ROMANELLI, Giovanni Francesco - b. 1610 Viterbo, d. 1662 Viterbo - WGA

ROMANELLI, Giovanni Francesco

(b. 1610 Viterbo, d. 1662 Viterbo)

Italian painter and tapestry designer. He was Pietro da Cortona’s outstanding pupil, and like his master a protégé of the Barberini family. Romanelli’s graceful style was less energetic than Cortona’s (he owed much to his first teacher Domenichino) and his restrained type of Baroque proved particularly popular and influential in France, where he worked 1645-7 and 1655-7. He introduced to Paris Cortona’s characteristic manner of decoration, consisting of paintings combined with richly gilded stuccowork, and this was one of the sources for the great schemes of Lebrun at Versailles and elsewhere. Examples of Romanelli’s work survive in the Bibliothéque Nationale (painted for Cardinal Mazarin) and (much altered) in the Salle des Saisons of the Louvre (painted for Anne of Austria, mother of Louis XIV).

Ceiling decoration

In 1655 Romanelli, who in 1646 decorated two galleries in the Palais Royal in Paris, was commissioned to decorate the summer apartments of Anne of Austria in the Louvre’s Petite Galerie. He was assisted by the sculptor Michel Anguier and various stucco artists. The trompe-l’oeil paintings in the vaults framed by Anguier’s stucco work evoke the Farnese and Barberini palaces in Rome as well as the Pitti in Florence.

The picture shows a section of the ceiling, representing Diana and Actaeon, of the Petite Galerie in the Louvre.

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Ceiling decoration (detail)

Ceiling decoration 1655-57 Fresco, 450 x 355 cm Mus�e du Louvre, Paris

The picture shows a section of the ceiling,of the Petite Galerie in the Louvre.

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Ceres

Ceres (or Demeter in Greek) was the goddess of agriculture and fertility in Greek mythology. She is normally shown holding a sickle and wearing either ears of corn or corn-sheaf, as here.

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Hercules and Omphale

The subject of the painting was taken from the Biblotheca by Apollodoros. The mythological story depicted in the painting is the following.

For murdering his friend Iphitus in a fit of madness Hercules was sold as a slave to Omphale, queen of Lydia, for three years (Apollodorus 2.6:3). But she soon alleviated his lot by making him her lover. While in her service he grew effeminate, wearing women’s clothes and adornments, and spinning yarn.

Suggested listening (streaming mp3, 8 minutes):

Camille Saint-Saens: Le rouet d’Omphale (Omphale’s Spinning Wheel), symphonic poem op. 31

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Rest on the Flight into Egypt

In the nineteenth century this canvas was ascribed to Simone Cantarini.

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St Cecilia

St Cecilia is a Christian saint and virgin martyr believed to have lived in the 2nd or 3rd century. She is the patron saint of music, her attribute being the organ (often the portative type). She is often represented as personification of music with various musical instruments.

Suggested listening (streaming mp3, 3 minutes):

Girolamo Frescobaldi: Ricercar No. 8

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St Cecilia

This St Cecilia is an autograph replica of a Romanelli’s picture in oval form.

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