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ROSA, SALVATOR (1615-1673)

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Originally appearing in Volume V23, Page 722 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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ROSA, SALVATOR (1615-1673) , See also:Italian painter of the Neapolitan school, was See also:born in Arenella, in the outskirts of See also:Naples, in 1615: the precise See also:day is given as the loth of See also:June, and also as the 21st of See also:July. His See also:father, Vito See also:Antonio de Rosa, a See also:land surveyor, was See also:bent upon making the youth a lawyer, or else a See also:priest, and sent him to study in the See also:convent of the Somaschi fathers. Here Salvator began showing a turn for See also:art: he went in See also:secret to his maternal See also:uncle See also:Paolo See also:Greco to learn the practice of See also:painting, but soon found that Greco had little pictorial See also:lore to impart, so he transferred himself to his own See also:brother-in-See also:law See also:Francesco Fracanzaro, a See also:pupil of See also:Ribera, and afterwards had some practice under Ribera himself. Above all he went to nature, frequenting the Neapolitan See also:coast, and keeping his eyes open and his See also:hand busy. At the See also:age of seventeen he lost his father; the widow was See also:left unprovided for, with at least five See also:children, and Salvator found himself immersed in a See also:sea of troubles and perplexities, with nothing for the while to See also:stem them except a buoyant and adventurous temperament. He obtained some instruction under the See also:battle-painter Aniello See also:Falcone, but chiefly painted in solitude, haunting romantic and desolate spots, beaches, mountains, caverns, verdure-clad recesses. Hence he became in See also:process of See also:time the initiator of romantic landscape, with a See also:special turn for scenes of See also:strange or picturesque aspect—often turbulent and rugged, at times See also:grand, and with suggestions of the See also:sublime. He picked up scanty doles when he could get them, and his See also:early landscapes sold for a few pence to See also:petty dealers. The first See also:person to discover that Rosa's See also:work was not as trumpery as it was cheap was the painter Lanfranco, who bought some of the paintings, and advised the youth to go to See also:Rome. Hither in 1635, at the age of twenty, Rosa betook himself; he studied with See also:enthusiasm, but, catching See also:fever, he returned to Naples and Falcone, and for a while painted nothing but battlepieces, and these without exciting any See also:attention. This class of work was succeeded by the landscape art peculiarly characteristic of him—See also:wild scenes wildly peopled with shepherds, See also:seamen or especially soldiers. He then revisited Rome, and was housed by See also:Cardinal Brancaccio; this See also:prelate being made See also:bishop of See also:Viterbo, Rosa painted for the Chiesa della Morte a large and noticeable picture of the " Incredulity of See also:Thomas "—the first work of sacred art which we find recorded from his hand.

At Viterbo he made acquaintance with a mediocre poet named See also:

Abati, and was hence incited to try his own See also:faculty in See also:verse. He then returned to Naples. Here the monopolizing triumvirate—Ribera, See also:Caracciolo and See also:Corenzio —were still powerful. Rosa was as yet too obscure to suffer from their machinations; but, having painted a picture of " Tityus Torn by the See also:Vulture," which went to Rome and there produced a See also:great sensation, he found it politic to follow in the footsteps of his fame, and once more, in 1638, resought the papal See also:city. Rosa was a See also:man of facile and versatile See also:genius, and had by this time several strings to his See also:bow. It is said that, still keeping painting steadily in view as his real See also:objective, he resolved to secure attention first as a musician, poet, See also:improvisatore and actor—his See also:mother-wit and broad Neapolitan See also:dialect (which appears to have See also:stuck to him through See also:life) See also:standing him See also:power-fully in See also:stead. In the See also:carnival he masqued as Formica and Capitan Coviello, and bustled about Rome distributing satirical prescriptions for diseases of the See also:body and more particularly of the mind. As Formica he inveighed against the farcical comedies acted in the Trastevere under the direction of the celebrated See also:Bernini. Some of the actors, in one of their performances, retaliated by insulting Rosa, but the public was with him, and he now enjoyed every See also:form of success—social See also:prestige, abundant commissions and any amount of See also:money, which he was wont to throw about broadcast to the populace. In 1646 he returned to Naples, and is said to have taken an active See also:part in the insurrection of See also:Masaniello; certain it is that he sympathized with and admired the fisherman autocrat, for a passage in one of his satires proves this. His actual See also:share in the insurrection is, however, dubious; it appears only in See also:recent narratives, and the same is the See also:case with the well-known See also:story that at one time he herded with a See also:band of brigands in the Abruzzi—an incident which cannot be conveniently See also:dove-tailed into any of the known See also:dates of his career. As regards the popular revolt against See also:Spanish tyranny, it is alleged that Rosa, along with other painters—Coppola, See also:Porpora, Domenico Gargiuolo, Dal Po, Masturzo, the two Vaccari and Cadogna—all under the captaincy of Aniello Falcone, formed the Compagnia della Morte, whose See also:mission it was to See also:hunt up Spaniards in the streets and despatch them, not sparing even those who had sought some glace of religious See also:asylum.

He painted a portrait of Masaniello—probably from See also:

reminiscence rather than from life: indeed, it is said that he painted him several times over in less than life See also:size. On the approach of See also:Don See also:John of See also:Austria the See also:blood-stained Compagnia dispersed, Rosa escaping or at any See also:rate returning to Rome. Here he painted some important subjects, showing the uncommon bent of his mind as it passed from landscape into See also:history—" See also:Democritus amid Tombs," the -- See also:Death of See also:Socrates," " See also:Regulus in the Spiked Cask " (these two are now in See also:England), " See also:Justice Quitting the See also:Earth," and the " See also:Wheel of See also:Fortune." This last work, the tendency of which was bitingly satirical, raised a See also:storm of ire and remonstrance. Rosa, endeavouring at conciliation, published a description of its meaning (probably softened down not a little from the real facts); none the less an See also:order for his imprisonment was issued, but ultimately withheld at the instance of some powerful See also:friends. It was about this time that Rosa wrote his See also:satire named See also:Babylon, under which name Rome was of course indicated. Cardinal Giancarlo de' See also:Medici now invited the painter to leave Rome—which had indeed become too hot to hold him—for See also:Florence. Salvator gladly assented, and remained in the Tuscan See also:capital for the better part of nine years, introducing there the new See also:style of landscape; he had no pupils, but various imitators. Lorenzo See also:Lippi the painter poet, and other See also:beaux esprits shared with Rosa the hospitalities of the cardinal, and they formed an See also:academy named I Percossi (the Stricken), indulging in a See also:deal of ingenious jollity—Rosa being alike applauded as painter,, poet and musician. His See also:chief intimate at this time was Lippi, whom he encouraged to proceed with the poem Il Malmantile Racquistato. He was well acquainted also with Ugo and Giulio See also:Maffei, and housed with them more than once in See also:Volterra, where he wrote other four satires—See also:Music, See also:Poetry, Painting and See also:War. About the same time he painted his own portrait, now in the Uffizi See also:Gallery of Florence. Finally he reverted once more to Rome, and hardly left that city again.

Much enmity still brooded there against him, taking the form more especially of an allegation that the satires which he zealously read and diffused in MS. were not his own See also:

production, but filched from some one else. Rosa indignantly repelled this See also:charge, which remains indeed quite unsubstantiated, although it is true that the satires deal so extensively and with such ready manipulation in classical names, allusions and anecdotes, that one is rather at a loss to See also:fix upon the See also:period of his busy career at which Rosa could possibly have imbued his mind with such a multitude of semi-erudite details. It may perhaps be legitimate to suppose that his See also:literary friends in Florence and Volterra had coached him up to a large extent-the satires, as compositions, remaining none the less strictly and fully his own. To confute his detractors he now wrote the last of the See also:series, entitled Envy. Among the pictures of his closing years were the admired " Battlepiece " now in the Louvre, painted in the See also:short space of See also:forty days, full of See also:long-See also:drawn carnage, with See also:ships burning in the offing; " See also:Pythagoras and the Fishermen; " the " See also:Oath of See also:Catiline " (Pitti Gallery); and the very celebrated See also:Saul and the See also:Witch of See also:Endor " (Louvre), which is almost his latest work. He undertook a series of satirical portraits, to be closed by one of himself; but while occupied with this project he was assailed by See also:dropsy, which, after lasting fully See also:half a See also:year, brought his life to a See also:close on the 15th of See also:March 1673. In his last moments he married a Florentine named Lucrezia, who kept his See also:house and had See also:borne him two sons, one of them surviving him, and he died in a See also:con-trite See also:frame of mind. He lies buried in the Chiesa degli Angeli, where a portrait of him has been set up. Salvator Rosa, after the hard struggles of his early youth, had always been a successful man, and he left a handsome fortune. Rosa was indisputably a great See also:leader in that See also:modern tendency of See also:fine art towards the romantic and picturesque which, developing in various directions and by diversified processes, has at last almost totally differentiated modern from olden art. He saw appearances with a new See also:eye, and presented new images of them on his canvases, and deserves therefore all the See also:credit due to a vigorous innovator, even if we contest the See also:absolute value of his product. He himself courted reputation for his See also:historical See also:works, laying comparatively little stress on his landscapes; in portraits he was forcible.

In See also:

chiaroscuro he is See also:simple and effective; his See also:design has See also:energy and a certain grandeur, without any high type of form or any See also:superior measure of correctness. His See also:colour is too constantly of a sandy or yellowish-See also:grey See also:tone. Personally he was a man of high spirit, and he sold his pictures at large prices, more (it is said) to assert the See also:honour of his art than from love of money; rather than sell them cheap. he destroyed them. In his later Florentine period he etched several of his works, subjects of See also:mythology, soldiering, &c. He was choleric, but See also:kind and generous. Though a man of gaiety and See also:pleasure, and a jovial boon See also:companion, he does not appear to have been vicious in any serious degree. He was talkative, very See also:sharp-tongued and an unblushing encomiast of his own performances. Among his pictures not already mentioned we may name, in the See also:National Gallery, See also:London, " See also:Mercury and the Dishonest Woodman," and three others; in l aynham See also:Hall, " See also:Belisarius "; in the Grosvenor Gallery, " See also:Diogenes " ; in the Pitti Gallery, a grand portrait of a man in See also:armour, and the " Temptation of St See also:Anthony," which contains his own portrait. This last subject appears also in St See also:Petersburg, and in the See also:Berlin Gallery. The satires of Salvator Rosa deserve more attention than they have generally received. There are, however, two recent books taking See also:account of them—by Cesareo, 1892, and Cartelli, 1899. The satires, though considerably spread abroad during his lifetime, were not published until 1719.

They are all in terza rima, written without much literary correctness, but remarkably spirited, pointed and even brilliant. They are slashingly denunciatory, and from this point of view too monotonous in treatment. Rosa here appears as a very severe castigator of all ranks and conditions of men, not sparing the highest, and as a See also:

champion of the poor and down-trodden, and of moral virtue and See also:Catholic faith. It seems See also:odd that a man who took so See also:free a part in the pleasures and diversions of life should be so ruthless to the ministers of these. The satire on Music exposes the insolence and profligacy of musicians, and the shame of courts and churches in encouraging them. Poetry dwells on the pedantry, imitativeness, adulation, affectation and indecency of poets—also their poverty, and the neglect with which they were treated; and there is a very vigorous sortie against oppressive See also:governors and aristocrats. See also:Tasso's See also:glory is upheld; See also:Dante is spoken of as obsolete, and See also:Ariosto as corrupting. Painting inveighs against the pictorial treatment of squalid subjects, such as beggars (though Rosa must surely himself have been partly responsible for this misdirection of the art), against the See also:ignorance and lewdness of painters, and their tricks of See also:trade, and the See also:gross indecorum of painting sprawling half-naked See also:saints of both sexes. War (which contains the eulogy of Masaniello) derides the folly of hireling soldiers, who fight and perish while See also:kings stay at See also:home; the vile morals of kings and lords, See also:heresy and unbelief also come in for a flagellation. In Babylon Rosa represents himself as a fisherman, Tirreno, constantly unlucky in his See also:net-hauls on the See also:Euphrates; he converses with a native of the See also:country, Ergasto. Babylon (Rome) is very severely treated, and Naples much the same. Envy (the last of the satires, and generally accounted the best, although without strong apparent See also:reason) represents Rosa dreaming that, as he is about to inscribe in all modesty his name upon the See also:threshold of the See also:temple of glory, the goddess or fiend of Envy obstructs him, and a long interchange of reciprocal objurgations ensues.

Here occurs the highly charged portrait of the chief See also:

Roman detractor of Salvator (we are not aware that he has ever been identified by name) ; and the painter protests that he would never condescend to do any of the lascivious work in painting so shamefully in See also:vogue. As authorities for the life of Salvator Rosa, Passeri, Vite de' Pittori, may be consulted, and See also:Salvini, Satire e Vita di Salvator Rosa; also See also:Baldinucci and Dominici. The Life by See also:Lady See also:Morgan is a romantic treatment, mingling tradition or See also:mere fiction with fact. The novel, A See also:Company of Death, by See also:Albert See also:Cotton, 1904, gives an interesting picture of Salvator Rosa at Naples. (W. M.

End of Article: ROSA, SALVATOR (1615-1673)

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