Landscape with a fall
(Bologna 1606 - Rome 1680)
This work on copper belongs to a series of four paintings, purchased in 1678 by Prince Giovan Battista Borghese. On that date, Grimaldi was working for the aristocratic family, originally from Siena, that had commissioned him to decorate the gallery of Palazzo Borghese in Campo Marzio. In the four paintings, the true protagonist is the landscape, a genre at which the Bolognese painter excelled, continuing in the direction initiated by Annibale Carracci and Domenichino.
The work has a waterfall at the centre, observed by small figures in the foreground, and romantic elements, typical of Grimaldi’s last compositions. The painting – as well as the whole series – is particularly important, given the small number of easel paintings made by the artist.
Object details
Inventory
Location
Date
Classification
Period
Medium
Dimensions
Frame
Nineteenth-century frame decorated with palmettes, 67 x 89 x 10 cm
Provenance
Rome, collection of Giovan Battista Borghese, 1678 (Della Pergola 1955, p. 49); Inventario Fidecommissario Borghese 1833, pp. 17 (27, 28), 23 (7, 13). Purchased by the Italian State, 1902.
Exhibitions
- 1922 Firenze, Palazzo delle Esposizioni;
- 1960 Roma, Palazzo delle Scienze - Eur;
- 1985 Roma, Palazzo Venezia.
Conservation and Diagnostic
- 1913 Tito Venturini Papari (pulitura e verniciatura);
- 1960-1961 Renato Massi (restauro della cornice).
Commentary
In 1678, Giovan Battista Borghese issued a payment to the Bolognese painter Gian Francesco Grimaldi ‘for various paintings made as recorded in note no. 718 filed in Ledger A 926 scudi’ (Della Pergola 1955, p. 49). According to Paola della Pergola, who was the first to discover this note among the Borghese papers in the Vatican Apostolic Archives, the payment concerned other more important works, including, however, the present painting on copper and three other landscapes (inv. no. 38, 47, 298), noted shortly after at the Casino di Porta Pinciana by Domenico Montelatici (1700, p. 302): ‘And the four similar paintings, which portray landscapes with small figures, painted on copper, are by Gio. Francesco Bolognese’. In reality, the artist must have made the four paintings while work as being done at Palazzo Borghese (1672–1678), probably having been commissioned to be hung in the apartments on the ground floor.
As argued by Batorska (2012, p. 203, no. 147), this painting is a clear and refined example of Grimaldi’s late style, mixing classical elements with Romantic ones, such as the waterfall in the middle of the painting and the roots just under the surface of the water.
Antonio Iommelli
Bibliography
- D. Montelatici, Villa Borghese fuori di Porta Pinciana con l’ornamenti che si osservano nel di lei Palazzo, Roma 1700, p. 302;
- A. Venturi, Il Museo e la Galleria Borghese, Roma 1893, pp. 53, 58, 153;
- Mostra della pittura italiana del Seicento e del Settecento, catalogo della mostra (Firenze, Palazzo Pitti, 1922), Roma 1922, p. 103;
- R. Longhi, Precisioni nelle Gallerie Italiane, I, La R. Galleria Borghese, Roma 1928, p. 180;
- A. De Rinaldis, La Galleria Borghese in Roma, Roma 1939, p. 30;
- A. De Rinaldis, Catalogo della Galleria Borghese, Roma 1948, p. 69;
- P. Della Pergola, La Galleria Borghese. I Dipinti, I, Roma 1955, pp. 48-49, n. 77;
- A. Emiliani, in L’ideale classico del ’600 in Italia e la pittura di paesaggio, V Mostra Biennale d’Arte Antica (Bologna, Biblioteca Comunale dell’Archiginnasio, 1962), a cura di C. Volpe, Bologna 1962, p. 302, n. 45;
- L. Salerno, Pittori di Paesaggio del Seicento a Roma, Roma 1976, p. 578;
- Paesaggio con figura: 57 dipinti della Galleria Borghese esposti temporaneamente a Palazzo Venezia, catalogo della mostra (Roma, Museo di Palazzo Venezia, 1985), Roma 1985, p. X, cat. 47;
- C. Stefani in P. Moreno, C. Stefani, Galleria Borghese, Milano 2000, p. 298;
- A.M. Matteucci, R. Ariuli, Giovanni Francesco Grimaldi, Bologna 2002, p. 262;
- 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. 18;
- D. Batorska, Giovanni Francesco Grimaldi 1605/6-1680, Roma 2012, p. 203, n. 147.
