Giovanni Bellori
Giovanni Bellori was an important figure in the seventeenth century Roman artworld. His Idea of Beauty, first given as a lecture to the Academia di San Luca, in Rome, 1664, provides modern art historians with a detailed concept of what was valued (by some) in painting and sculpture in Seicento Italy. Along with Giorgio Vasari's Lives of the Artists, Bellori's Idea is the one of the most useful primary sources concerning Italian Renaissance art.
The Idea
Bellori advocated idealism over realism or naturalism. This famously led to Bellori's reverence of the painting of Annibale Carracci and denunciation of Caravaggio, now one of history's most admired painters. His writing of the 'Idea' is draws influence from Giovanni Battista Agucchi, Giorgio Vasari, Leon Battista Alberti, Aristotle and others.
Vasari's definition of "disegno" (which was at that time seen as the most important element to a painting or sculpture's artistic value) is tied up in the concept of 'prudence', and forms the basis of subsequent value judgements in art by the likes of Bellori. An artist's work could essentially be seen as a series of choices, and the wisdom of these choices was owed to the character, or 'prudence' of the artist. Bellori and Agucchi, after Aristotle, equated the practice of idealism with prudent choice, and naturalism with poor prudence.