Background
Pietro Cavallini was born in Rome, Italy in 1250.
("Pitture a fresco di Pietro Cavallini in S. Paolo delle m...)
"Pitture a fresco di Pietro Cavallini in S. Paolo delle mura di Roma. XIV Secolo." This is an original, circa 1845, copper engraving of a 14th century fresco by Pietro Cavallini in the Basilica di San Paolo fuori le Mura (Basilica of St. Paul outside the Walls) in Rome. Period Paper is offering a rare and valuable collection of original copper engravings of Italian art and architecture from the 4th to the 16th century. This edition of the engravings collected and arranged by the French archaeologist and historian J. B. L. G. Seroux d'Agincourt (1730-1814), was published by Verlag von G. W. Mettenius in Frankfurt, Germany circa 1845. The captions are in Italian. The original copper plate imprint is visible on each engraving although this imprint does not show up well on the digital image. An end paper from this edition includes a stamp of the noted English architect --William White, 30A Wimpole St. W. with a date of April 15, 1864. Next to this stamp is the signature of F. Gilbert White and a date of June 11, 1860. These original engravings are exceptionally well preserved considering their age and are excellent items for framing. Any foxing appears darker on the digital image than it is on the actual item.
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Pietro Cavallini was born in Rome, Italy in 1250.
Pietro Cavallini studied under the Cosmati.
Cavallini’s first authenticated work is a series of fresco decorations of the nave of San Paolo Fuori le Mura in Rome, done between 1277 and 1290. These were painted over the outlines of early Christian frescoes of the 5th century in an effort to “restore” them. Both Cavallini’s works and the few earlier frescoes that he did not replace perished in a fire in 1823. Copies of both survive, however, and the spacious monumentality and classical affinities of the 5th-century works seem to have had a profound effect on forming Cavallini’s style.
In 1291 he began his major series of mosaics, scenes from the life of the Virgin for Santa Maria in Trastevere, Rome, which show a definite classical mood. The superficial conventions of Byzantine facial types and gesture persist, but Byzantine linear treatment of draperies is severely reduced in favor of rounded modeling, and the traditional linear definition of facial features is completely abandoned. There are a strikingly new spatial clarity and sculptural approach to the figures and a use of light that is unprecedented in Italian art; the light strikes the figures from one direction and serves to mold and reveal, rather than decorate, the form.
At some time in the early 1290s, Cavallini executed his most famous works, the Last Judgment fresco, frescoes of Old Testament scenes (only fragments survive), and an Annunciation in Santa Cecilia in Trastevere in Rome. Here the classicizing elements of his mosaics are consolidated in a powerful and grandly expressive style best illustrated by a beautiful and lively group of seated Apostles, highly individualized, whose solidity of form is completely successful in defining the space around them. A further important feature is the use of soft, rich color harmonies and shading.
In 1308 Cavallini was invited to Naples by Charles of Anjou; there he came into contact with the graceful forms of Gothic art of the northern Anjou country. In about 1315 he returned briefly to Rome to decorate the facade of San Paolo Fuori le Mura with frescoes (now destroyed). He had many pupils who carried on his tradition.
("Pitture a fresco di Pietro Cavallini in S. Paolo delle m...)