Rape of Europa

1630s

Begins a treatise on painting

Albani begins a treatise on painting, whose general content is known from excerpts of his notes published in Malvasia's biography: it stresses the importance of invention and of the artist's education and sharply criticizes the naturalism of Caravaggio and his followers.

by 1643

A family of twelve children

By 1643 the Albani family numbers twelve children; the putti that increasingly populate his secular and sacred paintings, his biographers said, were modelled on his own babies. Other accounts say that his second marriage, to Doralice Fioravanti, produced ten children who served as models for the angels.

1645–1660

The workshop turns out replicas

Extensive workshop assistance and the execution of many replicas account for the decline in quality of works datable after 1645; other accounts say that for the last thirty years of his life the workshop kept producing small mythological and religious pictures of uneven quality.

1651

Letters to Andrea Sacchi on the Bamboccianti

In an exchange of letters with his pupil Andrea Sacchi Albani shows little regard for the northern Bamboccianti in Rome, though he unexpectedly appreciates the satirical and humorous content of their paintings.