BOULOGNE, VALENTIN DE

(1591-1632)

   French painter, active in Rome. Valentin de Boulogne was born into a family of artists and artisans. He moved to Rome in c. 1612 where he soon became influenced by Caravaggio's style. His Cardsharps (c. 1615-1618; Dresden, Gemäldegalerie) closely relates to Caravaggio's painting of the same subject (1595-1596; Fort Worth, Kimball Museum of Art) in its dramatic use of chiaroscuro, crude figure types, emphatic gestures and glances, and theatrical costumes. In the late 1620s, Valentin entered in the service of the Barberini. For them he painted the Allegory of Rome (1628; Rome, Villa Lante), depicted as a female with shield, lance, and tower on her head in accordance with Cesare Ripa's Iconología. The fruits at her feet denote prosperity under Urban VIII, the Barberini pope. In 1629, Valentin received from Urban his most important commission, the Martyrdom of Sts. Processus and Martinian for one of the altars of St. Peter's,a Counter-Reformatory work that speaks of the glory of martyrdom for the sake of the faith and the triumph of the Church.