Francesco Trevisani and the Decoration of the Crucifixion Chapel in San Silvestro in Capite

* This paper developed out of a section of a Ph.D. dissertation on Francesco Trevisani submitted to the Institute of Fine Arts. New York University, under the guidance of Professor Donald Posner. I would like to express my gratitude to him for his numerous suggestions and for his generous advice. In addition, I would like to thank the Fulbright Commission in Rome for its assistance during the years 1966–68 when I was just beginning my research on the artist.

Abstract

Francesco Trevisani (1656–1746), one of the most important eighteenth-century Italian painters, arrived in Rome from Venice in about 1678. He was taken under the protection of Cardinal Flavio I Chigi soon after, and from 1682 to 1693 Trevisani executed a number of works for the Cardinal ranging from small genre pictures to monumental altar-pieces. The religious paintings were all destined for non-Roman churches and though they served to enhance the artist's reputation within the Chigi circle, Trevisani's style was still that of an imported provincial painter and he was probably not well-known to the Roman public at large.¹ However, the situation changed dramatically in 1696. During the Christmas holidays, the decorations in the six lateral chapels of San Silvestro in Capite were unveiled and Trevisani's paintings in the Crucifixion Chapel were singled out for particular admiration. The Avviso di Roma al Card. G. Marescotti on January 5, 1697, mentioned that “nella corrente settimana hanno le monache di San Silvestro aperte le sei Cappelle riuscendo maravigliosa quella rappresentante la Passione di Nostro Signore fatta da Francesco Trevisano Veneziano.”² Trevisani's paintings in San Silvestro, therefore, marked a turning point in his public reputation. At about forty years of age, with his first large-scale Roman commission, he finally emerged and was appreciated as an accomplished artist, and his Roman career, which would extend through the next fifty years, was officially launched.³