The Redeemer
(Florence 1616 - 1686)
This work on copper became part of the Borghese collection in 1818. Acquired by Prince Camillo Borghese from Ignazio Grossi in Florence, it was painted by Carlo Dolci, one of the most sought-after painters of Florentine sacred themes. This face of Christ intensifies the tenderness of a Christ by Guido Reni in a sugar-coated representation of the sacred, playing on the emotions of the devout.
Object details
Inventory
Location
Date
Classification
Period
Medium
Dimensions
Frame
Nineteenth-century frame with rosettes in the corners
Provenance
Rome, collection of Camillo Borghese, 1818 (Della Pergola 1959); Inventario Fidecommissario Borghese 1833, p. 14. Purchased by the Italian State, 1902.
Commentary
This painting was purchased in Rome, along with four other works, by Camillo Borghese, who issued a payment to Ignazio Grossi of Florence for a total of 3,000 scudi in 1818. The document, noted by Giovanni Piancastelli in 1891, was published by Paola della Pergola in 1959 in the catalogue of the Galleria Borghese’s paintings. The purchase receipt reads: ‘I the undersigned, in the presence of the undermentioned witnesses, received from His Excellency the Lord Prince D. Camillo Borghese, by way of his cashier Mr Giacomo Bassanelli, the sum of 3,000 Roman scudi, the price agreed for the sale to the Lord Prince of five paintings, one by Guercino of the Prodigal Son from the Galleria Lancellotti, another by Sassoferrato of a Madonna and Child, another attributed to Lo Spagnoletto of St Ignatius attacked by two lions and two by Carlin Dolci, one of the Redeemer and the other a little Madonna […] Rome, 4 December 1818. Ignazio Grossi and witnesses’ (Della Pergola 1959, p. 226, no. 100).
The painting, attributed to Carlo Dolci by Paola della Pergola (1959) and Kristina Herrmann Fiore (2006), was, however, not included in the recent monograph on that painter (Baldassarri 2015).
Gregorio Cleter, active in Rome in the nineteenth century, made an engraving of it.
Antonio Iommelli
Bibliography
- A. Nibby, Roma nell’anno 1838, II, Roma 1838, p. 603;
- E. e C. Platner, Beschreibung der Stadt Rom, III, Stuttgart 1842, p. 298;
- X. Barbier de Montault, Les Musées et Galeries de Rome, Rome 1870, p. 353;
- G. Piancastelli, Catalogo dei quadri della Galleria Borghese, in Archivio Galleria Borghese, 1891, p. 279;
- A. Venturi, Il Museo e la Galleria Borghese, Roma 1893, p. 155;
- G. Lafenestre, E. Richtenberger, La peinture en Europe. Rome. Les Musées, les Collections particulières, les Palais, Paris 1905, p. 21;
- J.A. Rusconi, Il Museo e la Galleria Borghese, Bergamo 1906, p. 89;
- M. Ferrigni, Madonne fiorentine, Milano 1912, p. 217;
- R. Longhi, Precisioni nelle Gallerie Italiane, I, La R. Galleria Borghese, Roma 1928, p. 205; ù
- C.A. Petrucci, Catalogo generale delle Stampe tratte dai rami incisi posseduti dalla Calcografia Nazionale, Roma 1953, p. 41;
- P. della Pergola, La Galleria Borghese. I Dipinti, II, Roma 1959, p. 23, n. 23;
- S. Tarissi de Jacobis, Nuova luce su vecche carte: l’eredità Aldobrandini e la collezione Borghese, “Prospettiva”, IV, 2003, pp. 160-191, p. 107;
- 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.102;
- F. Baldassarri, Carlo Dolci. Complete catalogues of the paintings, Firenze 2015.
