Il Sassoferrato

From the drawing to the finished work. Under the learned guidance of François Macé de Lépinay, it is now possible for the first time to reconstruct the creative trajectory of Giovan Battista Salvi, known as Sassoferrato. Living in the Rome of the baroque era but far away from the tumult of the art world, he worked with the spirit of a craftsman intent above all on creating the devotional images that earned him the title of pictor virginum. The studies presented here shed light on how Sassoferrato developed his unmistakable style, starting on the local scene and then moving to the Eternal City, where he was in close contact with Domenichino, on the patrons he served with his brush, and on the influence of his work in the 19th century on the Purists and Nazarenes. The resulting image is of an artist who followed the example of Raphael with extraordinary consistency to attain the idealization expressed even in his few portraits through a carefully studied approach, already clearly evident in the preparatory studies, as far removed from baroque theatricality as it is from Caravaggesque naturalism.