Aeneas and Anchises

mythological

Spada, trained by the Carracci in Bologna, discovered Caravaggio in Rome, and established a synthesis of their styles: in Aeneas and Anchises the dramatic tension sustained by a violent chiaroscuro is combined with classical colours and rigour.

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About the Artist

Lionello Spada

1576 – 1622

Italian painter, born in Bologna in 1576, Lionello Spada was trained as a quadraturist in the workshop of Cesare Baglione. He was the companion, and, according to contemporaries, the assistant of Caravaggio, and he underwent his influence. He continued his development alongside of Dentone and Brizio, while at the same time gravitating increasingly towards the Carracci Academy. There he fell under the influence of Lodovico Carracci, whose stylistic tendencies remained a constant in all of Spada's subsequent production.

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