Masters of Italian baroque painting

This volume presents the 17th- and 18th-century Italian paintings in the Detroit Institute of Arts, one of the world's finest collections of European art. A number of the paintings discussed were among the museum's earliest donations from prominent local collectors, such as Guido Reni's Head of Christ crowned with thorns and Gian Paolo Panini's Ruins of a triumphal arch, both received as gifts in 1889 from newspaper magnate James Scripps; others, such as Samson and Delilah, one of Pompeo Batoni's very few Old Testament scenes, purchased in 2003, are very recent acquisitions. This volume presents 69 paintings in color, many with color details. Each painting is accompanied by an artist's biography, a detailed commentary, technical analysis, endnotes, bibliographic references, an exhibition history, and full provenance. More than 80 comparative illustrations provide vital art historical context to the featured paintings... The volume features signature works by Canaletto (Piazza San Marco), Caravaggio (Martha and Mary Magdalen), Carlo Dolci (Flight into Egypt), Artemisia Lomi Gentileschi (Judith and her maidservant with the head of Holofernes), Guercino (Assumption of the Virgin), Sebastiano Ricci (Camillus rescuing Rome from Brennus), Salvator Rosa (Finding of Moses), and Giandomenico Tiepolo (The women of Darius invoking the clemency of Alexander). To this day the works by Caravaggio, the Gentileschi, and both Tiepolos, in particular, are recognized as masterpieces in which Italian baroque painting reached the pinnacle of its development in terms of visual excitement and movement. Works by lesser-known artists such as Gioacchino Assereto, Alessandro Turchi, Lorenzo de Caro, and Filippo Falciatore find their places as well alongside those of other great masters.--Book jacket.