Semiramis in front of the gates of Babylon
This painting on copper was first mentioned in connection with the Borghese Collection in 1693. Attributed to a variety of artists, the work alludes to a 16th-century engraving by Martin van Heemskerck which depicts the so-called Sepolchrum Semiramidis, visible here in the circular, three-level structure. This painting, however, is not as rich in detail as the engraving. It depicts the battle between Queen Semiramis and a ferocious lion that is obstructing her way into the city of Babylon.
Object details
Inventory
Location
Date
Classification
Period
Medium
Dimensions
Frame
Salvator Rosa, 36.3 x 43.5 x 4 cm
Provenance
Rome, Borghese Collection, 1693 (Inventory 1693, room VI, no. 23); Inventory late 18th century, room V, no. 4; Inventory 1790, room III, no. 43; Inventario Fidecommissario Borghese 1833, p. 27. Purchased by Italian state, 1902.
Conservation and Diagnostic
- 1952 - Augusto Vermehren (cleaning)
Commentary
The provenance of this small work on copper is still unknown. It was first documented as forming part of the Borghese Collection in 1693, when it was described in the inventory of that year as ‘a painting roughly one and a half spans high with towns, churches with bell towers, a round theatre with three levels, and a queen wearing a crown on horseback who shoots an arrow at a lion, at no. 63, marked on the back of the frame, by Paul Bril, gilded frame’. While initial attributions wavered between Paul Brill and Antonio Tempesta (Inv. 1790; Inventario Fidecommissario 1833), Adolfo Venturi (1893) definitively located the work in the Flemish school. In an oral communication to Paola della Pergola (1959), Federico Zeri reached the same conclusion, noting similarities between the work in question and the series Septem Orbis Miracula, executed by Martin van Heemskerck and engraved by Philippe Galle: several of these engravings are in possession of the Istituto centrale per la grafica in Rome.
Along these lines, Della Pergola (1959) published the painting as the work of a ‘Flemish master’, maintaining that it originated from a plate engraved by Galle, although it is more sparsely decorated and does not show the date ‘1572’, which appears on Semiramis’s tomb in the original engraving. Her proposal was accepted by Kristina Herrmann Fiore (2006) and has not been called into question by critics.
Antonio Iommelli
Bibliography
- X. Barbier de Montault, Les Musées et Galeries de Rome, Rome 1870, p. 358;
- G. Piancastelli, Catalogo dei quadri della Galleria Borghese, in Archivio Galleria Borghese, 1891, p. 261;
- A. Venturi, Il Museo e la Galleria Borghese, Roma 1893, p. 139;
- R. Longhi, Precisioni nelle Gallerie Italiane, I, La R. Galleria Borghese, Roma 1928, p. 201;
- P. della Pergola, La Galleria Borghese. I Dipinti, II, Roma 1959, pp. 169-170, n. 47;
- 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. 89.
