Gallery Notes Volume 19 Number 4

              The Memorial Art Gallery
OF     THE     UNIVERSITY     OF     ROCHESTER
GALLERY NOTES
"THE TWO MUSICIANS"
by Bernardo Strozzi (1581-1644)
The Marion Stratton Gould Fund
•     ROCHESTER     3,     NEW     YORK
Vol. 19, No. 4 - March, 1954
The acquisition    of an impressive 17th Century painting - "The Two Musicians" by Bernardo Strozzi (1581-
1644) - is announced this month.   Acquired through the
Marion Stratton Gould Fund, it adds another significant
personality of Baroque Art to the permanent collection
and is a fitting companion to the Gallery's international trio of 17th Century masters - El Greco, Rubens
and Feti.   Marked by the rich impasto, vigorous brush-
work and glowing tones that characterized North Italian seicento painting, this newest Gallery accession
also reveals clearly the mature particular style of this
increasingly important artist with his Caravaggesque
interest in light and shade and his fondness for Rubens' robust flesh tones.
The restless energy, verve and movement of the
Baroque era all find expression here - in the strong
diagonal accents and triangular patterns of the foreground musical instruments, in the twisting thrust of
the elder musician and in the animated gestures of
two magnificently drawn pairs of hands.   Baroque color, too - strong browns and cool greys spiked with rich
yellows, blues and reds - and a dramatic Baroque interplay of light against dark are other tell-tale 17th Century features.   Through Strozzi's spirited vitality the dry mannerism that marked Venetian painting after
the deaths of Titian and Tintoretto was soon discarded.   Through him, too, the gap between the great 16th
Century masters and the lively painting of the 18th Century was happily and even brilliantly bridged.
One of four versions of what was evidently a favorite theme of Strozzi's, the Gallery's "Musicians" has
been considered by some Baroque experts as the first and finest of the series.   The painting was formerly
in the collection of the Conte Giacomo Carrara of Bergamo and for years hung in the Museum Carrara which
the Conte had given the city.   The Conte's collection was catalogued in 1796 and the Strozzi is listed
there.   Early in the 19th Century part of the Carrara paintings were sold and the Gallery's "Musicians" was
purchased by a Genoese private collector, later entering the collection of Pietro Acorsi of Torino, from
whom it was acquired last year.   The three other versions of the subject are in the Carrer collection in Venice, the Cicogna collection in Milan, and the private collection of the Duke of Devonshire, where for years
it was listed as a Caravaggio and then later given to Strozzi.
Strozzi was born in Genoa in 1581 and at the age of fifteen began formal painting lessons.   In a burst
of emotion during his seventeenth year, he joined the Capucin order, but in 1610 withdrew to become a
secular priest to devote his time to painting.   Success as a muralist, as a religious painter and above all
as a portraitist soon won him an established place among the artists and art patrons of Venice, where he
lived and worked from 1631 until his death in 1644.   Influences from Caravaggio and Rubens are found
throughout his painting and may well date from his early Genoa days, since both masters paid fleeting
visits there in 1605 and 1607.  With Domenico Feti he rekindled the creative spirit of Venetian painting
following the lethargy of the post-Titian era.   Today paintings by him, Caravaggio and others of the 17th
Century are becoming increasingly important and coveted acquisitions.