Annunciation
(Urbino c. 1535 - 1612)
This painting has formed part of the Borghese Collection since at least the late 17th century, given its appearance in the 1693 inventory, which attributed it to an unknown artist. Judged to be a weak derivation of a work by Federico Barocci, this Annunciation has been ascribed to a follower of the master who was probably connected to Sienese artistic circles in the late 16th century.
Object details
Inventory
Location
Date
Classification
Period
Medium
Dimensions
Frame
Salvator Rosa, 63.5 x 66 x 6.5 cm
Provenance
Borghese Collection, cited in Inventory, 1693, room II, no. 47; Inventory, 1790, room II, no. 45; Inventario Fidecommissario Borghese 1833, p. 18, no. 44. Purchased by Italian state, 1902.
Commentary
Of unknown provenance, this work was first documented in connection with the Borghese Collection in the inventory of 1693, where it was listed as ‘a painting of roughly two spans with the Annunciation, no. 510, with a gilded frame. Unknown [artist]’. The number 510 assures us that this entry refers to our canvas, as it is still visible in the lower right-hand corner. While the c.1790 inventory ascribed the painting to Federico Barocci, the 1833 Inventario Fidecommissario downgraded it to the ‘manner of Barocci’. For his part, Adolfo Venturi (1893, p. 185) proposed the name of Benedetto Luti; yet later critics (Moschini 1923, p. 123) rejected this idea in favour of an attribution to a Mannerist influenced by the artist from Urbino (Longhi 1928, p. 215; Della Pergola 1959, p. 71). The canvas undoubtedly reflects Barocci’s style, while revealing a decidedly inferior pictorial quality. In all likelihood it is a derivation of the famous Annunciation in the Pinacoteca Vaticana, which was reproduced on numerous occasions by followers of the master. In the case of our canvas, the theme was freely interpreted with the incorporation of clear variations. The attribution proposed by Kristina Herrmann Fiore (2006, p. 126) is therefore persuasive: in her view, the Borghese canvas is stylistically traceable to a follower active in Sienese circles and can be dated to the late 16th century.
Pier Ludovico Puddu
Bibliography
- G. Piancastelli, Catalogo dei quadri della Galleria Borghese in Archivio Galleria Borghese, 1891, p. 329.
- A. Venturi, Il Museo e la Galleria Borghese, Roma 1893, p. 185.
- G. Cantalamessa, Note manoscritte al Catalogo di A. Venturi del 1893, Arch. Gall. Borghese, 1911-1912, n. 380.
- V. Moschini, Benedetto Luti, in “L’Arte”, XXVI, 1923, p. 113.
- R. Longhi, Precisioni nelle Gallerie Italiane, I, La R. Galleria Borghese, Roma 1928, p. 215.
- P. Della Pergola, La Galleria Borghese. I Dipinti, II, Roma 1959, p. 71, n. 103.
- 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. 126.
