circa 1576 -1638 · Florence, Madrid and Spanish court baroque

Carthusian martyrs, silent miracles and royal battles make Vincenzo Carducci a master narrator of the first Spanish Baroque.

Vincenzo Carducci, known in Spain as Vicente Carducho, was born in Florence around 1576 and died in Madrid in 1638. He arrived in Spain as a child with his brother Bartolomeo, called to work on the sets of the Escorial. His training thus combines Tuscan drawing, the ideal of Federico Zuccaro and the monumental demands of the Hispanic court. After the death of his brother, Carducci became one of the most prestigious painters in Madrid and worked for Philip III then Philip IV. After the death of his brother, Carducci became one of the most prestigious painters in Madrid and worked for Philip III then Philip IV. Altarpieces, religious cycles and palatial decorations require him to have constant mastery of storytelling on a large scale. His major undertaking is the series intended for the great cloister of the Carthusian monastery of El Paular. Between 1626 and 1632, he designed fifty-six immense paintings devoted to the life of Saint Bruno, to the miracles, ecstasies and persecutions of the order. The Death of Saint Bruno, the martyrdom of the Carthusians of Roermond where the Marian apparitions alternate meditation, violence and celestial visions. Carducci methodically prepares his compositions with drawings and sketches, distributing groups, backgrounds and gestures so that each episode remains readable. For the Salon des Royales du Buen Retiro, he also painted three battles of the Spanish monarchy, including The Capture of Rheinfelden and The Victory of Fleurus. In 1633, his Dialogos de la pintura defended the intellectual nobility of profession, study and an Italian tradition measured in the face of the excesses of naturalism. Theoretician, studio master and court painter, Carducci connects Florence to Madrid and prepares several generations of Spanish Baroque. The "Vincenzo Carducci" selection notably compares The Death of Saint Bruno and The Martyrdom of Four Monks in Roermond. His reading favors the story.

Carducci thinks of the cycle as a spiritual architecture: each painting has its drama, but all lead towards the same collective story.