The Conversion of Saul

Attributed to Ganassini Marzio

(Rome 1560-1575 – Viterbo? 1623 ca.)

Both the type of composition and certain details of this painting recall the style of Cavalier d’Arpino, to whom in fact this work on copper was once ascribed in the Borghese inventories. Yet critics later changed the attribution, first to Filippo d’Angelo, called Filippo Napoletano, who was known as a painter of battle scenes and landscapes, and later to Marzio Ganassini, an artist of Cesari’s circle who adopted the same pictorial idiom. The conservational state of the painting is quite poor.

Object details

Commentary

The episode of The Conversion of Saul is here represented as a battle. The miracle takes place in the centre of the scene on a plane slightly behind the foreground, which is occupied by two fleeing horsemen on the left and two soldiers on the right, whose respective positions in fact serve to frame and highlight the focus of the painting. Saint Paul is surrounded by warriors who move in all directions. He has just fallen from his white horse and finds himself on the ground: his arms are open and his gaze is directed toward the heavens, where God is seated among cherubs as he emits the divine blinding light that causes the conversion.

Of unknown provenance, the painting first appeared in a Borghese inventory in 1833, when the Inventario fidecommissario listed it as by Cavalier d’Arpino, an attribution repeated by Giovanni Piancastelli (1891, p. 368) and Adolfo Venturi (1893, p. 209). By contrast, Roberto Longhi (1928, p. 222) at first ascribed the work to Filippo Angeli, called Filippo Napoletano, the painter of battle scenes and landscapes. Later, however, Longhi was more cautious: while recognising the style of Filippo, he now attributed the painting to his circle, doubting that it could be considered an autograph effort (1957, p. 42). Writing in the catalogue of paintings of the Galleria Borghese (1959, p. 66), Paola Della Pergola revived the original thesis and ascribed the work to the circle of Cavalier d’Arpino. The work was in fact mentioned in the catalogue of the 1973 exhibition dedicated to Cesari, which was curated by Herwart Röttgen. This scholar in fact proposed attributing it to Marzio Ganassini, who certainly was a follower of Cesari, adopting his painting style from the early 1600s. The Borghese copper can therefore be dated to the first quarter of the 17th century. Röttgen in fact made the same attribution for another work in copper which likewise depicts The Conversion of Saint Paul. Held today at the gallery of Prague Castle, this work shows clear connections with Cesari’s production, including a number of stylistic and compositional similarities with the Borghese exemplar. Both works are also cited in the biographical profile of Ganassini by Enrico Parlato (1999, p. 139), who in fact accepted Röttgen’s opinion without reservations. The German scholar repeated the attribution to Ganassini in his monograph on Cavalier d’Arpino (2002, p. 540), mentioning the painting among those that were influenced by the master although clearly executed by different painters. For her part, Herrmann Fiore (2006, p. 149) published the work with the less persuasive attribution to Cesari, dating it to 1596-97.

Pier Ludovico Puddu