Gioacchino Assereto
Italian, 1600 - 1639
Italian painter. At the age of 12 he studied with Luciano Borzone and c. 1614 entered the Genoese studio of Andrea Ansaldo. Among a number of lost early paintings was a large Temptation of St Anthony done at the age of 16 (Soprani, p. 273). Several complex compositions with small figures, including the Apotheosis of St Thomas Aquinas (Lille, Mus. B.-A.), the Last Supper (Genoa, Mus. Accad. Ligustica B.A.), the Stoning of St Stephen (Lucca, Mus. & Pin. N.) and the Crowning of the Virgin (Taggia, Dominican Convent; see Pesenti, fig.), perhaps date from 1616–26. These are close in style to works such as Bernardo Strozzi’s bozzetto (c. 1620; Genoa, Mus. Accad. Ligustica B.A.) for an altarpiece of Paradise (destr.) and to other contemporary works by Ansaldo, Giulio Benso and Giovanni Andrea de’ Ferrari, which also derive their figure style from Mannerism. Assereto’s earliest dated painting, SS John the Baptist, Bernard, Catherine, Lucy and George (1626; Recco, S Giovanni Battista), is distinguished by its silvery colour and dramatic contrasts of light and dark, and by the powerful realism and vitality of the individual saints. Here he absorbed Borzone’s sfumato technique and skill as a portrait painter, while the crisp contours of the drapery suggest Ansaldo. Assereto’s work from c. 1626–36 sparkles with rich colour and detail, as in the strikingly naturalistic and intense Ecstasy of St Francis (163(?6); Genoa, Cassa di Risparmio, see Pesenti, fig.). The work of the Lombard Mannerist painters Cerano, Morazzone and Giulio Cesare Procaccini that had influenced Strozzi and Ansaldo before 1620 also had an effect on Assereto’s early work. This is apparent in the elongated figures and high-keyed colours of his two octagonal vault frescoes, David and Abimelech and SS John and Peter Healing the Lame Man, in SS Annunziata del Vastato, Genoa. The frescoes were dated after 1639 by Soprani, but a date of c. 1630 seems stylistically more convincing. Sharp-edged draperies, meticulous ornamental detail and jewel-like colours ranging from lime to pink and orange characterize Assereto’s vivid narrative painting Alexander and Diogenes (c. 1630; Berlin, Gemäldegal.) and his altarpiece SS Cosmas and Damian Curing the Sick (Genoa, SS Cosma e Damiano), in which some of the figures resemble those by Orazio de’ Ferrari, who may have worked with Assereto in Ansaldo’s studio.
In 1639 Assereto went briefly to Rome where, according to Soprani, he visited the studios of many painters. However, what he saw disappointed him and only confirmed his belief in his own art. He must have met Genoese artists working in Rome, such as Domenico Fiasella’s student Luca Salterello (1610–?1655), Giovanni Maria Bottalla, Benedetto Giovanni Castiglione and Giovanni Andrea Podesta. The influence of Caravaggio may have confirmed his interest in realism and encouraged him to continue with his detailed description of heads and hands. It may also have revealed to him the possibilities of compositions that depend on chiaroscuro rather than on colour. In the Death of Cato (Genoa, Gal. Pal. Bianco), Assereto moved away from the refinement of his early, vividly coloured narratives to a bolder, more powerful style where violent emotions are heightened by theatrical effects of flaming torches and candlelight. The picture suggests the influence of the works of northern Caravaggesque painters such as Gerrit van Honthorst and Matthias Stom.
In the 1640s Assereto was active as a fresco painter. Works of the period included frescoes for the Palazzo Granello: the Virtues and a Sacrifice of Isaac for the principal salone (1643; destr.) and Virtues and a Coronation of the Virgin for the façade (1647; destr.). Few frescoes remain from this time, however. Sole survivors are some fragments in S Agostino (see Gavazza, figs 311–12) and the frescoes Assereto was commissioned c. 1644 to execute for a decorative scheme in the Palazzo Airoli–Negrone that had been left unfinished on the death of Giovanni Maria Bottalla. There he painted a large vault medallion with Apollo Flaying Marsyas and completed Bottalla’s lunettes and architectural wall decorations (see Pesenti, figs 362–73). These are characterized by muffled contrasts of light and dark, furrowed facial features and angular draperies. The figure style is robust and muscular, suggesting the influence of Rubens, and recurs in many dark canvases of the 1640s, such as Cain and Abel (Brunswick, Herzog Anton Ulrich-Mus.) and Christ and the Woman Taken in Adultery (Corsham Court, Wilts). Many of Assereto’s late works show three-quarter-length figures, and such works as Esau Selling his Birthright (c. 1645; Genoa, Gal. Pal. Bianco) are distinguished by their sober realism, the delicacy of the psychological tensions between the figures and the grave beauty of the still-lifes. They have been compared to works by Velázquez and Murillo. Assereto also painted compositions with figures softly modelled in broad brushstrokes of brown colour, which suggest a renewed influence from the sfumato of Borzone, and in works such as the Supper at Emmaus (ex-Mowinckel priv. col., see Pesenti, fig.) he approached the poetic expressiveness of Rembrandt. Soprani believed Assereto’s work to be incomparable, an opinion shared by the artist, and in his last years many copies of his paintings were produced, some possibly by his son, Giuseppe Assereto, and others possibly by Giovanni Solaro (d ?1657).
M. Newcome. "Assereto, Gioacchino." In Grove Art Online. Oxford Art Online, http://www.oxfordartonline.com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/subscriber/article/grove/art/T004638 (accessed March 21, 2012).
Person TypeIndividual
Italian, c. 1610 - 1665
