Corrado Giaquinto’s Critical Fortune in Rome and the Reasons for His Departure for Madrid

Abstract

Around 1751, Cochin pointed out that the best painters then in Rome were Masucci, Mancini, Battoni and “le chevalier Corado”. Cochin’s statement would seem to be one of the most meaningful indications of the artist’s fame. Modern criticism, however, tends not to distinguish between the nature of Giaquinto’s and Masucci, Mancini and Batoni’s success: while the latter three artists had definitively established themselves as history painters in oil and could work for international patrons without leaving Rome, Giaquinto never succeeded in asserting himself in that capacity and in this medium. Indeed, in his letter Cochin mistook Corrado for the more famous and well-known knight Sebastiano Conca. Being summoned to Madrid was certainly a great achievement for Giaquinto, but leaving Rome was somehow a forced choice because in the 25 years he had spent there since 1727, the painter had never achieved the success to which he aspired.