa, who intended him for a ecclesiastical or legal career by enrolling him in the Somascan Fathers convent. However, Salvator preferred the arts and secretly studied painting with his maternal uncle Paolo Greco, and later with his brother-in-law Francesco Fracanzano, a pupil of Ribera. He frequented Ribera's workshop and the school of Aniello Falcone, who initiated him into painting battles and landscapes. Although it has been claimed that he lived among bandits for a time, such assertions may be inventions of his early biographers in line with his rebellious image. At the age of seventeen, he lost his father, leaving his mother with several children to support, and Salvator found himself without financial support. First Trip to Rome He continued his apprenticeship with Aniello Falcone, assisting him in completing his battle scenes. It is said that his work in Falcone's workshop caught the attention of Giovanni Lanfranco, who advised him to move to Rome, where he stayed between 1634 and 1636. It appears that Rosa contracted malaria and returned to Naples. Landscape Painter In Naples, Salvator Rosa began painting hunting landscapes with lush vegetation, or scenes of beaches, mountains, and caves. Rosa was one of the first to paint "romantic" landscapes, with a talent for picturesque scenes, often turbulent with shepherds, sailors, and soldiers. These early landscapes were not commissioned but were sold cheaply in the open market through dealers. Second Stay in Rome He returned to Rome in 1638-39, where he stayed with Cardinal Francesco Maria Brancaccio, the bishop of Viterbo. For the Chiesa Santa Maria della Morte in Viterbo, Rosa painted an altarpiece, one of the few he executed, depicting the Incredulity of Saint Thomas. While Rosa had a natural talent for painting, he cultivated a wide variety of arts: music, poetry, writing, etching, and acting. In Rome, he befriended the engraver Pietro Testa and Claudio Lorena. In Rome, he was very famous as an actor, creator of farces and carnival shows. Florence and Naples Although his theatrical works were successful, they also earned him powerful enemies among patrons and artists, including Bernini himself. At the end of 1639, he had to move to Florence, supposedly to avoid reprisals for having written a libel against Bernini. There he stayed for eight years and perfected the genre of fantastical landscapes, dark places, and scenes of witchcraft or bandits. In 1646, he returned to Naples, and it seems that he sympathized with Masaniello's insurrection, as suggested by a fragment of one of his satires. Whether he personally participated in the revolt is doubtful. It has been alleged that Rosa, along with other painters (Carlo Coppola, Paolo Porpora, Domenico Gargiulo, Pietro del Pò, Marzio Masturzo, the two Vaccaros, and Cadogna), all led by Aniello Falcone, formed the Compagnia della Morte, whose mission was to hunt Spaniards in the streets, without respecting those who had sought religious refuge. He painted a portrait of Masaniello, probably from memory rather than copied from life. As Don Juan José de Austria approached the city in 1647, the company dissolved. Rome Again Back in Rome (1649), Salvator Rosa painted a type of painting influenced by Nicolas Poussin, in a solemn and nostalgic vision of classical antiquity. In his later production, he leaned towards allegorical, historical, and mythological themes. The satirical piece Allegory of Fortune of 1658 (now at the Getty Center in Los Angeles) sparked controversy when exhibited in the Pantheon of Agrippa; it was understood to conceal a criticism of Pope Alexander VII's role as a patron. Rosa, seeking reconciliation, published a description of its meaning, despite which he was almost arrested. It is around this time that Rosa wrote his satire Babylon, under whose name he was referring, of course, to Rome. Among the paintings of his later years are an admirable Battle Scene and Saul and the Witch of Endor (the latter perhaps his last work), currently in the Louvre, painted in 40 days; Pythagoras and the Fishermen; and the Oath of Catiline (Palazzo Pitti). While engaged in a series of satirical portraits, which would end with one of himself, Rosa suffered from edema. He died half a year later. In his final moments, he married a Florentine named Lucrezia, with whom he had two children, one of whom survived him. He is buried in the Chiesa degli Angeli, where there is a portrait of him. Engravings He was a prominent etcher, with a very popular and influential series of small soldier plates: the Figurine (c. 1656-57). Virtually all his other engravings are of mythological and cult themes, perhaps intended to attract pictorial commissions of similar subjects. In an allegorical engraving called The Genius (c. 1661-62), Rosa represents his talent as a semi-nude youth, with a cornucopia from which coins flow and surrounded by allegories of Painting, Liberty, and Sincerity. Two other characters, one dressed in a toga and a faun, could represent the contrasting facets of Rosa's art: the measured and the passionate. It is said that Rosa longed for private patronage, from a patron, to work with greater freedom as his clientele insisted on commissioning him for the same subjects.

Issuer: rLzncbwKysPuA9FvrocUKBZUbQGiBBPNk3

Taxon: 2

• technique : oil on canvas
• culture : Italy, 17th century
• creation date : 1645\1649
• artist: Salvator Rosa
• px: 3400 x 3388

NFTokenID: 00081770DB35F371D4D6B9E351DA0CF20D4EBF5F49F78DB941129445042C1EAC

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