tue 03/12/2024

Salvator Rosa: Bandits, Wilderness and Magic, Dulwich Picture Gallery | reviews, news & interviews

Salvator Rosa: Bandits, Wilderness and Magic, Dulwich Picture Gallery

Salvator Rosa: Bandits, Wilderness and Magic, Dulwich Picture Gallery

Survey of the flamboyant artist who became a cult figure in his own lifetime

Salvator Rosa's self-portrait 'Philosophy' provides 'a glimpse of the self-promotional flair that would spark a personality cult' © National Gallery

Mount Vesuvius blew its top in 1631, spewing molten lava into the sea and filling the air with ash clouds that reached as far as Constantinople. The eruption and accompanying earthquakes killed 3,000 people and caused widespread devastation, all of which made a lasting impression on the 16–year-old Salvator Rosa. As an artist he was to specialise in darkly tempestuous landscapes filled with menace in which small figures are dwarfed by towering cliffs, or beset by bandits, while storm clouds gather over ruined buildings and blasted trees.

Mount Vesuvius blew its top in 1631, spewing molten lava into the sea and filling the air with ash clouds that reached as far as Constantinople. The eruption and accompanying earthquakes killed 3,000 people and caused widespread devastation, all of which made a lasting impression on the 16–year-old Salvator Rosa. As an artist he was to specialise in darkly tempestuous landscapes filled with menace in which small figures are dwarfed by towering cliffs, or beset by bandits, while storm clouds gather over ruined buildings and blasted trees.

It's hard to gauge the artist’s attitude to images and ideas that are now perceived as clichés

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Bonjour Madame Sarah Kent, Thank’s for your very interesting critical point about Salvator Rosa in Dulwich. Some words about Frailty of Human Life Fortuna and Lucrezia eyes as Poetry :. -Salvator’s family and him were catholic, his tomb is in Basilica Santa Maria degli Angeli e dei Martiri . His father thought he shall become a priest. The death of his first son Rosalvo 1646 was the most terrible pain in a father and mother lifes This paint with Lucrezia Paolina and his son its probably the answer of Salvator’s heart broken by the deep sorrow. Answer to the death and a love support to Lucrezia with the souvenir of Rosalvo with her together for ever. Salvator Rosa believed in God. His paint the resurrection of Jesus from the collection Chateau de Chantilly is an impressive believer paint. -Fortuna is the first top satiric paint in world of Art . It’s a “Magnifique” paint .Full of courage and talent . Probably Salvator was saved from jail and may be from death in the Vatican ‘s inquisition dark cellars in this time, because nobody saw “the ox and the donkey of the Holy Creche” and the real strong power of the Satirical Fortuna ! - Lucrezia was Florentine and his second son Augusto has perpetuated the Rosa and Paolina family …. Lucrezia’s eyes look clever. And this is on each paint of Salvator’s main figure. Cordialement Patrick Lille France

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