Salvator and Claude

Salvator Rosa (1615-1673) was an Italian Baroque painter, poet, and actor. He spent most of his career in Florence, Italy. After studying under Anielle Falcone, another artist, many believe he spent time travelling with bandits. If this were true, it would explain some of the inspiration for his seemingly dark pieces often depicting bandits or hermits, but also angels as shown below.



Claude Lorraine (1600-1682), more commonly known as Claude, was a French Baroque painter. Claude's work was often landscape paintings, similar to those of Rosa, but his were often done using much lighter colors.




Both of these artists lived during the Baroque era, which was slightly before the classical era. The Baroque era focused on absolutism during a time of Catholic Revival. Much of the work done in this period focused on light and shadows. The work of Rosa quite clearly focuses more on the intense shadows as opposed to the light. The work of Claude on the other hand, focuses more on the intense light.

In Arcadia, both of these painters are referenced by Hannah as she states:

"English landscape was invented by gardeners imitating foreign painters who were evoking classical authors. The whole thing was brought home in the luggage from the grand tour. Here, look--Capability Brown doing Claude, who was doing Virgil. Arcadia! And here, superimposed by Richard Noakes, untamed nature in the style of Salvator Rosa. It's the Gothic novel expressed in landscape. Everything but vampires"

Hannah explains how the English Landscape was practically created by these painters. Capability Brown was imitating Claude, who was imitating Virgil (70-9 BC).  She also believes that Noakes was imitating the work of Salvator Rosa which explains why Noakes piece was so dark.