SCARSELLINO, Ippolito Scarsella detto lo. -
Painter, b. in Ferrara in 1551 and d. there on 27 Oct. 1620.

He was trained in art by his father Sigismondo, called Mondino, a mediocre painter who had been a pupil in Venice of Paolo Veronese. Between 1570 and 1576 he completed his apprenticeship in Bologna, in contact with the Carracci, and in Venice, on the works of Veronese and of the Bassano.

These influences secured for S. the possession of a pleasing palette and a frank dexterity. Despite his eclecticism, he often displays a subjective lyrical nature expressed with fluid forms, generous impasti, beautiful silvery, grey, violet and vermilion tonalities, backgrounds of a very tender and fragrant landscape. Above all, note should be made of the realistic taste absorbed from the Bassano, inserting episodes or details of domestic life into his noble compositions. Among the numerous works preserved in Ferrara, there stand out, in the Pinacoteca comunale, the SS. Francis and Lawrence, the Annunciation and some portraits: in the church of S. Paolo, the Pentecost, the Birth of the Baptist and the great apse fresco of the Rapture of Elijah; in the church of the Cappuccine, two gentle Madonnas with saints; in that of S. Giovanni, the dramatic Pietà and Decollation of the Baptist and in S. Cristoforo, near the Certosa, the highly animated scene of the Invention of the body of St. Bruno. Notable, in the Galleria Estense in Modena, are the youthful Birth of the Virgin, the Adoration of the Child, with a glory of music-making angels, and seven oval friezes depicting mythological subjects, which come from a ceiling of the Ferrarese Palazzo dei Diamanti. S. is represented quite well also in the collections of Rome, especially in the Galleria Borghese, where one admires, among other things, an exquisite Holy Family, a Diana and Endymion and a Venus at the Bath. Other singular paintings in Florence (e.g., the Adoration of the Magi in the Cioni collection), Dresden, Budapest, Darmstadt, Hannover, London, Leningrad, the United States, etc.

Bibliography8 works

BIBL.: L. Lanzi, Storia pittorica dell'Italia, Bassano 1795; G. Baruffaldi, Vite dei pittori e scultori ferraresi, II, Ferrara 1846, pp. 55-107; A. Venturi, La Galleria Estense di Modena, Modena 1882, passim; Venturi, IX, parte 7°, pp. 800-12; G. Gruyer, L'art ferrarais à l'époque des princes d'Este, II, Parigi 1897; R. Longhi, Officina ferrarese, Roma 1934, p. 152; anon., s. v. in Thieme-Becker, XXIX, pp. 533-34; R. Pallucchini, I dipinti della Galleria Estense di Modena, Roma 1945, pp. 99-101.

Alberto Neppi

@incollection{ec11_scarsellino_ippolito_scarsella, author = {Neppi, Alberto}, title = {Scarsellino, ippolito scarsella, detto lo}, booktitle = {Enciclopedia Cattolica}, volume = {XI}, pages = {19--20}, note = {Cited by column}, publisher = {Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico}, address = {Città del Vaticano}, year = {1953}, url = {https://azioneromana.com/article/scarsellino-ippolito-scarsella-detto-lo} }

One of some 20,000 entries brought back from the twelve printed volumes (1948–54). Spotted something? Help us improve it.

Scarsellino, Ippolito Scarsella detto lo

About this entry