Philippe Casanova, painter

Philippe Casanova (Paris, 1965) is a French-painter who portrays the form, the perspective, the rhythms and lights of the baroque universe in an original and contemporary way. He has been living in Rome for fifteen years and is painting in the most important palaces and churches of the eternal city and also in many others towns and countries of the Baroque Diaspora.

Biography

He was born in Paris (France ). He comes from a family of artists, as the painter Lucien Simon (1861 – 1945 ) , Louis Joseph Maes (1815 – 1898 ), founder of the Crystal Factory of Clichy ( France ), and the writer Gyp (1849 – 1932 ). His family counts also intellectual and political figures such as the Marquis of Mirabeau .

Artistic education

Philippe Casanova first showed an inclination for the comic strips and founded the fanzines Gargouille and L’ Ile de la Fée, then he progressively preferred the illustration and worked for different editors such as Gallimard Jeunesse . At nineteen years old, he dedicated himself to painting. His teachers were Jean Marc Lange for painting and Jacqueline Deyme for sculpture. He was also pupil of the portrait painter Edouard Mac ‘ Avoy (1986 – 1987 ). In 1987 he entered in the renowned Paris Fine Arts Academy, Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Beaux – Arts. He met the Italian painter Marino Barberio who taught him a lot about old masters techniques. He had his first group show in 1989 in the art gallery Eolia, rue de Seine , Paris.

Career

When travelling in Italy, he had the revelation for the Baroque Art. He began to specialise himself in architectonic views refiguring interiors of churches and palaces and urban landscapes. The Oratorians commissioned him sixteen paintings (1994 – 1995 ) in occasion of the Fifth century of Saint Philip Neri ‘ s birth. The English Brompton Oratory, the church of the Cardinal John Henry Newman also commissioned a series of paintings from him. The same year, the critic Alvar Gonzalès Palacios discovered him and start to support him : “ The pictures, even if conserving their untouchable mystery, seem to have a seraphic state, it happened a distillation, a concentrate of their own lyric essence, otherwise a joyful opening in the whole solitude “ ( 1). Then he received many commissions of portraits of interiors of private palaces and villas, such as Palazzo Pallavicini , Palazzo Massimo alle Colonne , Palazzo Ruspoli , Palazzo Colonna , Villa Piccolomini. He had his first group show in Italy in the Barberini Palace in 2002, then another one in the French convent Trinita dei Monti (Rome ), in the Palazzo Carpegna (Urbino ), also in the Palazzo Colonna Barberini ( Palestrina ). He painted also many interiors in Toscany, Venice, Paris and London. In 2004 he made his first personal exhibition in the studio of the restorers Valeria Merlini and Daniela Storti . Then Alvar Gonzalès Palacios invited him to be the first contemporary to be showed in the Roman Baroque Museum of Palazzo Chigi di Ariccia ( Rome ). Francesco Petrucci, the museum conservator and Claudio Strinati the superintendent of Rome ‘ s museums describe him in the following terms : “ Philippe Casanova extremely solid in his conviction and at the same time elegant, graceful and tireless researcher and inquirer of an artistic dimension feed of lightness and simplicity “ ( 2 ). In 2006 he was invited by the Saint Peter Fabric, administration of the St. Peter's Basilica, to create 32 pictures inspired by the Vatican splendours in occasion of the Fifth century of the Basilica ‘ s construction. His work was included in the exhibition Magnificenze Vaticane , curated by Alfredo Maria Pergolizzi in 2008 . In the catalogue of the exhibition, the Dutch professor Bert Treffers wrote an essay “ Philippe Casanova un pittore troppo pocco maledetto “: “ In his canvas you can trace an astonishing similarity with the preparatory studies of Filippo Juvarra and Gian Lorenzo Bernini; it seems to demonstrate that Baroque art is still a paradigm which, with its amazing inventions, is going on suggesting audacious crossings from the corporal fact to the spiritual element “ ( 3 ).

His paintings are presents in public collections:

- Chigi Palace of Ariccia, Museum of the Roman Baroque ( Ariccia , Rome , Italy )
- Spada Palace, State council ( Rome , Italy )
- Farnese Palace, French Embassy ( Rome , Italy )
- Saint Peter Fabric of the St. Peter's Basilica ( Rome , Italy )

Exhibitions

- Poesia di Impressione, 2004, Studio Merlini – Storti, Rome (Italy )
- Interno Barocco, 2005, Palazzo Chigi di Ariccia, Rome (Italy )
- Studio Olimpia Orsini, 2005, Rome (Italy )
- Interno Barocco, 2007, Espace Art 77, Paris (France )
- Magnificenze Vaticane, 2008, Rome (Italy )
- L’ Instant Italien, 2009, Paris (France )
- Lampi Voci Tuoni, 2009, Galleria Fabio Massimo Megna, Rome (Italy )

Bibliography

- Bruno Racine, L’ Art de vivre à Rome, 2000, Flammarion (Paris , France )
- Yves Bruley , Gael de Guichen , La Trinité des Monts Retrouvée , 2002 ; De Luca (Rome , Italy )
- Alvar Gonzalès Palacios, Francesco Petrucci, Claudio Strinati, Interno Barocco, 2005, Ariccia (Rome , Italy )
- Sophie de Ravinel, Guide du Vatican, 2006, Plon (Paris , France )
- Alfredo Maria Pergolizzi, Bert Treffers, Magnificenze Vaticane, 2008, De Luca (Rome , Italy )
- Antoine Tarantino, L’ Explosion Baroque, 2008 (Paris , France )
- Daria Galateria, Tommaso Megna, Lampi Voci Tuoni, 2009 (Rome , Italy )
- Steen Heidemann, The Priest image of Christ, 2009, Gracewing (London, England), Liamar Editions (Montecarlo)

Notes

- ( 1 ) : Interno Barocco, 2005, Ariccia, Rome, Italy
- ( 2 ) : idem
- ( 3 ) : Magnificenze Vaticane, 2008, Rome, Italy