Michelangelo Cerquozzi - Animated Architectural Caprice - Roman School XVIIth Century

In our painting, Michelangelo CERQUOZZI plays with Roman architecture by voluntarily associating in the same composition of periods and architectural styles, the round Temple of Vesta for the period of ancient Rome, crenellated medieval buildings and in the foreground on the left a Renaissance palace. This original architectural whim is one of the particularities of this composition. Michelangelo Cerquozzi is an Italian Baroque painter Michelangelo Cerquozzi began his artistic education with Pietro Paolo Bonzi, known as il Gobbo di Frutti for his still lifes. He was one of the first parmo the "Bamboccianti", these painters so called because of their representations of scruffy party scenes, or bambochades, inspired by the genre scenes of Dutch painting. In Rome, where he remained without interruption until his death, he frequented the studio of the Cavalier d'Arpino, then that of the painter of battles Jacob de Haase. These masters did not have the slightest influence on him, but the second had to put him in contact with the Flemish environment, where, v. 1630, he made the decisive encounter with Pieter Van Laer. The latter led him to discover a certain aspect of painting: the apprehension of reality in its everyday simplicity, thus transmitting to him one of the lessons of Caravaggism, which then seemed dead in Rome, where the Baroque reign was beginning. He joined the Accademia di San Luca in 1634. He rubbed shoulders with Domenico Viola, Pietro da Cortona, Giacinto Brandi, Paulus Bor and Cornelis Bloemaert. He also frequented the workshops of the Cavalier d'Arpin, then that of the battle painter Jacob de Haase. He then became known for his battle scenes, which earned him the nickname Michelangelo delle Battaglie In 1647, he collaborated with Jan Miel and Giacomo Borgognone, for the illustration of the second volume of Strada, De Bello Belgico celebrating Alexander's campaigns Farnese in the Netherlands for the emperor. Cardinal Rapaccioli and the Count of Modena, Camillo Carandini, are among its sponsors.