Bernardo Strozzi

Bernardo Strozzi , 1581-1644, Italian painter, b. Genoa. He is considered one of the greatest of the generation of early 17th-century Italian painters who made the transition from the mannerist to the baroque style. In 1598, Strozzi became a Capuchin monk, thus earning the names "Il Cappucino" and later "Il Prete Genovese." Strozzi was influenced by the work of Rubens, who in 1607 was in Genoa. Strozzi's own influence on the painting of Genoa was very great. His early works were marked by strong chiaroscuro (high-contrast) effects, as in his St. Augustine Washing Christ's Feet (Genoa). But his palette had begun to lighten when he went to Venice in 1630. He became one of the artists who rekindled the spirit of great painting in Venice. Examples of Strozzi's work are in the major European museums and in Baltimore, Cleveland, and the Metropolitan Museum.

Strozzi, Bernardo (b Genoa, 1581; d Venice, 2 Aug. 1644). The leading Genoese painter of his period. He became a Capuchin monk in 1598, hence his nicknames, II Prete Genovese (the Genoese priest) and II Cappuccino (the Capuchin). In 1610 he was allowed to leave his monastery to support his sick and widowed mother and his unmarried sister. By 1630 his mother was dead and his sister had married, and Strozzi is said to have been pressurized to return to the monastery, this accounting for his move in 1630/1 to Venice (where he spent the rest of his life). Strozzi was successful and prolific in both Genoa and Venice, painting portraits and allegorical and genre scenes (often of musicians) as well as religious works. The sensuous richness of his style was influenced by Rubens (who worked in Genoa), but his paintings are highly distinctive, with an air of refinement and tenderness that recalls van Dyck (who also worked in Genoa). During Strozzi's time in Venice there was a dearth of native talent in the city, and with two other ‘foreigners’, Feti and Liss, he kept alive the painterly tradition of the 16th century.