The Frick
February 21 through June 2, 2019
Moroni, Giovanni Gerolamo Grumelli, called The Man in Pink, dated 1560, oil on canvas, Fondazione Museo di Palazzo Moroni, Bergamo–Lucretia Moroni Collection; photo: Mauro Magliani
In Renaissance Italy, one of the
aims of portraiture was to make the absent seem present through naturalistic
representation of the sitter. This notion—that art can capture an individual
exactly as he or she appears—is exemplified in the work of Giovanni Battista
Moroni. The artist spent his entire career in and around his native Bergamo, a
region in Lombardy northeast of Milan, and left a corpus of portraitsthat far
outnumbers those of his contemporaries who worked in major artistic centers,
including Titian in Venice and Bronzino in Florence. Though Moroni never
achieved their fame, he innovated the genre of portraiture in spectacular ways.
This winter and spring, the Frick presents the first major exhibition in North America
devoted to his work, bringing together nearly two dozen of Moroni’s most
arresting and best known portraits from international collections to explore
the innovations and experiments that belie his masterful illusion of recording
reality. They will be shown alongside a selection of complementary objects—Renaissance
jewelry, textiles, arms and armor, and other luxury items—that exemplify the material
and visual world that Moroni recorded, embellished, and transformed.
Moroni: The
Riches of Renaissance Portraiture was organized by Aimee Ng, Associate Curator, The Frick Collection; Simone Facchinetti, Curator,
Museo Adriano Bernareggi, Bergamo; and Arturo Galansino, Director General,
Palazzo Strozzi, Florence.
Presented in the Frick’s main floor Oval Room and
East Gallery, this exhibition will be accompanied by a catalogue and series of
public programs. Creator of both religious paintings and portraits, Moroni is
best known for works that seem to capture his sitters exactly as they appeared
before him.
According to an anecdote first published in 1648 in Carlo Ridolfi’s Le meraviglie dell’arte, Titian, when approached by a group of would-be patrons, recommended that they instead sit for Moroni, praising his ritratti di naturale (portraits from life).The naturalism for which Moroni was most acclaimed, however, also became a point of criticism: his apparent faithfulness to his models caused some to dismiss him as a mere copyist of nature, an artist without “art”—that is, without selection, editing, or adherence to ideals of beauty.
Bernard Berenson derided him in 1907 as an uninventive portraitist who “gives us sitters no doubt as they looked.” Subsequent scholars restored his reputation; the art historian Roberto Longhi, for example, in 1953 praised Moroni’s “documents” of society that were unmediated by style, crediting him with a naturalism that anticipated Caravaggio.
According to an anecdote first published in 1648 in Carlo Ridolfi’s Le meraviglie dell’arte, Titian, when approached by a group of would-be patrons, recommended that they instead sit for Moroni, praising his ritratti di naturale (portraits from life).The naturalism for which Moroni was most acclaimed, however, also became a point of criticism: his apparent faithfulness to his models caused some to dismiss him as a mere copyist of nature, an artist without “art”—that is, without selection, editing, or adherence to ideals of beauty.
Bernard Berenson derided him in 1907 as an uninventive portraitist who “gives us sitters no doubt as they looked.” Subsequent scholars restored his reputation; the art historian Roberto Longhi, for example, in 1953 praised Moroni’s “documents” of society that were unmediated by style, crediting him with a naturalism that anticipated Caravaggio.
But Moroni’s characterization as
an artist who faithfully recorded the world around him—whether understood as a positive
quality or a weakness—has obscured his creativity and innovation as a
portraitist.Moroni was born in the early 1520s in Albino, a small city less
than ten miles from Bergamo. Although it was part of the Venetian Republic
during the sixteenth century, Bergamo was geographically—and, in some ways,
culturally—closer to the Duchy of Milan, then under Spanish rule. Thus, Moroni
encountered sitters, fashions, and luxury goods from both Milan and Venice,
which were both significant points of access to larger international markets, communities,
and cultures. In the early 1540s, Moroni trained in Brescia in the workshop of
Moretto da Brescia.
The paintings of Lorenzo Lotto, who spent more than a
decade in Bergamo in the first quarter of the Cinquecento, were also a
significant influence.
After brief periods in Trent during the late 1540s and
early 1550s, Moroni worked from the mid-1550s predominantly in his native
Albino and Bergamo, providing local clientele with religious paintings and
breathtakingly lifelike portraits. He achieved his characteristic naturalism
through exacting attention to detail, psychologically potent and vivid
expressions, and a “warts and all” approach that, at times, resulted in
seemingly unidealized portrayals.
Moroni, Lucrezia Agliardi Vertova, dated 1557, oil on canvas, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Theodore M. Davis Collection, Bequest of Theodore M. Davis, 1915
For example, his Lucrezia Agliardi Vertova conveys
with emphatic clarity his elderly sitter’s goiter, her sagging neck, wrinkled
skin, and other features that do not conform to Renaissance ideals of female beauty.
At the same time, she is as dignified as his most dashing cavalieri, including the
celebrated Man in Pink.
Giovanni Battista
Moroni
Isotta Brembati,
ca. 1555–56
Oil on canvas
63 x 45 1/4 inches
Fondazione Museo di
Palazzo Moroni, Bergamo
- Lucretia
Moroni Collection
Photo: Fondazione
Museo di Palazzo Moroni, Bergamo
Giovanni Battista
Moroni
Portrait of a Young
Woman,
ca. 1575
Oil on canvas
20 3/8 x 16 3/8
inches
Private collection
Photo: Michael
Bodycomb
Giovanni Battista Moroni
Giovanni Gerolamo Grumelli,
called
Il Cavaliere in Rosa (The
Man in Pink),
dated 1560
Oil on canvas
85 x 48 3/8 inches
Fondazione Museo di Palazzo Moroni, Bergamo- Lucretia
Moroni Collection
Photo: Mauro Magliani
Giovanni Battista Moroni
The Tailor (Il Sarto,
or Il Tagliapanni),
ca. 1570
Oil on canvas
39 1/8 x 30 1/4 inches
The National Gallery,
London
Photo: © The National
Gallery, London
Giovanni Battista
Moroni
Lucia Albani
Avogadro,
called
La Dama in Rosso (The
Lady in
Red),
ca. 1554–57
Oil on canvas
61 x 42 inches
The National Gallery,
London
Photo: © The National
Gallery, London
Giovanni Battista
Moroni
Faustino Avogadro,
called
Il Cavaliere dal
Piede Ferito (The
Knight with the
Wounded Foot),
ca. 1555–60
Oil on canvas
79 5/8 x 41 7/8
inches
The National Gallery,
London
Photo: © The National
Gallery, London
Giovanni Battista
Moroni
Bernardo Spini,
ca.1573-
75
Oil on
canvas
77 1/2 x 38 5/8
inches
Accademia Carrara,
Bergamo
Photo: Fondazione Accademia
Carrara, Bergamo
Giovanni Battista
Moroni
Pace Rivola Spini,
ca. 1573
-75
Oil on canvas
77 1/2
x 38 5/8 inches
Accademia Carrara,
Bergamo
Photo: Fondazione
Accademia Carrara, Bergamo
Giovanni Battista
Moroni
Gian Ludovico
Madruzzo,
ca. 1551-
52
Oil on canvas
78 5/8 x 45 5/8
inches
Art Institute of
Chicago; Charles H. and Mary F. S. Worcester
Collection
Photo:
The Art Institute of
Chicago / Art Resource, NY
Giovanni Battista
Moroni
Gabriele Albani (?),
1572–73
Oil on canvas
43 1/4 x 30 1/4
inches
Private collection
Giovanni Battista
Moroni
Portrait of a Gentleman
and His Two Children,
ca.1572-
1575
Oil on canvas
49 3/8 x 38 5/8
inches
National Gallery of
Ireland Collection; Purchased, 1866
Photo: National
Gallery of Ireland
Giovanni Battista
Moroni
Alessandro Vittoria,
ca. 1551
Oil on canvas
32 1/2 x 25 5/8
inches
Gemäldegalerie,
Kunsthistorisches
Museum, Vienna
Photo: KHM-Museumsverband
Giovanni Battista
Moroni
Gabriel de la Cueva,
dated
1560
Oil on canvas
44 1/8 x 33 1/8
inches
Gemäldegalerie,
Staatliche Museen zu Berlin
Photo: Bildagentur /
Staatliche Museen, Berlin / Jörg
P.Anders / Art
Resource, NY
Giovanni Battista
Moroni
Bearded Man with a
Letter,
dated 1561
Oil on canvas
37 5/8 x 29 1/8
inches
Private collection, courtesy of
Fabrizio Moretti
Photo: Courtesy of
Alberto Sangalli/
© Gianni Canali
Giovanni Battista
Moroni
Giovanni Bressani,
dated 1562
Oil on canvas
45 3/4 x 35 inches
National Galleries of
Scotland, Edinburgh; Purchased by
Private Treaty, 1977
Photo: National
Galleries of Scotland
Giovanni Battista
Moroni
Bust of Isotta
Brembati,
ca. 1550
Oil on canvas
21 5/8 x 18 1/2
inches
Accademia Carrara,
Bergamo
Photo: Fondazione
Accademia Carrara, Bergamo
Giovanni Battista
Moroni
Portrait of a Woman,
ca. 1575–79
Oil on canvas
19 1/4 x 16 1/2
inches
Private collection
Photo: Michael
Bodycomb
Giovanni Battista
Moroni
Lay Brother with
Fictive Frame,
ca. 1557
Oil on canvas
21 3/4 x 19 7/8
inches
Städel
Museum, Frankfurt
am Main
Giovanni Battista
Moroni
Bust Portrait of a
Young Man with an Inscription
, ca. 1560
Oil on canvas
18 5/8 x 15 5/8
inches
The National Gallery,
London; Layard Bequest, 1916
Photo: © The National
Gallery, London
Giovanni Battista
Moroni
Two Donors in
Adoration before the Madonna and Child and
Saint Michael,
ca. 1557-60
Oil on canvas,
35 1/4 x 38 1/2
inches
Virginia Museum of
Fine Arts, Richmond; Adolph D. andWilkins C. Williams
Fund
Photo: ©Virginia Museum of
Fine Arts, Richmond / Katherine
Wetzel
Giovanni Battista
Moroni
Gentleman in
Adoration before the Madonna and Child,
ca. 1555
Oil on canvas
23 1/2 x 25 1/2
inches
National Gallery of
Art, Washington; Samuel H. Kress
Collection
Photo: Courtesy
National Gallery of Art, Washington
