Pietro della Vecchia

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. During his career the artist worked in a variety of artistic styles and absorbed many influences including from contemporary artists as well as artists from the previous century. 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. In line with the Venetian Baroque his works tend to push the sentiments of the depicted figures to the extreme. This penchant for exaggeration, even the grotesque, was central to della Vecchia's mature style and was influential on other artists. The artist developed a unique style, which was characterised by its pursuit of artistic virtuosity, and often depicted subject matter which was unusual and esoteric. These features explain the high demand for his work by the more discerning Venetian collectors of his time.

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. The influence of Bernardo Strozzi becomes noticeable in his work after 1630. This is apparent in the Angel Offering a Skull to St Giustina, who stands between St Joseph and St John (1640, Accademia, Venice) painted for the church of San Giustina. From 1640 to 1673 he painted designs for some the mosaic depictions inside the St. Mark's Basilica. A development towards greater drama was visible after 1650. The works of that time draw again on the Caravaggesque models he followed at the start of his career. The apex of this evolution is apparent in the two remaining works of the cycle of seven paintings that the artist executed between 1664 and 1674 for the second cloister of the Jesuit church in Venice. The paintings represent the Conversion of Francis Borgia (Musée des beaux-arts de Brest) and Marco Gussoni in the Ferrara lazaretto (location unknown). The macabre themes, the effects of spectral lights and the suffocating lack of space in the compositions are unique in Venetian painting of the seventeenth century, comparable only with the morbid paintings of the Milanese or Neapolitan schools. After this cycle his later paintings appear without inspiration and derivative from the painter's earlier works. Of greater interest are some historical paintings of this period, which show in the bold brushstrokes and the bright and dazzling palette the influence of the leading 17th-century Venetian painter Francesco Maffei, who died in 1660. Other