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- Giovanni Battista Ricci
- Also known as
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Giovanni Battista Ricci
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primary name: Ricci, Giovanni Battista
- Details
- individual; painter/draughtsman; Roman; Italian; Male
- Life dates
- 1537-c.1627
- Biography
- Painter: worked in Rome. Giovanni Battista Ricci, b. Novara (Baglione). The date of his birth is unrecorded. Baumgart (Thieme-Becker), presumably on the basis of Noack's notes and thus no doubt correctly, gives the date of death as 5 Aug. 1627. Baglione's statement that R. died in Rome aged over 75 in the last year of the pontificate of Paul V (d. 28 Jan. 1621) is in part disproved by the fact that he was proposed as 'principe' of the Accademia di S. Luca in Oct. 1623 (Baumgart).
Baglione says that R. came to Rome in the pontificate of Sixtus V (1585-90), and that while "ancor giovane'" assisted with the decoration of the staircase of the Lateran Palace, the Vatican Library (A. Rocca, 'Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana', 1591, p. 272, refers to him as assistant there to Nebbia and Guerra: see Hess, 'Studien', i, p. 166, n. 5) and the scenes of the 'Passion' in the Scala Santa (see Scavizzi, 'Bollettino' (1960), pp. 325ff. and figs. 1-4). These enterprises date from the closing years of Sixtus's pontificate, but according to Baumgart R. was one of the Virtuosi al Pantheon as early as 1583; he was elected to the Accademia di S. Luca in 1588. R. was also associated with Guerra (q.v.) in Palazzo di Montecavallo (Quirinal) 1591-3 and again in 1599 (Bertolotti, 'Subalpini', p. 86; Hess, 'Studien', i, p, 176).
Extant works in Roman churches include: S. M. Maggiore, frescoes between windows of nave clerestory: 'Visitation', 'Marriage at Cana', 'Assumption of the Virgin', 'Ascension of Christ' (Baglione); according to Mancini (i, p. 67) the cycle was begun under Sixtus V and finished under Clement VIII. According to Titi, R. also collaborated with Nogari (q.v.) in decorating vault between nave and chancel with Evangelists and Doctors of the Church:. destroyed 1928-31, but see Abromson, figs. 98-9 and a preliminary study for the vault, by R. (H. Egger, 'Architektonische Handzeichnungen alter Meister', Vienna-Leipzig, 1911, pl. 17; see Abromson, p. 107, n. 8). S. Marcello al Corso, probably dating from 1597 restoration of church (Titi, 1721 ed., p. 344): 'Passion' and 'Resurrection' scenes between the windows; apse frescoes of scenes of life of the Virgin; 3rd chapel on r.: laterals, 'Adoration of Magi' (study Louvre 9991 as anon.) and 'Adoration of Shepherds' (study Haarlem K. II. 61, as anon.: Gere, 'Burlington', cv (1963), p. 364. fig- 34, and 'Manierismo', fig. 32) and scenes from the life of Virgin on vault (see 'Restauri' 1969, pl. 27 and cf. Nucci biog.); 'Crucifixion' on entrance wall dated 1613. S. Giovanni in Laterano, R. took part in redecoration for Holy Year 1600: in r. transept, 'Consecration of the Basilica by Pope Silvester' (Baglione), 'St Barnabas' and 'St Andrew' (Titi). S. M. del Popolo, Cerasi chapel, to l. of chancel, 'Evangelists' on vault of outer part of chapel, not later than 1601(Forcella, i, p. 373, no. 1439; Steinberg, 'Art Bulletin', xli (1959), pp. 183ff., fig. 2). S. Gregorio Magno al Celio, Salviati chapel, wall frescoes, c. 1600-3 (see 1979,1006.87) S. Onofrio, Madrucci chapel, 2nd on r., vault and wall frescoes, c. 1605 (Baglione; Huetter-Lavagnino, 'S. Onofrio al Gianicolo', Rome, n.d., pp. 37f.; Forcella, v, p. 314, no. 878). S. Francesco a Ripa, 2nd chapel on 1., 'God the Father and Angels' in cupola, 'Evangelists' in pendentives, scenes from life of the Virgin and 'Sibyls' in lunettes, and 'Prophets' on side walls (study for 'Jeremiah', see Chappell, figs. 1-3); chapel dated 1614 (Forcella, iv, p. 404, no. 980). S. M. in Traspontina, decoration of 3rd and 5th chapels on l.: studies for 'Crucifixion of St Peter' on l. wall of former, Metropolitan Museum (1971, 222, 2) and for 'S. Angelo raising Boy' in latter, in Louvre (9708) as Paolo de Matteis. S. Agostino, vaults of chapels of St Monica (see 1947,0412.160) and St Nicholas of Tolentino flanking cappella maggiore (Baglione). S. Onofrio, payment Apr. 1614 for 'Last Supper' (lost) in refectory of monastery (Bertolotti, 'Subalpini', p. 169). A drawing which, from its shape, could well have been a study was with Tan Bunzl in 1969 (Sotheby photo. R. 6235).
Vatican: 1611, final payment for work in "stantia nova della libreria" (Bertolotti, Subalpini, p. 169). According to Baumgart, R. worked until 1613 in the Library. In the two Sale Paoline of the Library, scenes of life of Paul V and earlier Popes interested in the Library, and of ancient libraries (inscriptions given in full and subjects elucidated by Taja, pp. 456ff.). These include 'Canonisation of S. Carlo Borromeo' (study, Angers, MTC 5019) and 'Canonisation of S. Francesca Romana' (study, Louvre 4549, as F. Zuccaro) on end walls of larger room, vault dated 1610; study at Windsor for 'Paul V and Scipione Borghese' (repr. with fresco, both attributed mistakenly to Pietro Facchetti, Hess, 'Studien', ii, p.127 Popham, fig. 166, correctly as R.). Studies for two of the four scenes of Paul V in the smaller room, vault dated 'Paulus V Anno VII' (i.e. 1611/12), in Van Regteren Altena coll., Amsterdam ('Italiaanse Tekeningen uit een Amsterdamse particulière Verzameling' exh. Rijksmuseum, 1970, fig. 54) and Copenhagen (Tu V, 4). A squared drawing closely similar in composition to the latter, but in reverse, sold Christie's, 23 June 1970, lot 60. A study for 'Zeno in the Library of Constantinople' on the window wall, is in the Albertina (cat. iii, fig. 364; repr. with fresco, Hess, 'Studien', ii, p. 125).
According to Baglione, R. made designs for fountains in the Borgo, probably the three proposed in 1614 (Orbaan, 'Documenti', p. 215) "& altri disegni per il portico, e per la Basilica Vaticana". This laconic reference to the portico of St Peter's appears to be the source of the often repeated attribution of the design of the vault 'stucchi' to R. Mosaics of St Peter and St Paul ("meze figure": Baglione) after cartoons by R., in "cortile nuova appresso la Porta principale del Palazzo Vaticano" were completed in 1618 (Bertolotti, 'Subalpini', pp. 200f.).
The problem of Ricci as a draughtsman has been complicated by the misinterpretation first suggested by Pouncey, and followed by Popham in his Windsor catalogue (nos. 862 etc.), of the initials "I.B.R." which occur on a large number of drawings now established beyond doubt as by Giovanni Battista della Rovere (c. 1561-after 1627). Della Rovere was a Lombard; so also - by birth and possibly early training - was Ricci; and the confusion becomes more understandable when one compares a not centrally characteristic drawing by Ricci such as the Albertina study for 'Zeno in the Library of Constantinople' (see above) and the less superficial kind of drawing by della Rovere illustrated in Popham fig. 165.
Other drawings certainly by R. include: 'Façade of an oratory' with panel of St Catherine of Siena with Nuns above door, 'Assumption' in attic and six standing Male Saints in niches, four in attic and two flanking doorway, Berlin, KdZ 25010; 'Joseph sold to the Merchants', Huntington Library, Kitto Bible, ix, fol. 1408, as G.B. Castello; two drawings of standing Bishops (Naples 104, as Cambiaso and Ashmolean, cat. iii, no. 667A).
- Bibliography
- Gere & Pouncey 1983 (whence biography below)
Baumgart in Thieme-Becker (1934) with previous bibliography; M. Chappell, 'A Drawing attributed to G.B. Ricci', Southeastern College Art Conference Review, ix (1976), pp. 18ff.