Carlo Maratta marketing genius: an exhibition on the great artist's communication strategies

The year 2025 will mark the 400th anniversary of the birth of Carlo Maratta (Camerano, 1625 - Rome, 1713), and in anticipation of this important anniversary, Maratta’s (also known as "Maratti) hometown, Camerano (province of Ancona), pays tribute to the artist with an exhibition that ranges from paintings, drawings and prints in dialogue with other works by the artist preserved in the city, entitled Carlo Maratti. Communication Strategies and the Promotion of His Work, curated by Stefano papetti and scheduled from May 28 to Nov. 20, 2022.

A central figure of Roman and Italian painting in the second half of the seventeenth century, Maratta had important influences on the artistic production of the following century, succeeding in the difficult task of reconciling the two opposing artistic trends of the time: classicism mediated by Raphael and the magniloquence of the Baroque, giving rise to an unmistakable style appreciated throughout Europe at the time. The figure of Carlo Maratta, who in his lifetime was celebrated as the greatest painter of his time and is still well known to scholars, therefore deserves to be known by the general public, and this is the goal of the exhibition, starting precisely from the town of Camerano where the artist was born.

However, it was in Rome that Maratta, also following in this field the teaching of Raphael Sanzio, gave birth to a unique organizational model of his own studio, aimed at promoting himself and his artistic activity. He had devised a complex strategy, which included the creation of numerous replicas of his most successful works executed by his closest collaborators, the creation of autograph variants, and the circulation of reproduction prints that made his creations known to a wide audience of artists and enthusiasts. His own home was organized as a place intended to increase the popularity of the artist and his work, thus enticing collectors and patrons to make use of his brush or purchase ready-made works.

The exhibition Carlo Maratti. Communicative Strategies and the Promotion of his Work intends precisely to address for the first time this non-marginal aspect of his activity, through the presentation of autograph works that testify to his ability to rework the same motifs to satisfy different patrons, canvases intended for private devotion that document his ability to give new form to the contents of the iconographic tradition, replicas that came out of his own workshop, in some ways authorized by himself, and engravings that fostered the dissemination of his images.

On display in the church of San Francesco are 28 works including paintings, drawings and reproduction prints from Maratti’s works, in dialogue with other places in the city where works by the artist are preserved, such as the church of Santa Faustina and the Church of the Immaculate Conception.

Carlo Maratta

Carlo Maratta marketing genius: an exhibition on the great artist's communication strategies

Warning: the translation into English of the original Italian article was created using automatic tools. We undertake to review all articles, but we do not guarantee the total absence of inaccuracies in the translation due to the program. You can find the original by clicking on the ITA button. If you find any mistake,please contact us.