Kimbell Musuem Hosts Salvator Rosa Exhibit
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Salvator Rosa: Bandits, Wilderness and Magic The Kimbell's current exhibition, Salvator Rosa: Bandits, Wilderness and Magic, stands up to its name and, as the first major American exhibition of Rosa's paintings, warrants itself as a must see for art fans, art history buffs, and those interested in the fantastical alike. The paintings featured, which are on loan from museums and private collectors in Europe and North America, give a succinct breadth of Rosa's bold and notably defiant career. Salvator Rosa (Italian, 1615-1673) was a rebel in his time. A true renaissance man, he was a painter, philosopher, printmaker, poet, playwright, and musician. He seldom followed the rules of the canon in which he was working, and was known to make enemies as he refused to play his role in the established artist and patron relationship. Somewhat of a 17th-Century anomaly, Rosa did not depict heroes and gods and did not paint for pedagogy or instruction. Rather, his paintings show witchery and hermits, they portray the phantasmagoric and the taboo. The exhibit is thematically arranged and Rosa's strength as an artist fourfold, Portraits, Landscapes, Witches, Magic & Philosophy, and Allegory & History. The thirty-six paintings included, allow the audience to see how the artist gained his reputation as a self-proclaimed genius, not to be bound by patron or investor, and as one of the most inventive and imaginative artists of his time. First, the viewer is taken through Rosa's dynamic personification of the arts in his detailed and realistic portraits. These emotionally charged depictions are of differing palette and presentation, but are masterfully linked in mood and atmosphere. He uses the portrait as imaginary representations of the professions he loved and sought to master; music, philosophy, poetry, and painting. Unlike other artists of the age he used himself and his friends as models. The portraits themselves, nine of which are displayed, are outstanding. Poetry is the first piece on display at the show and, as assuredly planned, pulls the viewer right in. With her wild hair and intent gaze she stands emblematic in the 1641 portrait as she grips a pen and book. Known to be Rosa's mistress, the sitter gazes intensely at the viewer; the gold leaf in her hair, pages of her book, and drapery of her clothing are proficiently executed. Poetry, though the most vivid and luminous painting in the show, is a companion to Philosophy, a painting in which Rosa depicts himself holding a curt placard, which, translated from the original Latin, reads, "Keep silent, unless your speech is better than silence." This direct and serious painting, complete with Philosophy's frowning brow sits well as a diptych with Poetry. The viewpoint of each places the viewer slightly below, with each figure gazing down in solemn contempt; challenging the viewer at the same time withdrawing from the viewer. After the portraits, the viewer is taken to the large and romantic landscapes. With sharp lighting and a glimpse of undisturbed nature, which seems to dwarf the subjects, these rough pictures of the untamed stole the show for me. Mankind, often tiny and out-of-the-way, seems unimportant placed adjacent the sweeping skies, commanding clouds, and rough geography of these overpowering landscapes. Rosa's coastal scenes and rocky cliffs, full of gnarled, splintering trees and murky caves are derived from the artist's own observations as he traveled from his birthplace in Naples to places like Rome and Florence. Over the course of his career his landscapes became increasingly wild and dramatic. As seen in the painting Landscape with Hermits, the figures are almost inconsequential among the wilderness, nearly forgotten and consumed by the savage and beautiful landscape. Rosa uses compositional elements to direct the viewer's eye to the small figures. Sharp, nearly tenebristic light falls upon the hermits at the bottom of the frame. The large branch and the downward sloping cliff-side reach out toward the hermits and pull the viewer's eye repeatedly to them.
After the landscapes, the audience moves to the Witches, Magic and Philosophy section. These paintings are bizarre and intriguing; Rosa was one of the first painters to use Witchcraft as a subject matter. These paintings fulfill his reputation as an artist who continued to push the envelope of originality. The gory well-imagined fantastic scenes include nighttime gatherings of witches' covens and depictions of monsters from ancient mythology. This type of work would have made Rosa extremely unpopular with one of the main art patrons at the time, the church.
The most dynamic and well known story in this section is Jason and the Dragon, a depiction of Ovid's story of Jason and the Argonauts in the Metamorphosis. In the story, Jason must get the Golden Fleece which was guarded by a dragon who never closed its eyes. Jason received a magical herb from Medea, a deal he had to seal with a promise of matrimony, and poured it into the dragon's eyes causing him to slumber. Rosa has chosen to depict the climactic scene where Jason wrestles the dragon and pours the herb into its eyes. Lastly the viewer reaches the final section, Allegory and History. These forceful paintings conclude the exhibition with the allegory and satire that was a constant throughout Rosa's history. He paints Fortuna and The Death of Aeneas in fantastical metaphor and story, using symbols and references accepted in the 17th-Century. These images, again, show his wild imagination and relentless revolt against the accepted; in the case of Fortuna, which was seen as daring satire on papal patronage, he was forced to apologize. The paintings Saint John the Baptist Preaching in the Wilderness and Saint Philip Baptizing the Eunuch show a more reserved and tame Rosa, depicting the story as classical sources and viewers would expect, appreciate and understand. Don't miss this outstanding and highly recommended exhibition at the Kimbell Art Museum running until March 27th. By – M.P.Callender |
