The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art April 1971 [antikvár]

A Bozzetto for The Four Prophets by Gaulli High Baroque church decorations can be Ukened to extravagant dramas, and the great decorators responsible for their execution had to be both directors and stage designers. While keeping a close eye on each group of actors, the painter could never afford to lose sight of the total effect of his immense stage, for the play being enacted in his fresco cycles was intended to cast an immediate spell on the beholder. The artist created a continuum of light and movement throughout the entire span of a vault or dome by integrating immense crowds of figures, myriads of swarming angels, and putti rising or perching on buoyant clouds—all with animated gestures, in flowing garments, soaring to infinite heights. By contrasting the dimly illuminated nave of a church with a burst of radiance from above—its climactic pitch at the highest sphere—the artist painted the roof away and opened the beholder's vision to infinity. The immense task of creating this effect of an all-embracing composition with' an illusion of staggering height, space, and movement required both genius and careful preparation. It is not surprising, therefore, that during the Baroque period, particularly at its height, the preparatory sketch took on greater importance and became much more than merely an idea awaiting completion. Sketches began to resemble lively rehearsals in which the artist either focused on a single actor—his pose, gesture, or costume—or on the interaction of a whole group. Finally, there followed the dress rehearsal in the form of the so-called bozzetto, the final oil sketch which the artist submitted to the patron for approval. The Museum is fortunate to own such a bozzetto by one of the most important artists of the High Baroque, Giovanni Battista Gaulli, called II Baciccio (1639-1709). The bozzetto (Cover, Fig. 2)'—a part of his crowning achievement in the Gesii, mother church of the Jesuits in Rome (Fig. 1)2—records the last or second-last step towards the completion of one of the four pendentives at the southeast pier below the dome representing The Four Prophets of Israel (Fig. 3). The Four Lawgivers and Leaders (Fig. 4) was placed opposite on the northeast pier. The two remaining triangular spaces at the south- Cover and Figure 2. Bozzetto for the pendentive of The Four Prophets of Israel. Oil on canvas, 26-1/2 x 21-5/8 inches. Giovanni Battista Gaulli (called II Baciccio), Italian, 1639-1709. Purchase, John L. Severance Fund. 69.131