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Bartolomeo Manfredi (ca. 1580 - 1621) Italian ALLEGORY OF THE FOUR SEASONS, ca. 1610 Oil on canvas Height 53 inches Width 36 inches Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Elton F. MacDonald, 1960.27 |
Bartolomeo Manfredi was a possible apprentice to and devoted follower of
Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio (known as Caravaggio), arguably one of the
most highly influential artists of the early Italian Baroque. Although his
influence upon a whole generation of European artists was relatively short
lived, it was, nonetheless, irresistible and highly powerful. While Caravaggio's
temperament did not lend itself easily to the conventional teacher-apprentice
mode, Manfredi may have been employed by the master as early as l602. Of all the
Caravaggisti (painters influenced by
Caravaggio), Manfredi appears to have most faithfully assimilated the spirit of
the famous rebel artist.
Nowhere is the influence of Caravaggio's naturalism more evident than in the
works such as this Allegory of the Four Seasons. Manfredi places the
large, half-figures prominently in the foreground of the picture plane and
lights them dramatically. A realistically painted still-life of various seasonal
fruits and vegetables on the stone ledge invites the viewer's gaze and
reinforces the painting's theme. Spring, with her crown of roses, is embraced by
Autumn with his wreath of grape vine; Summer with wheat in her hair and
magnifying glass in hand turns to the viewer, while the bearded, "old man"
Winter, wrapped in furs, seems excluded from the group by his advanced age and
his position in the picture. Unlike a scene in which we are merely observers,
Manfredi's figures seem to include us by their gesture and their accessibility.
The allegorical meaning of this painting may, in fact, reach further than a
simple depiction of personifications of the seasons. European painters and
writers often alluded to the five human senses: taste, sight, hearing, smell,
and touch all of which are represented in this work. Manfredi carried on this
style of painting after Caravaggio's death in 1610 and was no doubt responsible
for its dissemination to other Caravaggisti
artists from Italy and northern Europe.
Dominique H. Vasseur
SUGGESTED READINGS:
Brejon de Lavergnée, Arnauld, et al. Dopo Caravaggio:
Bartolomeo Manfredi e la Manfrediana Methodus. Milan: Arnold
Mondadori Editore, 1988.
Moir, Alfred. The Italian Followers of Caravaggio. Cambridge: Harvard
University Press, 1967.
