1615 -1673 · Naples, Florence, Rome and wild imagination

Torn landscapes, battles, philosophers and witchcraft make Salvator Rosa one of the most independent figures in Italian Baroque.

Salvator Rosa was born near Naples in 1615 and died in Rome in 1673. Trained in the Neapolitan environment with Francesco Fracanzano, Jusepe de Ribera and the battle painter Aniello Falcone, he developed a taste for marginal figures, rocks very early on steep and unstable lights. After Roman stays, he worked in Florence from 1640 to 1649 in the service of Giovan Carlo de' Medici, led an informal academy and wrote satires. Returning to Rome, he claimed the position of a learned and independent artist. Coastal scene opposes small figures, ruins and natural immensity. The battle with classical colonnade transforms history into a tumult of bodies, dust and broken architecture. Episodes of Croesus and Thales demonstrate his fascination with rare ancient stories, chosen for their moral significance rather than their popularity. Rosa also paints solitary philosophers, witches, bandits, portraits and allegories. A virtuoso engraver, poet and occasional actor, he himself constructs his free-spirited legend. His late landscapes show a wild, dangerous and unwelcoming nature, far removed from the pastoral ideal. In the 18th and then in the 19th centuries, romantic artists and writers saw in him a precursor of the sublime. In the 18th and then 19th centuries, romantic artists and writers saw in him a precursor of the sublime. In the 18th and then 19th centuries, romantic artists and writers saw in him a precursor of the sublime. In the 18th and then 19th centuries, romantic artists and writers saw in him a precursor of the sublime. In the 18th and then 19th centuries, romantic artists and writers saw in him a precursor of the sublime. In the 18th and then 19th centuries, romantic artists and writers saw in him a precursor of the sublime. In the 18th and then in the 19th centuries, romantic artists and writers saw in him a precursor of the sublime. The "Salvator Rosa" selection notably compares Coastal Scene and Battle Scene with Classic Colonnade. Its reading favors the material.

Rosa never domesticates nature or history: rock, battle and philosophy retain an element of danger and insubordination.