TIARINI, ALESSANDRO. — Painter, born in Bologna on 23 March 1577, died there on 8 February 1668. He began his artistic training with Prospero Fontana and later with Bartolomeo Cesi.
After remaining for some time under the influence of the Tuscan school, Tiarini then decisively turned toward the eclectic style of the Carracci, particularly Ludovico, developing a deviation from nature that was not insensitive to the color of the Venetian cinquecentisti, and through strong chiaroscuro he accentuated the pathetic effects of sacred subjects, in which he excelled. His output, one might say, was unceasing and unfolded mainly in Bologna, but also in Reggio Emilia (1618–26 and after 1650), in Romagna, in the Lucchesia region, and in Cremona. Although endowed with extraordinary facility in invention and execution, Tiarini left no notable works in the field of fresco. As an oil painter, however, he alternates brilliant intuitions with periods of stagnation and conventionalism, so that one must consider his undeniable virtues in certain individual works, which rank among the noblest of 17th-century Italian art. The most substantial group is in the Pinacoteca of Bologna: a dramatic, well-structured *Pietà*, the *Ecstasy of St Catherine of Siena*, with its felicitous vertical rhythms and realistic details, the large lunette of the Virgin and Child venerated by Sts Charles Borromeo and Matthew and Blessed Raniero, and a single portrait of a noblewoman. Also in Bologna, noteworthy are the Baroque *Presentation of the Virgin* in the church of S. Maria dei Servi, and above all the luminous canvas, unusually vivid in color, of *St Martin Resurrecting the Widow’s Son* in the Museum of S. Stefano. Other memorable works are in the Civic Museum of Reggio Emilia: such as the *Miracle of St John* and the aristocratic portrait of Countess Camilla Ruggeri Brami. Also attesting to Tiarini’s clear capacity to align with the pre-Romantic spirit of Tasso is the expansive idyllic scene of *Rinaldo and Armida* in the Borghese Gallery in Rome.