Hic est Raphael? Carlo Maratti and the Figure of the Artist in the Seventeenth Century

Abstract

As Raphael (1483–1520) before him, Carlo Maratti (1625–1713) supervised one of the most renowned schools of the day and became one of Rome's most prominent painters. By using primary sources such as his biographies by Giovan Pietro Bellori (1613–1696) and Lione Pascoli (1674–1744) as well as his graphic and painterly works, this chapter examines how the Baroque artist's image was constructed and displayed. A major point of comparison between Maratti and Raphael and Annibale Carracci (1560–1609) was that he was among the best draftsmen of the seventeenth century and was inspired by the ancient world. This chapter also explores the artist’s private life, from his long-lasting affair with a young model to his purported moderation and sobriety. During the Seicento, legitimacy and power were assigned to artists by connections to figures (actual or fabricated) and in biography, these connections were expressed through the reworking of tropes and motifs taken from the greatest biographers of the past. A joint project that Maratti undertook with his close friend Bellori focused on revalorizing and commemorating Raphael and Annibale Carracci which served as a legitimizing tool for his career. Maratti's self-fashioning contributed to his great success and his championing of the Classicist aesthetic and ideal artistic lineage with Raphael at the forefront is essential to understand the image of the modern artist.