Carlo Maratti

Italian, 1625 - 1713

BiographyIt is said that Carlo Maratti went to Rome as a very young man in 1636 and joined the School of Andrea Sacchi in 1637 where he stayed until the master's death in 1661. He seems untiringly to have copied the works of Raphael and Carracci, but some public commissions in Rome in 1650 and thereafter established his reputation. He painted pictures of the Virgin with great success and their popularity earned him the nickname 'Carluccio of the Madonna'.Throughout his long career Maratti was the favourite painter of the Holy See and six popes gave him their patronage. Clement IX and X, Innocent XI, Alexander VIII and Clement XI all commissioned important works and he painted in the principal cities of Italy. He painted few frescoes, most of his work being easel pictures in oils. On the death of Andrea Sacchi (1661) and Pietro da Cortona (1669) he became the indisputable head of the Roman School. His art then achieved a Baroque lyricism that he was soon to lose. Innocent XI appointed him Surveyor of the Vatican stanze and in 1702-1703 Innocent XI commissioned him to repair with gouache the Raphael frescoes in the Vatican and the Farnese Library. Clement XI made him a Knight of the Order of Christ and Louis XIV named him his chief painter. Maratti is a correct painter par excellence. His draughtsmanship is very pure and his colours are harmonious; unfortunately his works do not convey much in the way of personality, with the exception, perhaps, of his portraits, some of which are remarkably elegant. As an engraver he produced mezzotints.

His work was included in the group exhibition: 2002, Celestial Glories (Cieux en gloire), an evocation of the large decorative commissions of the Baroque period by means of sketches and models, Musée Fesch, Ajaccio.

"MARATTI, Carlo." In Benezit Dictionary of Artists. Oxford Art Online, http://www.oxfordartonline.com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/subscriber/article/benezit/B00116133 (accessed April 11, 2012).

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