Catalogue Roberti Fine Art, TEFAF Maastricht 2026 (1) compressed - Flipbook - Page 74
Arpino was the leading painter in Rome at the end of the sixteenth century and the last great
exponent of Roman Mannerism, which was to make way for the innovative vision of the early
Baroque. Appropriately enough, the revolutionary artistic developments of the end of the sixteenth
century in Rome were ushered in by Arpino’s very own student, Michelangelo da Caravaggio.
Aprino was the principal painter to Pope Clement VII, elected in 1592, for whom he painted the
frescoes in the Olgati chapel in San Prassede in Rome, as well as the Pope's extended family, most
notably his nephew Cardinal Pietro Aldobrandini and his uncle Pietro Aldobrandini, for whom he
painted the fresco decoration of the Palazzo dei Conservatori on the Capitoline Hill. Caravaggio
joined Arpino’s studio when he had recently arrived in Rome and specialised in contributing to the
still-life elements in Arpino's larger compositions. Arpino's significant collection, is known to have
included two paintings by Caravaggio and to this day forms the backbone of the collection in the
Galleria Borghese in Rome, where it was transferred in 1605 by Cardinal Scipione Borghese. If he
was best known during his life for his bright and large-scale decorations, today Arpino’s most
popular works are his smaller mythological and devotional works, often on copper, such as the
present work, or on rarer supports such as slate or semi-precious stones, which would have been
commissioned by intellectual patrons for enjoyment in a domestic setting.
A preparatory drawing in red chalk is in the Gabinetto Disegni e Stampe, Uffizi in Florence, (148 x
157 mm).¹ Another, slightly simplified, version on panel is in the Pushkin Museum in Moscow.
Roettgen compares the architectural back drop with a painting of The Holy Family with Saint Francis
and an angel on slate, formerly in a New York private collection, as well as a canvas depicting The
Transition of Saint Joseph in a private collection in Rome.²
¹H. Roettgen, Cavalier Giuseppe Cesari d'Arpino. Die Zeichnungen. I disegni. III Reife und Alter. Maturita' e anzianita'
1605-1640, Stuttgart 2013, p 16/17 n. 427.
²Roettgen, 2002, cat. nos. 136 and 139, pp. 379 and 381 respectively.
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