Annunciation

Workshop of Caliari Paolo called Paolo Veronese

(Verona 1528 - Venice 1588)

As speculated by critics, this painting may have been donated to Cardinal Scipione Borghese by Raffaele Inviziati, Bishop of Zakynthos and Cephalonia, in 1624. Traditionally attributed to Paolo Veronese, the painting was most probably produced at the end of the 16th century in his workshop. It depicts the archangel Gabriel announcing the birth of Jesus to Mary. In the centre, a dove, symbol of the Holy Spirit, appears in an outdoor setting opening onto the background.

Object details

Commentary

As suggested by Isabella Rossi (in Angeli 2010), it is likely that the painting came from the noble collection of Raffaele Inviziati, bishop of Zakynthos and Kefalonia, who in his will, dated 1624, left Cardinal Scipione Borghese ‘a Nunziata, by the hand of Paolo Veronese’ (Calieri 1888, p. 230): a work that can be identified – even with some margin for doubt – with the present canvas.

Not included in the incomplete inventory discovered by Sandro Corradini (Id. 1998), this painting is mentioned for the first time in the Borghese household in 1693, described in the 17th–18th century Borghese papers as a work by Paolo Veronese (Inv. 1693; Inv. 1725; Inv. 1790), but confused in the fideicommissum lists with a painting by Federico Barocci. Ascribed by Adolfo Venturi (Id. 1893) to the style of Giambattista Zelotti, this attribution, already rejected by Paola della Pergola (Ead. 1959) in favour of an ‘anonimo della bottega di Paolo’ (an anonymous painter from Paolo’s workshop), was also definitively discarded by Terisio Pignatti who, for his part, preferred to see a connection with the ambit of Carletto Caliari, one of the most talented artists working in Veronese’s workshop.

However, as has been widely confirmed by critics (Della Pergola 1955; Hermann Fiore 2006; I. Rossi in Angeli 2010), this is a workshop painting, the prototype of which can be found in The Annunciation in Gallerie dell’Accademia in Venice, painted in 1578 for the Scuola dei Mercanti at the Madonna dell’Orto. In fact, there are several examples – including The Annunciation in Palazzo Rosso, Genoa (see Piancastelli 1891) and a small painting, already related to Veronese, dated to the early 1580s (Pignatti-Pedrocchi 1991) – that leave no doubts as to the origin of this composition, that was painted like the other versions between 1578–1588 in the prolific Veronese workshop, perhaps to meet the numerous requests for sacred images painted to ward off the coming plague (I. Rossi, in Angeli 2010). In fact, as Isabella Rossi (Ead.) has pointed out, the Virgin Mary was invoked not only as the protector of the lagoon city, but also for her power to defend people from the deadly fever.

Antonio Iommelli