Pietro della Vecchia
Later authors interpreted de la Vecchia (meaning 'of the old') as a nickname as the artist liked to imitate the old masters of the previous century.
Padovanino, whose style was strongly rooted in early-16th-century Venetian art, likely played an important role in instilling in della Vecchia a great interest in 16th-century painting in Venice and the Veneto.
The documents deal with the payment for a banner the artist had made for the Confraternity of the Carmelites in the church of S. Marco in Pordenone.
[2] Lucrezia Régnier, the elder sister of della Vecchia's wife was married to Daniel van den Dyck, a Flemish painter active in Northern Italy.
[4] Della Vecchia, together with his brother-in-law Daniel van den Dyck and their respective spouses, painted wall decorations in the Palazzo Pesaro in Preganziol.
In January 1640 the procurators of S. Marco de Supra, responsible for the decoration of St Mark's Basilica, commissioned from him two cartoons for mosaics.
These appear to have been well received as della Vecchia was subsequently appointed Venice's "pitor ducal" (painter to the duke), a position he held until 1674, that is, until four years before his death.
Marco Boschini, an engraver, art dealer and author who was a great admirer of della Vecchia, often joined the artist when he was asked to value paintings after 1670.
[1] Della Vecchia was close to the humanistic and libertine circle around the Accademia degli Incogniti (Academy of the Unknowns), a learned society of freethinking intellectuals, mainly noblemen, that significantly influenced the cultural and political life of mid-17th-century Venice.
[8] He combined in his work the monumentality of the 16th century Venetian art of artists such as Titian and Tintoretto with the dramatic effects of the style of the Caravaggisti.
Some paintings of this early period show an affinity with those of an anonymous artist likely of French origin, the so-called Candelight Master, who can perhaps be identified with Trophime Bigot.
The apex of this evolution is apparent in the two remaining works of the cycle of seven paintings that the artist executed between 1664 and 1674 for the second cloister of the Jesuit church in Venice.
The paintings represent the Conversion of Francis Borgia (Musée des beaux-arts de Brest) and Marco Gussoni in the Ferrara lazaretto (location unknown).
[2] Of greater interest are some historical paintings of this period, which show in the bold brushstrokes and the bright and dazzling palette the influence of the leading 17th-century Venetian painter Francesco Maffei, who died in 1660.
Boschini recounts that when the art dealer Francesca Fontana was assembling a collection for Cardinal Leopoldo de' Medici he was given a 'Giorgione self-portrait'.
When the deceit was discovered, della Vecchia claimed he was solely trying to emulate Giorgione and that he had produced the work 30 years earlier for his father-in-law Nicolas Régnier.
Other artists whose works della Vecchia and his workshop regularly imitated included Titian, Romanino, Palma Vecchio, Paris Bordone and Jacopo Bassano.
[2] Della Vecchia was known for his paintings of soldiers (referred to as 'bravi') with broad feathered hats of which he made many versions and variations.
[10] The innumerable repetitions of these works depicting warriors and other popular figures created by his workshop had a negative impact on his posthumous reputation.
The two compositions likely do not depict a particular story, but are rather an evocation of a romanticised wild countryside, frequented by intrepid warriors wearing fantastic costumes.
