Douffet’s Roman Teacher

It is when I refocus on Rome’s ‘superbe Galerie de’ Medicis’ Gérard Douffet visited according to Abry, that I bump into the name of the artist who most probably served as the young painter’s guide, and mentor in the first year(s) of his residence in Rome. His name is Antiveduto Grammatica (also Gramatica). He was a particularly gifted painter of heads, a talent he had developed by copying ….., yes, indeed, the celebrated series of illustrious men in Rome’s Medici Villa. Can we indeed take this reference as a clincher? You may remember how Louis Abry described that young Douffet admired the ancient monuments and the beauties preserved in the “superbe Galerie de Medicis”, where he was so fortunate as to make the acquaintance of ‘le Peintre du Cardinal de ce nom’.

Helen Langdon in her Caravaggio. A Life points out that there was no one better than Grammatica at shaping and colouring heads, and there was no Prince or other Illustrious Personage who came to Rome, who did not call by to have Grammatica portray his head. It made him wealthy, and highly respected. He was a man of wide culture, who delighted in poetry. This fascination is another clue that links Douffet and Grammatica together: according to Abry the greatest advantage the young painter from Liège received from his first contact in Rome was the special taste for the ‘Belles Lettres’ and for the study of Poetry and History. I am further intrigued by Abry’s insight that Douffet’s artistic mentor in Rome accompanied him to places where the most renowned artists came together to engage in the perfection of their art. We might find out more on the subject by scrutinizing Grammatica’s biography.

Antiveduto Grammatica

Antiveduto Grammatica’s birth has only relatively recently been established (F. Petrucci, ‘l’Atto di nascita di Antiveduto Gramatica’, Paragone, 2004). He was born in Rome in 1569, not in Siena in 1571 as generally stated in his biographies. It was the painter and biographer Giovanni Baglione (we are already very familiar with him), who in his Le vite de pittori, scultori et architetti (1642) sheds light on Grammatica’s curious Christian name, ‘Antiveduto’. His father wanted his wife to have their child before they left for Rome, from their native Siena. His mother, however, insisted on undertaking the journey, giving birth in an inn on the way. Her husband said ‘I have foreseen’ (‘ho antiveduto’) this mess. So when he was born and brought to Rome, he was baptized in the St. Peter’s and given the name Antiveduto. What is interesting for us is to find what Grammatica’s style of painting was characterized by when he was Douffet’s teacher. In the 1610s Grammatica’s painting became intensely naturalistic, with dynamic contrasts of light and dark, reflecting both the strong influence of Caravaggio, and of his friend Orazio Borgianni.

Antiveduto Grammatica was a highly cultivated artist, who started a workshop of his own on or near Rome’s Via delle Scrofa, in the early 1590s. We may well assume that it was under his guidance that young Douffet dedicated his time to making copies of the best originals, making portraits, in which art he later excelled. It was Grammatica’s special bond with the Villa Medici‘s Gallery that serves as a clear indication for me that he became Douffet’s artistic mentor when he arrived in Rome in 1614. The teacher and his Flemish pupil must have paid regular visits to the works showing illustrious men of antiquity that Cardinal Ferdinando de’ Medici acquired at the Villa Medici in the early 1580s, regarded by contemporaries as the greatest collection of art in Rome. Grammatica and Douffet had devoted time together studying poetry and history. Had they kept abreast of the popular Apollo and Hyacinth tennis topic within literary circles, initiated in c. 1614 by Italy’s most prominent poet, Giambattista Marino (see Ep. 9, and my 2013 Studi secenteschi essay, The Apollo and Hyacinth Tennis Theme in Baroque Poetry, accessible through Accademia.edu), we may wonder.

Isabella Salvagni in her Caravaggio e l’Europa essay (pp. 119-120) points out that from 1617 onwards Antiveduto Grammatica’s status became so elevated that he got closely involved in the drafts of the new San Luca Academy’s statutes. His main associate in the affair was Paolo Guidotti, their principal opponent being Giovanni Baglione, ‘Primo Consigliore’ in 1619 and 1620 when, after heated deliberations, Guidotti and Grammatica were put forward as the Academy’s ‘Principe e Vice Principe’. By all accounts Grammatica gained great familiarity with the two protectors of the Academy, first Cardinal Federico Borromeo, and then Francesco Maria Del Monte, to whom he became closely attached. So much that he was elected to the highest office of the San Luca Academy as “Principe” in 1624. Another related matter that needs our attention: Abry disclosed that Douffet’s guide in Rome accompanied him to a place where ‘the most renowned artists came together to engage in the perfection of their art’. It must have been to the San Luca Academy that Grammatica introduced Douffet, perhaps as early as from about 1614. The San Luca Academy was the ultimate Roman institute where the perfection of art was supposed to be achieved.