The Lviv State Art Gallery Part 3
The economic depression and the Counter Reformation in Italy in 1640s led to a reappraisal of the Renaissance values, and a loss of humanistic ideals. The artists of the new trend, mannerism were infatuated with purely formal problems, took themselves off nature, laid emphasis on subjective lines in their creative work. Considering themselves the continuers of the "manner" of the great humanist artists, the mannerists actually opposed their realistic achievements. This frequently led them to artificiality of images, affected refinement and pretentious forms. A typical picture of this kind is that of the famous Florentine mannerist Jacopo Zucchi "Coral Fishiry" (a variation is to be found at the Borghese galery in Rome).
A prominent master of the grand imposing portraiture of the second half of the XVI and beginning of the XVII centuries was the popular woman artist of her time Sofonisba Avyhiscivla "Portrait of a Young Noblewoman".
At the edge of the XVI and the XVII centuries social conflicts in Italy grew acute and brought about a struggle in art - between the refined, aristocratic tendency and the democratic, realistic trend started by Michelangelo de Carevaggia. The museum exposition carries works of this period painted by Guido Reni, Carlo Dolci, Guercino. An outstanding representative of the democratic trend of italian art of the first half of the XVII century was the Genoese artist Bernardo Strozzi, who developed under the influence of the realistic art of Caravaggio. In his magnificently skillful and psychologically profound picture "Apostle Peter Healing a Palsied Man" Strozzi interprets the evangelical theme as a real scene from everyday life, the types of the simple people being taken by the artist from life.
The pastel portraits of the Italian artist Rosalba Giovenne Camera were sensationally successful among the aristocratic circles of Europe during the first half of the XVIII century. However, she frequently sacrificed depth of psychological characterization for the sake of superficial prettiness. The "Portrait of an Old Woman" is one of her best work, executed with great emotion and sincerity.
Lviv Study. Handbook./Compiler group manager N.Vynnytska.-Lviv:AHIL,2003.- 52p. ISBN 966-7617-59-9
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