Carlo Cesare Malvasia (1616–1693) was an Italian scholar and art historian from Bologna, best known for his biographies of Baroque artists titled Felsina pittrice, published in 1678.[1]

This article includes a list of general references, but it lacks sufficient corresponding inline citations. (March 2019)

Carlo Cesare Malvasia
Portrait of Carlo Cesare Malvasia
Born	18 December 1616  Bologna, Papal States
Died	10 March 1693  (aged 76) Bologna, Papal States
Resting place	San Giacomo Maggiore
Nationality	Italian
Other names	Ascoso
Alma mater	University of Bologna
Occupation	Art historian, antiquarian
Works	Felsina pittrice
Movement	Baroque

Life and career

Malvasia is the Bolognese equivalent of Giorgio Vasari, and saw his native city surpassing Florence in the artistic supremacy of his time. Born to an aristocratic family, he is also known as Count Carlo Malvasia. He received cursory training in painting under Giacinto Campana and Giacomo Cavedone. He also was an amateur poet and participated in local literary circles. He traveled to Rome in 1639 where he met Cardinal Bernardino Spada and the sculptor Alessandro Algardi. Records indicate he spent some time as a volunteer cavalier during the First War of Castro at the urging of his cousin Cornelio Malvasia; leader of the Papal Army cavalry.[2]

Thereafter he graduated as a lawyer, and lectured on the subject at the university in Bologna. He obtained a theology degree in 1653, and was appointed a canon in Bologna Cathedral in 1662.

Malvasia was also a collector and acted as an agent for Louis XIV in acquisition of Bolognese artworks for the royal collections.

Works

Felsina pittrice, vite de’ pittori bolognesi is a primary source of information about the Bolognese school of painters of the 14th - 17th centuries, and for some of the artists included, the only source of information. The text is divided into four historical sections, with the first on the trecento painters, the second focusing on Francesco Francia, the third devoted to the Carracci, and the fourth (and most valued today) providing detailed, firsthand accounts of the lives and careers of the artists who rose to pre-eminence during the 17th century in the wake of the Carracci reform, including Guido Reni, Guercino, Domenichino, Lanfranco, Lavinia Fontana and Elisabetta Sirani.

Felsina pittrice has been criticized for its inaccuracies and unfavorably compared to Le vite de' pittori, scultori et architetti moderni (1672) by Malvasia's contemporary, Giovanni Pietro Bellori, on the grounds of that Malvasia's text is a mere compilation of facts embellished with poetic language, lacking in critical assessments and governed by no theoretical framework other than a provincial attachment to his native city. Recent scholarship has taken Malvasia more seriously as an art historian and the Center for Advanced Study in the Visual Arts is preparing the first scholarly, critical edition since 1841, accompanied by the first English translation, of the complete text of the Felsina pittrice (three of the planned sixteen volumes of which have been published by 2017).[3]

Malvasia also published Le pitture di Bologna (1686), a companion gallery guide of works by the artists discussed in the Felsina pittrice, and Marmorea felsine, a guide to Bolognese antiquities (1690).

Notes

Bibliography

• Malvasia, Count Carlo Cesare (1769). Luigi Crespi (ed.). Felsina pittrice: vite de pittori bolognesi. Vol. III. Rome: Stamperia di Marco Pagliarini.
• Malvasia, Cesare; Summerscale, Anne (2000). Malvasia's Life of the Carracci: Commentary and Translation. University Park, PA: The Pennsylvania State University Press. p. 15. ISBN 9780271044378.
• Massimi, Maria Elena (2007). "Malvasia, Carlo Cesare". Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani, Volume 68: Malatacca–Mangelli (in Italian). Rome: Istituto dell'Enciclopedia Italiana. ISBN 978-8-81200032-6.
• Pace, Claire (1982). "Review: Carlo Cesare Malvasia: The Life of Guido Reni by Catherine Enggass, Robert Enggass", The Burlington Magazine, vol. 124, no. 950 (May), pp. 306–308.

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Carlo Cesare Malvasia.

• Sorensen, Lee (ed.). "Malvasia, Carlo Cesare, Conte". Dictionary of Art Historians. Retrieved 22 November 2021.
• Felsina pittrice, 1678, catalog record at HathiTrust of digitized versions of copies at the Getty Research Institute
• Digitized edition of Le pitture di Bologna : che nella pretesa, e rimostrata sin'hora da altri maggiore antichita, & impareggiabile eccellenza nella pittura, con manifesta evidenza da fatto, rendono il passeggiere disingannato ed instrutto dell'Ascoso, accademico gelato. Monti, Bologna 1706
• Malvasia project at the Center for Advanced Study in the Visual Arts, National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC.
• Carlo Cesare Malvasia entry (in Italian) by Aldo Foratti in the Enciclopedia italiana, 1934

На других языках

[de] Carlo Cesare Malvasia