Pietro della Vecchia

The life of Pietro della Vecchia is not very well documented and the information available is not always reliable. He is believed to have been born in Vicenza in 1603 as the son of Gasparo della Vecchia, who was a painter admitted to the Venetian painters' guild. Some art historians place the artist's place of birth in Venice. Pietro della Vecchia was erroneously called Pietro Muttoni after Luigi Lanzi in the first edition of his Storia pittorica della Italia (1796), mixed up the artist's name with that of a Muttoni collection, which kept one of his paintings. Later authors interpreted de la Vecchia (meaning 'of the old') as a nickname as the artist liked to imitate the old masters of the previous century. Early sources describe Alessandro Varotari, called il Padovanino, as his teacher. On stylistic grounds some art historians have expressed doubt on this traineeship in his early years. The influence of the works of Padovanino is only visible after 1635. So he may have worked with Padovanino at a later stage. His earliest known work show a strong influence by Carlo Saraceni and Saraceni's pupil and collaborator Jean Leclerc. This is an important indication that della Vecchia trained with them. As his work displayed for some time certain Caravaggesque characteristics it is believed that he spent time in Rome after the departure of Leclerc from Venice in 1621 or 1622. Della Vecchia probably worked in Padovanino's workshop after his return from Rome in 1625 or 1626. Padovanino, whose style was strongly rooted in early-16th-century Venetian art, likely played an important role in instilling in della Vecchia a great interest in 16th-century painting in Venice and the Veneto. Della Vecchia, together with his brother-in-law Daniel van den Dyck and their respective spouses, painted wall decorations in the Palazzo Pesaro in Preganziol. Towards the end of the 1630s della Vecchia had established his name as one of the leading painters of Venice, especially of religious works. In January 1640 the procurators of S. Marco de Supra, responsible for the decoration of St Mark's Basilica, commissioned from him two cartoons for mosaics. These appear to have been well received as della Vecchia was subsequently appointed Venice's "pitor ducal" (painter to the duke), a position he held until 1674, that is, until four years before his death. In this capacity he was responsible for the design of the new mosaics and the restoration of the old ones in the Basilica. Many of the subjects of his works were a reflection of the intellectual occupations of this influential Venetian society. His son Gasparo Prospero was born on 8 May 1653 and became a minor painter, musician, music theoretician and mathematician. Pietro della Vecchia also had four daughters one of whom died young. Della Vecchia died on 8 September 1678 in Venice and was buried in the church of S. Canciano. ==Work==

Della Vecchia was a versatile and prolific painter who worked in many genres and created altarpieces, portraits, genre scenes and grotesques. He relied on the assistance of a large workshop, which explains his large output as well as the fact that many of his works are known in multiple versions. He dated his religious paintings but not his other works, which makes it difficult to understand the evolution of the artist in these other genres. He combined in his work the monumentality of the 16th century Venetian art of artists such as Titian and Tintoretto with the dramatic effects of the style of the Caravaggisti. His earliest known works include two representations of Saint Francis, which display clear Caravaggesque tendencies. Some paintings of this early period show an affinity with those of an anonymous artist likely of French origin, the so-called Candelight Master, who can perhaps be identified with Trophime Bigot. It is assumed that during his presumed stay in Rome from 1621/2 to 1626 he may have been in contact with French followers of Caravaggio active in Rome such as Trophime Bigot and Claude Vignon. The first dated work by della Vecchia is the Calvary in the church of San Lio in Venice, and is dated 1633: It still shows the influence of Carlo Saraceni and Jean Leclerc, his presumed masters. According to Boschini, della Vecchia abused of his skill in imitating the older Venetian masters. Boschini recounts that when the art dealer Francesca Fontana was assembling a collection for Cardinal Leopoldo de' Medici he was given a 'Giorgione self-portrait'. This portrait was actually an imitation by della Vecchia painted from his own features. When the deceit was discovered, della Vecchia claimed he was solely trying to emulate Giorgione and that he had produced the work 30 years earlier for his father-in-law Nicolas Régnier. Nicolas Régnier, who was not only a painter but also an art dealer, had sold the painting. Thirty years later, it was believed that the work was in fact a genuine Giorgione. It appears therefore that della Vecchia's imitations could very well be regarded in certain cases as attempts to pass off the imitations as originals. His friend Boschini regarded these imitations, often executed in a remarkably ingenious manner, as displays of virtuosity. Other artists whose works della Vecchia and his workshop regularly imitated included Titian, Romanino, Palma Vecchio, Paris Bordone and Jacopo Bassano. His imitations of Giorgione offer an important insight into the manner in which that artist's work was perceived in the 17th century. It is believed that none of della Vecchia's works in the style of Giorgione were based on now lost compositions of Giorgione but were 'original' creations in the style of Giorgione. The innumerable repetitions of these works depicting warriors and other popular figures created by his workshop had a negative impact on his posthumous reputation. There are about eight pictures by della Vecchia in which the landscape is the primary subject. These include four idyllic landscapes that presage the Rococo style (now in the Pinacoteca Querini-Stampalia) and the Rocky Landscape with Warriors in the Hermitage. Della Vecchia maintained close links with the members of the Accademia degli Incogniti. Their philosophical occupations were reflected in the iconography of some of his paintings of the 1650s and 1660s. In some works he treated the mathematical, philosophical and cabalistic ideas in a serious manner and in others he ridiculed them through salacious images. For example in the Allegory of architecture (1654, Accademia Carrara di Belle Arti di Bergamo), which depicts a half-naked woman crouched over a book on a ledge with an old man and another half-naked woman seeming to beseech her, he gives expression to some of those ideas. ==Further reading==