Annunciation
(Passignano 1559 - Florence 1638)
The painting, attributed by critics to Domenico Cresti, also known as Il Passignano, is documented in the Borghese collection from 1693 and represents the moment when the archangel Gabriel makes the announcement to Mary. She is caught at prayer when the divine messenger visits her. Witnessing the scene in a cloud of light are God, the dove of the Holy Spirit and a host of angels, including three recognisable cherubim.
Object details
Inventory
Location
Date
Classification
Period
Medium
Dimensions
Frame
Salvator Rosa, 45.7 x 35 x 4.8 cm
Provenance
Rome, Borghese Collection, 1693 (Inventory 1693, room IX, no. 21); Inventory 1790, room II, no. 45; Inventario Fidecommissario Borghese 1833, p. 28. Purchased by the Italian State, 1902.
Conservation and Diagnostic
Commentary
This painting was reported as part of the Borghese Collection for the first time in an inventory in 1693 and described by the compiler as “a small painting, more or less a palm and a half in height, showing Mary and the Almighty, with a gilded frame by Martiniani.” While in a 1790 inventory it was attributed to Federico Barocci – an attribution that was accepted both by the compiler of the fideicommissum listing (1833) and by Giovanni Piancastelli (1891) – Adolfo Venturi (1893) recognised in this work the manner of Raffaello Vanni, a Sienese artist and son of the well-known painter Francesco. In 1959, having rejected these hypotheses and concurring with Roberto Longhi (1928) and Italo Faldi, who in 1956 had identified in this Annunciation traits of late 1500s Tuscan painting (which had been reformed by Santi di Tito and Federico Zuccari), Paola della Pergola ascribed this work to Domenico Cresti, also known as Il Passignano. This attribution was broadly accepted by critics over the following years (Petrioli Tofani, 1980; Prosperi Valenti Rodinò, 1984; Laureati, 1990), with the exception of Joan Lee Nissman (1979).
The work depicts the moment of the announcement by the archangel Gabriel to Mary, caught in a moment of prayer. The divine messenger is assisted from above by God and the Dove of the Holy Spirit. A host of angels watches the scene, and among these we can recognise three cherubs. Longhi (1928) places the production of this work around 1595, “under the influence of a strictly Roman Counter-Reformation style,” while Simonetta Prosperi Valenti Rodinò (1984) identifies a later date, between 1602 and 1603 circa, considering it to have been painted in parallel with the other two canvases found in the Borghese Collection: the Entombing of Christ (inv. 349) and the Martyrdom of Saint Sebastian (inv. 341).
A similar but much larger version – recalled by Faldi (1956) – is preserved in the collection of Cassa Depositi e Prestiti in Rome, cut off, unlike its Borghese counterpart, at the height of the head of the first cherub on the right.
Antonio Iommelli
Bibliography
- G. Piancastelli, Catalogo dei quadri della Galleria Borghese, in Archivio Galleria Borghese, 1891, p. 331;
- A. Venturi, Il Museo e la Galleria Borghese, Roma 1893, p. 118;
- R. Longhi, Precisioni nelle Gallerie Italiane, I, La R. Galleria Borghese, Roma 1928, p. 196;
- I. Faldi, La Quadreria della Cassa Depositi e Prestiti, Roma 1956, pp. 38-39;
- P. della Pergola, La Galleria Borghese. I Dipinti, II, Roma 1959, p. 43, n. 59;
- J.L. Nissmann, Domenico Cresti il Passignano, tesi di dottorato, Columbia University, New York 1979, p. 366;
- A.M. Petrioli Tofani, in Il primato del disegno. Firenze e la Toscana dei Medici nell’Europa del ’500, catalogo della mostra (Firenze, Palazzo Strozzi, 1980), Firenze 1980, pp. 155 e s, nn. 341-346;
- S. Prosperi Valenti Rodinò, Cresti, Domenico, detto il Passignano, in Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani, XXX, 1984, ad vocem;
- L. Laureati, Brevi aggiunte al catalogo di Domenico Cresti detto il Passignano, in Scritti in onore di Giuliano Briganti, a cura di M. Bona Castellotti, L. Laureati, Milano 1990, pp. 153, 159;
- K. Herrmann Fiore, Galleria Borghese Roma scopre un tesoro. Dalla pinacoteca ai depositi un museo che non ha più segreti, San Giuliano Milanese 2006, p. 66.
