Giuseppe Bartolomeo Chiari


Giuseppe Bartolomeo Chiari, also known as simply Giuseppe Chiari, was an Italian painter of the late-Baroque period, active mostly in Rome.

Biography

Early career

Born in Rome, he was one of the main assistants, along with Giuseppe Passeri and Andrea Procaccini, in the studio of an elder Carlo Maratta. His father had opposed the career, but his mother, on the recommendation of a painter named Carlo Antonio Gagliani. By the age of 22, he had frescoed the lateral lunettes of the Marcaccioni chapel in the church of Santa Maria del Suffragio. He also painted the ceiling of a chapel in Santa Maria in Cosmedin. In 1686 Chiari decorated the vault of the chapel of the Montioni in Santa Maria in Montesanto, Rome, with an Assumption and at about the same time, also for Jacopo Montioni, painted two canvases showing scenes from Roman history: Coriolanus before the Walls of Rome and Tullia driving her Chariot over her Father.

Career

In 1693 he frescoed rooms in the Palazzo Barberini to allegorical sketches of Bellori of Aurora leading Apollo and chariot with time and seasons with extensive interweaving of heraldic symbols, including bees ; two-headed eagle alighting on globe with blue and white stripes ; a golden fleece ; sun and laurels, and post.
From 1695 to 1696 he worked in the chapel of the Teddalini–Bentivoglio in San Silvestro in Capite, Rome, where his altarpiece, side pictures and vault fresco achieve an impressive unity. Chiari’s largest fresco was painted in the Palazzo Colonna: Hercules Introducing Marcantonio Colonna to Olympus. In 1708 he painted four scenes from Ovid’s Metamorphoses for Cardinal Fabrizio Spada, which are among his finest cabinet pictures of mythological themes, and which transform Maratta’s severity into elegance. He additionally frescoed the Villa Torri outside of Porta San Pancrazio in collaboration with landscape artist Jan van Bloemen. Christ and the Woman of Samaria was acquired by Graf Christian Schaumburg-Lippe, who had bought works by Chiari since 1685.
Also from date the Ecstasy of St. Lucy of Narni and the ceiling fresco Angels Making Music. There followed, in 1714, the Adoration of the Magi, for Cardinal Pietro Ottoboni, and, shortly afterwards, an elegant version of the same subject.

Under Pope Clement XI

In the early years of the 18th century Pope Clement XI became Chiari’s most important patron. Papal commissions included the vast ceiling picture, painted on canvas, in the nave of San Clemente al Laterano depicting the Glory of St. Clement and one of the 12 oval paintings of Old Testament Prophets for the nave of Saint John Lateran. The Pope also commissioned the Allegory on the Papacy, intended as a gift for the Old Pretender, James Francis Edward Stuart. Chiari was Principe of the Accademia di San Luca, Rome, from 1722 to 1725.

Late work

Chiari’s late works include St. Peter of Alcántara and St. Paschal Baylon in San Francesco a Ripa, the two side paintings and the vault fresco with scenes from the Life of St. Francis of Paola in San Francesco di Paola ai Monti and the large altarpiece of the Ecstasy of St. Francis in Santi Apostoli, Rome. Chiari’s brother Tommaso Chiari collaborated with him on the two late altarpieces St. Peter Receiving the Keys and the Ecstasy of St Mary Magdalene, commissioned by the Rospigliosi family. Pascoli stated that the Holy Family with St. John the Baptist in Santa Maria delle Grazie alle Fornaci fuori Porta Cavalleggeri, Rome, was Chiari’s last work. Chiari died in Rome on 8 September 1727. William Kent, Paolo Anesi, and Giovanni Andrea Lazzarini were amonghis pupils. His studio is described as highly frequented by French artists.

Partial anthology of works in Rome