CARLONE, Giovanni Andrea

Painter, part of an Italian family of artists, son of Giovanni Battista Carlone.

Taddeo Carlone and his brother Giuseppe Carlone were, like their father Giovanni Carlone, sculptors. Born in Rovio (Lombardy), they moved to Genoa c. 1560. Another member of the family was Pietro Carlone, who with his son Francesco Carlone was a bronzeGLOSSARYAn alloy of copper (usually about 90 per cent) and tin, often also containing small amounts of other metals such as lead or zinc. Since antiquity it has been the metal most commonly used in cast sculpture because of its strength, durability, and the fact that it is easily workable - both hot and cold - by a variety of processes. It is easier to cast than copper because it has a lower melting-point, and its great tensile strength makes possible the protrusion of unsupported parts - an advantage over marble sculpture. The colour of bronze is affected by the proportion of tin or other metals present, varying from silverish to a rich, coppery red, and its surface beauty can be enhanced when it acquires a patina.-caster. Taddeo's sons Giovanni Carlone and Giovanni Battista Carlone became painters, probably working together in Genoa and Milan and perhaps in Rome and Florence before 1630. The Carlone brothers' sculptural heritage and their education in Rome and Florence differed from that of their Genoese contemporaries who had studied under Giovanni Battista Paggi, and together with Domenico Fiasella they stimulated a revival of frescoGLOSSARYWall painting technique in which pigments are applied to wet (fresh) plaster (intonaco). The pigments bind with the drying plaster to form a very durable image. Only a small area can be painted in a day, and these areas, drying to a slightly different tint, can in time be seen. Small amounts of retouching and detail work could be carried out on the dry plaster, a technique known as a secco fresco. decoration in Genoa. Frescoes painted in the 1620s by the Carlone brothers and Fiasella and by Lazzaro Tavarone, Andrea Ansaldo and Bernardo CastelloGLOSSARY"castle", palace. are close in composition, colour, figures and subject-matter. Giovanni Battista Carlone's studio produced a vast quantity of brilliantly coloured frescoes, which were highly proficient and popular; these are best seen on the naveGLOSSARYthe main interior space of a church building. It may have parallel aisles on each side, often separated from it by pillars, and is intersected by the transept, which cuts across it at the point where the choir begins. vaults of the large Genoese churches, S Ambrogio and S Siro. He relied on family members, and among his 24 children were Simon Carlone, Niccolo Carloneo and Giovanni Andrea Carlone, who assisted him and kept the studio alive until the end of the 17th century.

Giovanni Andrea Carlone was educated first by his father and then went to Rome to study under Carlo Maratti; in Rome he came into contact with Baciccio (Giovanni Battista Gaulli), with whom he shared patrons and who influenced his early decorative style. In this decade (1660s) he also worked in Perugia, painting frescoes in the church of S Filippo Neri (1662-69), with scenes from the Old Testament; he also worked in the church of Il Gesu (1666-67).