Past Exhibitions

The Intimate Baroque: Small Paintings from the John B. Ritter Collection

2 March–1 August 2004

The very thought of Italian Baroque art conjures images of works that are grandiose in size and aspiration. Theatrical altarpieces, illusionistic ceiling frescoes, spectacular fountains and flamboyant church facades are typically what we find in textbooks and tourist itineraries dedicated to the visual arts of seventeenth-century Italy. The vast majority of these works were made for institutional patrons and public display.

In Rome the needs of the Catholic Church sparked Caravaggio and Bernini to produce their greatest masterpieces while princely patrons account for most of the other important commissions. Yet at the same time, the period witnessed a proliferation of smaller, more intimate works of art destined for a burgeoning market of private collectors. It was for just such individuals that these pictures from the Ritter collection were intended.

A remarkable increase in the production of smaller, more portable works of art actually occurred in the late Renaissance, over a century before the triumph of the Baroque. In part, this sprang from Counter-Reformation devotional practices that relied upon spiritually uplifting images to achieve their purpose. In 1582 the Bishop of Bologna, Gabriele Paleotti, wrote a long treatise on painting that called for an increased number of images, both public and private, to promote the faith. In sermons Paleotti went on to advise parents that "every bedroom should have a sacred image in order to assist its occupants in saying their prayers." Nuns entering at least one Bolognese convent were obliged to bring four such paintings with them, two of them large and two small.

If nuns and other devout Catholics acquired these images for their didactic value, it was the delectation of painting that induced others to collect. Indeed, a guiding principle of seventeenth-century aesthetics was the compromise between docere-delectare, that is, the reconciliation between the contrary impulses to use art as a teaching tool or an instrument of pleasure. The enjoyment of art for art's sake was as widespread in the Baroque age as it is today. Numerous pictures in the Ritter collection exemplify the period's propensity for paintings that are both narratively engaging and seductive in their visual appeal. Several works in the exhibition also fall into the category of preparatory studies, or bozzetti—spontaneous and freely-painted images intended to test compositional ideas or tempt prospective patrons.

Seventeenth-century Italy was uncommonly conscious of style in all its manifestations. In art, as in costume and cuisine, the appearance of things was of paramount importance. As never before, a multitude of artistic styles existed side by side, each with an equal claim to originality. By the first quarter of the century, there were four well-defined styles to choose from: an artful mannerism that lingered on from the sixteenth century, the earthy naturalism of Caravaggio and his followers, the refined classicism of Annibale Carracci, Domenichino and Poussin, and the mystical illusionism of Lanfranco and Pietro da Cortona. Each of these styles is represented in the exhibition, exemplifying the four basic trends. One passionate collector, Vincenzo Giustiniani, wrote a letter to a friend around 1620 in which he made a list of no fewer than twelve manners of painting that he recognized in his day. Some were more a matter of technique than style, but clearly he was conscious of the wide array of choices available to artists at the time.

Competition among painters was great, especially in Rome. Some artistic rivalries ended up in court and the Roman archives preserve many an account of the trading of insults and bloodshed over matters of appropriation or aesthetic choice. Collectors occasionally conceived artistic competitions of their own. The most famous of these occurred in 1604 when Monsignor Massimi arranged a competition between Caravaggio, Ludovico Ciardi (known as Cigoli) and Domenico Passignano. At the same time, art dealers and temporary exhibitions became a part of Italian cultural life. Art fairs were held in Venice, and by the 1630s a special tax was enacted in Rome for dealers in old and new paintings. Most telling of all, perhaps, was the coining of the word conoscitore to describe art connoisseurs of the time.

John B. Ritter acquired the pictures in this exhibition over a period of many years spent mostly in Europe. From the moment he first set foot on Italian soil in the spring of 1952, his interests were drawn to the artistic culture of Baroque Rome. His mentors have been the leading lights of art history: Federico Zeri, Giuliano Briganti, Ferdinando Bologna, Gianfrancesco Sestieri and Mina Gregori. These scholars, together with Rome's vibrant community of dealers, restorers, framers and modern conoscitori came to constitute his natural ambience, or what a friend has called his "karmic center." His collecting habits, in the words of the same friend, are: "instinctively poised, broadly informed, conservatively impulsive, and passionately inquisitive."

The seventeen paintings on display represent only a fraction of the Old Master pictures in the Ritter collection. Focusing on the smaller, more intimate compositions, this enchanting exhibition offers a rare glimpse into the private world of pre-modern cabinet painting. The selective eye of the collector reigns supreme in the juxtaposition of sacred themes, scenes of peasants and sheep, portraits and bacchanaliae. Many of the pictures are enhanced by elaborate period frames while the installation in the Gump Gallery itself evokes the atmosphere of a private collection. Viewers are encouraged to experience the exhibition with the same spirit of docere-delectare that attended these small masterpieces at the time of their creation.

—John Varriano
Idella Plimpton Kendall Professor of Art History
Mount Holyoke College

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