Gaspare Celio Explained

Gaspare Celio (1571 in Rome–November 24, 1640 in Rome) was an Italian painter of the late-Mannerist and early-Baroque period, active mainly in his native city of Rome.

Celio was the pupil of Circignani, according to Baglione, but of Cristoforo Roncalli, if we are to believe Abate Titi.^[1]

His first commissions in about 1596 were completed with Giuseppe Valeriano who asked Celio to decorate the Chapel of the Passion in the church of il Gesù in Rome.^[2] This work was done after the design of P. Giovanni Battista Fiammeri. He also paints a Madonna and Bambino, now in Santa Maria del Carmine, a The Passage of Moses through the Red Sea (1607) in a vault of the Palazzo Mattei, a Death of the Giants. He painted a St Francis for the altar of the Ospizio at Ponte Sisto. He painted a History of S. Raimondo at the Santa Maria sopra Minerva.^[1]

Between 1620 -1638 he helps publish a guide to the churches and artwork in Rome (Memoria delli nomi dell'artefici delle pitture che sono in alcune chiese, facciate e palazzi di Roma). He engraved antique statues. He briefly worked in Parma as a painter for the court of Ranuccio Farnese.

He was buried in the Basilica of Santa Maria del Popolo, Rome, where still stands his funeral monument.

Works

• Works at the Capilla della Passione (1596), iglesia del Gesù, Rome
• Virgin and Child or Madonna (Santa Maria del Carmine)
• The Passage of Moses Through the Red Sea (1607), in the vault of Palazzo Mattei
• Death of the Giants Palazzo Mattei, Rome
• Works at the Capilla Altieri (1622), San Francesco a Ripa, Rome
  • Ludovica Albertoni
  • Saint Charles Borromeo
  • Holy Family and Saint Anne
• St. Francis, an altar of the Ospizio at Ponte Sisto
• History of Saint Raymond, Santa Maria sopra Minerva
• Battle Scene (Borghese Gallery, Rome)

Further reading

• Sydney Joseph Freedberg (1978). Paintings in Italy, 1500-1600
• The Grove Dictionary of Art, Macmillan Publishers (2000)
• José Luis Colomer, Arte y diplomacia de la monarquía hispánica en el siglo XVII (Art and Diplomacy in the Spanish Monarchy in the 17th Century), CEEH (2003).
• Comune di Bozzolo; Gruppo Culturale Per Bozzolo (a cura di), Il Principe e la Città. Giulio Cesare Gonzaga di Bozzolo, Modena, 1994. ISBN non esistente.
• Riccardo Gandolfi Le vite degli artisti di Gaspare Celio. «Compendio delle Vite di Vasari con alcune altre aggiunte», Firenze, Leo S. Olschki, 2021.

Notes and References

1. https://books.google.com/books?id=qrprAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA467 The History of Painting in Italy from the Period of the Revival of the Fine arts
2. Cappella della Passione