Giovanni Bellori
Giovanni Bellori was an important figure in the seventeenth century
Roman art world. His
Idea of Beauty, first given in 1664 as a lecture to the
Accademia di San Luca, in Rome provides modern
art historians with a detailed concept of what was valued (by some) in painting and sculpture in Seicento or
Baroque Italy. Along with
Giorgio Vasari's
Lives of the Artists, Bellori's
Idea is the one of the most useful primary sources concerning Italian Renaissance art. Bellori's
Lives of the Artists discusses the brother
Annibale and
Agostino Carracci,
Domenico Fontana,
Federico Barocci,
Pieter Paul Rubens,
van Dyck,
Francois Duquesnoy,
Domenichino,
Giovanni Lanfranco,
Alessandro Algardi and
Nicolas Poussin. His preference for the Bolognese artists Bellori's planned sequel was never completed, except for the entries for
Guido Reni,
Andrea Sacchi and
Carlo Maratti.
Bellori advocated
idealism over
realism or
naturalism. This famously led to Bellori's reverence of the painting of
Annibale Carracci and denunciation of
Caravaggio, now one of history's most admired painters. His writing of the 'Idea' is draws influence from
Giovanni Battista Agucchi,
Giorgio Vasari,
Leon Battista Alberti,
Aristotle and others.
Vasari's definition of "
disegno" (which was at that time seen as the most important element to a painting or sculpture's artistic value) is tied up in the concept of 'prudence', and forms the basis of subsequent value judgements in art by the likes of Bellori. An artist's work could essentially be seen as a series of choices, and the wisdom of these choices was owed to the character, or 'prudence' of the artist. Bellori and
Agucchi, after
Aristotle, equated the practice of
idealism with prudent choice, and
naturalism with poor prudence.
