page_title: Angelo Caroselli
section_title: Work
hierarchical_section_title: Angelo Caroselli / Work
context_page_description: Angelo Caroselli or Carosèlli was an Italian painter of the Baroque period, active mainly in his native Rome. He created religious works, allegories, portraits as well as genre scenes in the vein of the Caravaggisti. He also returned regularly to scenes of witchcraft and sorcery. His style is eclectic style and shows influences principally from Caravaggio and the painters of 'low-life' scenes active in Rome called the Bamboccianti. His work is characterised by its search for originality. This is demonstrated in the potent naturalism and chiaroscuro that characterise his compositions and his preference for depicting colorful characters of contemporary Rome and scenes of witchcraft and musicians. The work of Caroselli was influential on other Caravaggisti such as the Lucchese painter Pietro Paolini and the Dutch painter Dirck van Baburen.
  Despite the Caravaggist influences his work is characterised by its search for originality and a certain resistance to the triumphant absolutism of the Baroque style, which is expressed through some 'archaicizing' leanings in his work. Caroselli was also active as an art restorer, copyist, and, possibly, forger.
context_section_description: He created religious works, allegorical paintings, portraits as well as such genre paintings with musicians and card players as were popular with the Caravaggisti.  Caravaggio was an important source of inspiration in terms of his innovations in naturalism as well as subject matter. Caroselli often depicted card players, musicians, prostitutes and other low life scenes of contemporary Rome. He further showed in his oeuvre a fascination with witchcraft, necromancy and the magic arts.  As the artist did not date his paintings and his work is eclectic, it is not easy to establish a clear chronology of his output both in terms of subject matter and style.  Some art historians see an evolution from an initial naturalistic phase which developed  in the 1930s towards a more "classicist" style, characterized by a greater elegance and softness in the brushstroke and a smoothness of the flesh that contrasts with the hard and sharp manner of the earlier works. In the latter period he also introduced ancient reliefs in his work. 
  The style of Caroselli is often described as eclectic.  Despite his adherence to the forms and subjects of Caravaggio and the emerging Baroque, Caroselli's works show certain 'archaicising' elements.  In this archaic aspect some art historians see a conscious rejection of, and rupture with, the triumphant 'Baroque absolutism' of his age.  His early biographers Passeri and Baldinucci also speak at length of his great skill in copying the ancient masters and in working in different styles at the same time.
  Early interpreters of Caravaggio's style and themes such as Bartolomeo Manfredi proved an important influence on Caroselli's handling of the Caravaggist themes.  Manfredi's interpretation of the singers and musical performers through half- to three-quarter-length figures in cramped, undefined rectangular spaces, imbued with rich coloration and soft chiaroscuro, seems to have left a particular impression on Caroselli.  Caroselli's figures were generally less elegant and more earthly than those of Manfredi.  Caroselli's depictions of singers and musicians, which likely date from his first period in Rome before 1616, appear in turn to have influenced the Dutch painter Dirck van Baburen's explorations of the same subject matter.  Van Baburen's Singing young man (Städel Museum) has many elements in common with Caroselli's Singing man (Kunsthistorisches Museum) in the pose of the singer holding a score, the fanciful costume with a medallion in the hat and the raised open hand, a feature that traditionally has been associated with the Dutch followers of Caravaggio.
  Caroselli seems to have a preference for the subject of prostitutes and courtisans. Giovanni Battista Passeri recounts that the Caroselli lived with Agostino Tassi so he could enjoy the favours of the courtesans who lived in his house. His paintings of this subject matter therefore depict figures that the painter knew well. As his follower referred to as the Pseudo-Caroselli also often returned to this subject in a style not very unlike that of Caroselli, it has not always been possible to distinguish the work of the two artists in this area.  For instance, the Violinist and Courtesan, an Allegory of Love (Sotheby's New York sale of 31 January 2018 lot 15) has traditionally been attributed to Caroselli but, since it also displays the more physical treatment of similar subjects by Pseudo-Caroselli, it could very well be the work of the latter.  A fascinating depiction of the theme of paid love by Caroselli can be seen in the Blind love, a man playing draughts with a courtesan (at Robilant+Voena in 2019).  This panel shows four people in a room around a table on which a draughts game board and playing cards are placed. A pretty young woman with a pearl pendant and a low-cut dress holding a game piece in her hand, is turning her head towards an old woman with a wrinkly face to her right. The latter holds something in her right hand which may be another game piece or a coin (i.e. the payment for the courtesan's services?). On the opposite side of the table 
caption: The Virgin and Child with Saints Elizabeth and the Infant John the Baptist
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