GOING FOR BAROQUE Into the Bin - The Metropolitan Museum of Art
GOING FOR BAROQUE Into the Bin - The Metropolitan Museum of Art
GOING FOR BAROQUE Into the Bin - The Metropolitan Museum of Art
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24.<br />
Annibale Carracci<br />
<strong>The</strong> Coronation <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong><br />
ca.<br />
Virgin, 1595<br />
Oil on canvas, 46%<br />
x<br />
55% in. (117.8x141.3 cm)<br />
Purchase, Bequest<br />
<strong>of</strong><br />
Miss Adelaide Milton<br />
de Groot (1876-1967), by<br />
exchange,<br />
and Dr. and<br />
Mrs. Manuel Porter and<br />
sons Gift, in honor <strong>of</strong><br />
Mrs. Sarah Porter, 1971<br />
(1971.155)<br />
<strong>of</strong> Poussin in Rome).<br />
Of Annibale Carracci's great frescoed vault in <strong>the</strong> Farnese<br />
palace<br />
in<br />
Rome?one <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> reference<br />
points<br />
<strong>of</strong> later classicizing<br />
artists?Bellori wrote, "We must note<br />
that <strong>the</strong> an images require<br />
attentive and<br />
ingenious<br />
viewer whose<br />
judgment<br />
resides not in his<br />
or her eyes but in <strong>the</strong> intellect. Certainly<br />
<strong>the</strong> mind will not be content with what it takes in at<br />
a glance. Ra<strong>the</strong>r, it will remain to understand that mute<br />
eloquence<br />
<strong>of</strong> colors, since painting<br />
possesses such power that it is not confined to <strong>the</strong> eyes but<br />
through contemplation<br />
diffuses<br />
through<br />
<strong>the</strong> mind." Bellori's exalted vision <strong>of</strong> painting<br />
left little room for mere naturalism or<br />
for pictures purporting<br />
to represent everyday life; he never mentions Annibale's genre sub<br />
jects?as though <strong>the</strong>y might<br />
detract from Annibale's stature as a serious artist. What he<br />
admired were those works Annibale conceived in a more grander,<br />
elevated<br />
style?pictures<br />
like Annibale's noble Coronation<br />
<strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> Virgin (fig. 24).<br />
<strong>The</strong> Coronation <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> Virgin<br />
does not<br />
speak <strong>the</strong> language<br />
<strong>of</strong> everyday life, let alone <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong><br />
street. Instead, it adopts<br />
<strong>the</strong> classical cadence <strong>of</strong> Raphael (note<br />
<strong>the</strong> linking<br />
<strong>of</strong> figures by gesture<br />
and pose)<br />
and <strong>the</strong> nobility<br />
<strong>of</strong> Roman<br />
sculpture (exemplified by<br />
<strong>the</strong> head <strong>of</strong> God <strong>the</strong> Fa<strong>the</strong>r,<br />
which is based on a bust <strong>of</strong> Jupiter),<br />
and it reinvigorates<br />
this legacy<br />
with a nor<strong>the</strong>rn Italian<br />
27