Guiseppi Passeri
Born Rome, 12 March 1654; died Rome, 2 Nov 1714.
Painter and draughtsman, nephew of Giovanni Battista Passeri. He was trained by his uncle and then by Carlo Maratti. The early sources (Pio, Pascoli) claim that he became Maratti’s favourite pupil and that, at his own expense, Maratti encouraged him to copy the Roman works of Giovanni Lanfranco, an assertion that is corroborated by surviving copies. Maratti taught him to respect the traditions of Michelangelo and Annibale Carracci, to study the mastery of composition, gesture and expression in works by Reni, Domenichino and Poussin, and to emulate the beauty of colour in the art of Titian and Correggio. Above all, Maratti recommended him to study Raphael, whom he himself revered. Many of Passeri’s drawings after these and other artists have survived (three in Düsseldorf). It was through these studies that he developed a relatively independent painting style, one that is distinguished by increasingly free brushwork, a subtle use of colour and lively composition.
Passeri’s earliest dated works to survive are frescoes of Jason Returning from Colchis with the Golden Fleece and Bellerophon Overcoming the Chimera (both 1678; Rome, Pal. Barberini). He executed many decorations for Roman palaces and churches; most have been destroyed, but the decorations for the Patrizi’s country villa at Castel Giuliano (1680–85) and for the Palazzo Patrizi (1712–13) in Rome survive. His most important surviving decoration of a church interior is that for the chancel of Viterbo Cathedral (c. 1690), which includes not only figure paintings but also the illusionistic architectural decoration of the walls. He executed many altarpieces, among them the Incredulity of St Thomas (1675–86; Rome, Santa Croce in Gerusalemme), in a Baroque, tenebrist style, and the lighter, Rococo altarpieces: Three Angels and Madonna of the Rosary (both c. 1703; Rome, S Caterina in Magnanapoli).
Passeri was a member of the Accademia di S Luca (from 1693) and of the Congregazione dei Virtuosi (from 1701). In 1700 he was appointed Pittore della Camera Apostolica by Pope Clement XI. His official commissions included a work for St Peter’s (now Urbino, S Francesco). His large-format works in St Peter’s, S Sebastiano and S Giacomo differ sharply from the severe and imposing monumentality of corresponding works by Maratti and retain the liveliness of Passeri’s more informal art, anticipating the early Rococo. He had many patrons among the noble families of Rome, such as the Corsini, Pallavicini, Albani, Ottoboni and the above-mentioned Patrizi. He also worked for the Ancajani in Spoleto and the Montesperelli in Perugia. In addition, he is thought to have sent many paintings to Naples, Sicily, England and Scotland. Of his numerous portraits only a few have been traced, such as Livinus Poli (1688; Bremen, Ksthalle), Cardinal Lorenzo Corsini (Florence, Gal. Corsini) and Portrait of a Nun (Düsseldorf, Kstmus.). Some of his portraits of cardinals were engraved (Guarnacci).
Passeri was an outstanding draughtsman. Well over 1500 of his drawings survive and are to be found in all the major collections of graphic art. They are mostly studies and sketches for his paintings and preparatory drawings for engravings. Most of the drawings that were left after his death were acquired in 1788 by the Kunstakademie in Düsseldorf as part of the collection of Lambert Krahe and in 1932 were transferred to the Düsseldorf Kunstmuseum on loan.
Dieter Graf. "Passeri." In Grove Art Online. Oxford Art Online, http://www.oxfordartonline.com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/subscriber/article/grove/art/T065696pg2 (accessed April 11, 2012)
