Reframing Seventeenth-Century Bolognese Art: Archival Discoveries 9789048537556

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Reframing Seventeenth-Century Bolognese Art

Visual and Material Culture, 1300–1700 A forum for innovative research on the role of images and objects in the late medieval and early modern periods, Visual and Material Culture, 1300–1700 publishes monographs and essay collections that combine rigorous investigation with critical inquiry to present new narratives on a wide range of topics, from traditional arts to seemingly ordinary things. Recognizing the fluidity of images, objects, and ideas, this series fosters cross-cultural as well as multi-disciplinary exploration. We consider proposals from across the spectrum of analytic approaches and methodologies. Series Editor Dr. Allison Levy, an art historian, has written and/or edited three scholarly books, and she has been the recipient of numerous grants and awards, from the National Endowment for the Humanities, the American Association of University Women, the Getty Research Institute, the Dumbarton Oaks Research Library of Harvard University, the Whiting Foundation and the Bogliasco Foundation, among others. www.allisonlevy.com.

Reframing Seventeenth-Century Bolognese Art Archival Discoveries Edited by Babette Bohn and Raffaella Morselli

Amsterdam University Press

Cover illustration: Guido Reni, Portrait of Cardinal Bernardino Spada, Rome, Galleria Spada, c. 1630–31. Cover design: Coördesign, Leiden Lay-out: Newgen/Konvertus isbn

978 94 6298 633 6

e-isbn

978 90 4853 755 6

doi 10.5117/9789462986336 nur 685 © The authors / Amsterdam University Press B.V., Amsterdam 2019 All rights reserved. Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this book may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise) without the written permission of both the copyright owner and the author of the book. Every effort has been made to obtain permission to use all copyrighted illustrations reproduced in this book. Nonetheless, whosoever believes to have rights to this material is advised to contact the publisher.

Table of Contents List of Illustrations7 Abbreviations11 1. Introduction Babette Bohn and Raffaella Morselli

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2. Bologna and Rome: Francesco Albani’s Correspondence and his Reflections on Art (1637–59)29 Raffaella Morselli 3. Collezionismo in Early Modern Bologna: The Fantuzzi’s Acquisition and Display of Drawings and Paintings by Local Masters Joyce de Vries 4. Collecting Women’s Art in Early Modern Bologna: Myth and Reality Babette Bohn

51 73

5. Bolognese Artists and Paintings in Mantua during the Gonzaga Nevers Period 95 Roberta Piccinelli 6. Bolognese Painters in the Private Collections of Romagna: The Albicini Marchis Collection in Forlì117 Barbara Ghelfi 7. Bolognese Paintings in Seventeenth-Century Medici Collections Reconsidered (1600–75)139 Elena Fumagalli Bibliography161 Index173

List of Illustrations Color Plates Plate 1. Girolamo Bonini, Portrait of Francesco Albani, Rome, Camera dei Deputati, c.1660. Plate 2. Francesco Albani, Saint Mary Magdalen, Rome, Musei Capitolini, c.1640. Plate 3. Ginevra Cantofoli, Saint Thomas of Villanova, Bologna, convent of San Giacomo Maggiore, 1658. Plate 4. Ginevra Cantofoli, Immaculate Conception with the Virgin of the Rosary, Bologna, Pinacoteca Nazionale, in storage at the Istituto Suore Francescane dell’ Immacolata, n.d. Plate 5. Gabriele Brunelli, statues, Loggia di Davide, Mantua, Palazzo Te, 1653. Plate 6. Giovanni Battista Caccioli, ceiling fresco, chapel of San Carlo, Mantua, Palazzo della Ragione, 1674. Plate 7. Guido Cagnacci, The Virgin of the Rose, private collection, c.1647. Plate 8. Carlo Cignani, Dawn, Forlì, Palazzo Albicini, 1672–74. Plate 9. Angelo Michele Colonna, Agostino Mitelli, and Francesco Albani, Jupiter and Ganymede, Medicean Villa di Mezzomonte (Florence), 1634.

Figures Fig. 2.1. Andrea Sacchi, Portrait of Francesco Albani, Madrid, Museo del Prado, 1635. Fig. 2.2. Raphael, Vatican Logge, Rome, Palazzo Apostolico Vaticano, 1517–19. Fig. 2.3. Domenichino, Stories of Saint Andrew, fresco, Rome, Sant’Andrea della Valle, 1622–27. Fig. 2.4. Mattia Preti, Crucifixion of Saint Andrew, frescoes, Rome, Sant’Andrea della Valle, 1651. Fig. 2.5. Francesco Albani, The Expulsion of Aeneas from Troy accompanied by the faithful Achates, Bologna, Palazzo Fava, 1598. Fig. 2.6. Annibale Carracci, Diana and Endymion, Rome, Galleria Farnese, 1597. Fig. 3.1. Diagram of the wall in the Fantuzzi study with Franceschini’s Sleeping Cupid, ASBo, AFC, b. 170. Fig. 3.2. Diagram of the wall in the Fantuzzi study with the painting of Two Cupids waving a Flag, ASBo, AFC, b. 170.

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Fig. 3.3. Diagram of the wall in the Fantuzzi study with two battle scenes, ASBo, AFC, b. 170. Fig. 3.4. Diagram of the wall in the Fantuzzi study with the fake doorway, ASBo, AFC, b. 170. Fig. 3.5. Diagram of the wall in the Fantuzzi gallery with Pasinelli’s Sleeping Cupid and the wall leading into an alcove, ASBo, AFC, b. 170. Fig. 3.6. Diagram of the wall in the Fantuzzi gallery with Pasinelli’s Joseph and Potiphar’s Wife and the wall facing the street, ASBo, AFC, b. 170. Fig. 4.1. Lucrezia Scarfaglia, Self-Portrait painting the Madonna of Saint Luke, Rome, Galleria Pallavicini, 1678. Fig. 4.2. Lucrezia Scarfaglia, Portrait of Elisabetta Agucchi Fioravanti, Bologna, Pinacoteca Nazionale, 1665. Fig. 4.3. Here attributed to Lucrezia Scarfaglia, Holy Family with the Young Saint John the Baptist, Bologna, private collection, c.1670 (photo: the author). Fig. 4.4. Attributed to Ginevra Cantofoli, Allegory of Painting, Milan, Pinacoteca di Brera, n.d. Fig. 4.5. Attributed to Ginevra Cantofoli, Allegory of Vanity, Milan, private collection, n.d. Fig. 4.6. Attributed to Ginevra Cantofoli, Bust of a Young Woman, drawing in red, black, and white chalk, 269 × 200 mm, private collection, n.d. (photo: Sotheby’s). Fig. 5.1. Giuseppe Maria Mitelli, Fountain in Marmirolo, etching, Mantua, private collection. Fig. 5.2. Nicolò Sebregondi, exedra and orangerie, Mantua, Palazzo Te, 1651. Fig. 5.3. Gonzaga Villa in Maderno, drawing, Mantua, ASMn, AG, b. 3168. Fig. 5.4.  Gabriele Brunelli, staircase with statues, Mantua, Palazzo Canossa, 1665–68. Fig. 5.5. Gabriele Brunelli, putto statue from the Villa in Marmirolo, Mantua, Palazzo Ducale, 1662. Fig. 5.6. Carlo Vandi, Aurora, ceiling fresco, Mantua, Palazzo di Bagno, 1748. Fig. 6.1. Giovanni Francesco Gessi, Death of Saint Joseph, private collection, before 1626. Fig. 6.2. Francesco Albani, Heavenly and Earthly Trinity with Saints Thomas Aquinas and Philip Neri, before San Domenico, Forlì, now Codogno (Lodi), chapel of the Hospital of Codogno, 1626. Fig. 6.3. Lucio Massari, The Death of Saint Joseph, ex-Forlì, San Domenico, now Milan, church of San Marco, 1626–27. Fig. 6.4. Francesco Albani, Flight into Egypt, private collection, c.1640–50. Fig. 6.5. Guido Cagnacci, Saint Andrew, Cesena, Galleria dei Dipinti Antichi della Cassa di Risparmio di Cesena, 1647.

List of Illustrations

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Fig. 6.6. Domenico Maria Canuti, Abundance, Forlì, Palazzo Albicini, 1677–78. Fig. 7.1. Annibale Carracci, Venus and Satyr with two Cupids, Florence, Gallerie degli Uffizi, Galleria delle Statue e delle Pitture, c.1589–90. Fig. 7.2. Giovanni Lanfranco, Ruggiero helping Angelica down from the Hippogriff, Urbino, Galleria Nazionale delle Marche, 1618. Fig. 7.3. Giovanni Lanfranco, Penitent Magdalen contemplating a Skull, Munich, Bayerische Staatsgemäldesammlungen, Alte Pinakothek, c.1620–21. Fig. 7.4. Guido Reni, Hercules and the Hydra, Florence, Gallerie degli Uffizi, Galleria delle Statue e delle Pitture, c.1636–37. Fig. 7.5. Francesco Albani, Rape of Europa, Florence, Gallerie degli Uffizi, storage, c.1638–39. Fig. 7.6. Guercino, Hercules, Cerreto Guidi, Museo Storico della Caccia e del Territorio, 1645. Fig. 7.7. Bartolomeo Gennari, Samian Sybil, Florence, Gallerie degli Uffizi, storage, 1652.

Tables Table 3.1. Works of art on the early eighteenth-century receipt, for display in the San Domenico Fantuzzi gallery Table 4.1.  Three hundred and sixty-one Bolognese inventories with attributed artworks Table 4.2.  Women artists identified in seventeenth- and eighteenth-century inventories Table 4.3. Ginevra Cantofoli’s public pictures and the early writers

Abbreviations b. busta c. carta fol. foglio fasc. fascicolo prot. protocolo AAFo Archivio Albicini di Forlì AR Biblioteca comunale dell’Archiginnasio, Bologna ASBo Archivio di Stato di Bologna AFC Archivio Fantuzzi Ceretoli ASFi Archivio di Stato di Firenze CA Carteggio d’Artisti GM Guardaroba Medicea MM Miscellanea Medicea MP Mediceo del Principato P Scrittoio delle Regie Possessioni ASMn Archivio di Stato di Mantova AG Archivio Gonzaga AN Archivio Notarile

1. Introduction Babette Bohn and Raffaella Morselli

Abstract This chapter provides an overview of the important archival research that scholars have done in studying Bolognese art of the seventeenth century. Beginning with Malvasia and Masini during the Seicento, the essay traces key developments in archival research to the present day. Touching on the discoveries and uses of such varied documents as letters, birth and death records, wills, contracts, inventories, and biographies that remained in manuscript, the essay elucidates the central role that archival discoveries have played in the evolution of scholarly studies devoted to Bolognese art of the seventeenth century. Keywords: Masini, Malvasia, Oretti, Crespi, Gualandi, Giordani

This book of essays had its inception in 2016, when we organized a series of three panels at the annual conference of the Renaissance Society of America. Devoted to ‘Bolognese Art in the Archives’, our three RSA panels investigated various types of archival research that were devoted to the study of Bolognese art, beginning in the late sixteenth century with the Carracci but primarily focusing on the art of the Seicento. This is a rich subject in Bolognese art historiography that has flourished conspicuously during the past two decades, particularly in light of the extensive work on Bolognese inventories that has emerged since 1997. In addition, modern scholars who work on Bolognese art have dealt productively with other types of archival materials, such as artistic contracts, baptismal records, dowries, wills, letters, and many others. But the reliance on various types of documents and primary sources for the study of Bolognese art history is not new. This methodology has a long history, one that reaches back long before the twenty-first century. Probably due in large part to Bologna’s academic character, as the site of the oldest university in Europe, many Bolognese writers who were concerned with the art and the history of their native city were characterized by a scrupulous attention to archival resources from at least the seventeenth century. In this short introduction, we will consider some of the principal exponents of this rich tradition, concluding with an overview of the

Bohn, B. and R. Morselli (eds.), Reframing Seventeenth-Century Bolognese Art: Archival Discoveries, Amsterdam University Press, 2019 doi: 10.5117/9789462986336_ch01

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chapters in this volume and some comments about how the research presented here contributes to this singularly Bolognese tradition. Although Bolognese art historiography begins earlier, with such sixteenth-century writers as Pietro Lamo,1 our considerations in this introduction commence with the Seicento, focusing on two important writers whose contributions to Bolognese art history were notable for their reliance on documents and other primary sources. Antonio di Paolo Masini (1599–1691) was a Bolognese silk merchant who did not enjoy the benefits of a classical education comparable to that of some of his more learned compatriots discussed in this essay. But although he had not pursued such a course of studies, he became deeply interested in the history, religion, and culture of his native city, acquiring a profound knowledge particularly of sacred and historical texts. Masini published several books on religion that also include considerations of art, beginning in 1640, with La Guida spirituale […] per visitare le chiese di Bologna (The spiritual guide […] for visiting the churches of Bologna).2 But his most influential publication and the one most deeply engaged with Bolognese art was his Bologna perlustrata (Bologna investigated), first published in 1650 and then in a second, expanded edition of 1666. This book is a religious calendar, guidebook, and devotional itinerary of Bologna that lists the churches in the city and provides substantial information on art and especially on local Bolognese artists and their works. Importantly, the book also includes an index listing the artists active in Bologna, differentiating between foreigners and bolognesi. In his research for the Bologna perlustrata, Masini read the published works of Ghirardacci, Alidosi, Montalbani, and others. But he also consulted many and varied documents, as he explicitly states in the introduction to the book: ‘All this was taken from both printed histories and manuscripts by many good authors, from public and private archives, from chronicles, annals, the libraries of monasteries and religious figures, from patents, briefs, copyright privileges, financial instruments, and other authentic writings, and from many other old and faithful manuscripts of Bologna and other cities’.3 This assertion of his archive-based research methods is distinctly reminiscent of a similar allegation in the introduction to Ghirardacci’s famous history of Bologna, in 1596.4 All later writers on Masini, beginning with his first biographer, Giovanni Fantuzzi, have recognized 1 Lamo, 1844 [1560]. Among the other important early Bolognese writers on art not considered here is Francesco Cavazzoni, who, like Lamo, was also a painter. Both these writers are discussed by Buscaroli, 1936. See also Perini, 1981. 2 Fantuzzi provides a full list of the writer’s publications (1965 [1781], V, 356–58). 3 Masini, 1666, no pag.: ‘Il tutto è cavato da Historie stampate, e manoscritte da moltissimi altri buoni Autori, da publici, e privati Archivij, da Croniche, Annali, e Librarie de’ Monasterij, e Religioni, da Patenti, Brevi, Privilegi, Instromenti, & altre autentiche scritture, e da molti altri antichi, e fedeli manoscritti di Bologna, e d’altre Città’. 4 Ghirardacci, 2005 [1596], I, no pag.: ‘leggendo no solamente le Tavole publiche della Biblioteca Vaticana, & le autentiche scritture di molti Archivi, & di persone particolari, & in specie le scritture dell’Archivio public di detta Città’.

Introduction 

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this reliance on documents. According to Adriana Arfelli, the most important modern scholar to examine Masini’s publications, his writings reflect a sound knowledge of sacred and historical literature, but a more uneven understanding of art and culture.5 Even so, his information on Bolognese artists is invaluable, particularly since many of the documents he read and transcribed are no longer traceable. Until 1678, when Malvasia published his Felsina pittrice, Masini’s Bologna perlustrata provided the only comprehensive compendium of Bolognese artists. And even after Malvasia’s publication, in 1690, when Masini was over 90, he created an addendum to his own work: the Aggiunta. Probably due to the author’s death on 4 February 1691, shortly after the completion of his manuscript, this latter publication is rare, incomplete, and was never widely distributed by the publisher, the ‘eredi di Vittorio Benacci’ (‘heirs of Vittorio Benacci’).6 The Aggiunta (Addition), which was published in 1957 by Arfelli, provides a wealth of new information on Bolognese artists, expanding on the information already collected by Malvasia, even though unlike Malvasia, Masini was not writing biographies per se and usually ignores such fundamental information as details on artistic training. Nevertheless, Masini’s Aggiunta added new material on prominent artists such as Francesco Albani, Domenico Maria Canuti, Bartolomeo Cesi, Giuseppe Maria Crespi, and Marcantonio Franceschini, and also supplied the first recorded information on specific works by less well-known women painters, such as Anna Teresa Messieri, Angela Cantelli Cavazza, Maria Oriana Galli Bibiena, Camilla Lauteri, and Lucrezia Scarfaglia. In most of the latter instances, Masini’s lists of their works provided the basis for eighteenth-century artistic biographers such as Luigi Crespi and Marcello Oretti, who expanded on his lists of works only occasionally. And sometimes, as in the case of Camilla Lauteri, the paintings described by Masini were subsequently rediscovered by modern scholars in the original locations that the writer had indicated.7 The limited space of this essay does not allow for full consideration of the most important and most thoroughly studied Bolognese writer on art, Carlo Cesare Malvasia (1616–1693). The learned Malvasia was an amateur painter, accomplished poet, antiquarian, and lawyer who taught law at the university. One admiring early biographer listed his remarkably diverse accomplishments: ‘Attentive to humanistic letters, philosophy, astronomy, chemistry, theology, laws, history, criticism, antiquarianism, architecture, music, painting, military arts […]’.8 His first publication on art, in 1652, discussed Giovanni Andrea Sirani’s Supper in the House of the Pharisee, painted that year for the church of San Girolamo della Certosa. Two later publications, 5 Arfelli, 1957, 189–90. Arfelli provides a few examples of Masini’s artistic misunderstandings on 193, n. 18. 6 Four copies (two in each location) are housed in the Biblioteca Comunale dell’Archiginnasio and the Belle Arte e Storia S. Giorgio in Poggiale, both in Bologna. 7 Buitoni, 2011. 8 Fantuzzi, 1965 [1781], V,149: ‘Attese alle Lettere umane, alla Filosofia, all’Astronomia, alla Chimica, Teologia, alle Leggi, alla Storia, alla Critica, all’Antiquaria, all’Architettura, alla Musica, alla Pittura, all’Arte militare […]’.

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Malvasia’s two-volume Felsina pittrice: vite de’ pittori bolognesi of 1678 and Le pitture di Bologna of 1686, constitute our most invaluable sources from the Seicento on Bolognese art and artists. In the Felsina pittrice, whose expected publication was first announced by Masini in 1666,9 Malvasia promulgates his commitment to unwavering accuracy based on primary sources at the outset. He declares: … I write nothing that is not based on the most secure and true foundations. Either I have seen something and actually experienced it myself, or it has been reported to me by the very person who witnessed it, or by his family or servant. Either it derives from the most faithful reports, manuscripts, and unimpeachable memoirs, such as those by Francia, Lamberti, Baldi, Cavazzoni, and others, or it stems from the infinite number of letters I have collected, not to mention the many others I have seen.10

This statement unequivocally articulates the writer’s dedication to accuracy, founded on his reliance on primary sources and on his firsthand experience of the art discussed. Sometimes, this scrupulous reliance on documents is clearly corroborated in Malvasia’s unpublished notes (or Scritti originali), which contain transcriptions of baptismal records for many painters, transcriptions from original letters, or writings by other authors, although some of the most interesting documents, such as Guido Reni’s account book, are unfortunately not preserved there.11 For Elizabeth Cropper, Malvasia’s method suggests a type of memoir, based on living history.12 For Anne Summerscale, the writer’s frequent and highly original reliance on quotations authenticates and embellishes his narratives and reflects a deliberate departure from rhetorical conventions.13 Malvasia’s publications have been the subject of considerable scholarship, particularly during the past forty years, by such distinguished scholars as Elizabeth Cropper, Charles Dempsey, Lorenzo Pericolo, and Giovanna Perini, among others.14 Perini’s pioneering work, protesting unwarranted attacks on Malvasia’s reliability, memorably praises ‘Malvasia’s long, meticulous quest for original documents (none of which has as yet been proved false)’.15 His biographies of Bolognese artists are remarkable for their attention to and extended quotations from letters, other documents authored 9  Masini announces Malvasia’s forthcoming biography of the painter Elisabetta Sirani (1666, 620). 10 1678, no pag.: ‘non iscrivo cosa, che non sia appoggiata a fondamenti per lo più sicuri, e veri. O l’aurò veduto io medesimo, e praticato di fatto; ò sarà relazione dello stesso, al quale avvenne ciò che si racconta, ò di suo parente, ò dimestico; ò cavata da fedelissime relazioni, manoscritti, e memorie irrefragabili, come da quelle del Francia, del Lamberti, del Baldi, del Cavazzoni, e simili; ò da infinità di lettere, che hò posto assieme, senza le tant’altre vedute.’ Translation from Malvasia, 2012, I, 183. 11 Arfelli, in Malvasia, 1961, xxxii–xxxix. 12 Cropper in Malvasia, 2012, I, 35. 13 Summerscale, 2000, 58–61. 14 For a summary of some important modern writers who address this issue, see Malvasia, 2012, 270, n. 16. 15 Perini, 1988, 284. Schlosser, 1977, 530, among others, questioned the reliability of Malvasia’s documentary references.

Introduction 

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by the artists or their family members, and verbatim selections from other pertinent biographies. This reliance on primary sources and documents, verbatim quotations, and meticulous attention to historical detail created a pattern that his Bolognese successors endeavored to follow, albeit not always with equal success. Many of Malvasia’s most important documentary sources came directly from Bolognese artists. To cite two among many examples: Shortly before Francesco Albani’s death in 1660, he gave Malvasia his papers, including some of the letters that are discussed by Raffaella Morselli in Chapter 2 of this volume. And after Elisabetta Sirani’s death in 1665, her father, Malvasia’s friend Giovanni Andrea Sirani, gave the biographer Elisabetta’s own list of her paintings produced between 1655 and 1665. Malvasia’s Bolognese successors during the eighteenth century attempted to follow their great predecessor’s example with close attention to primary sources and documents. The eighteenth century in Bologna saw an explosion of this type of scholarship, and we cannot deal with all of the many examples in this short essay.16 It is worth noting two important writer-researchers during this period who were not, strictly speaking, art historians, but whose many volumes of unpublished manuscripts have provided crucial resources for art historical studies. The first is Count Baldassare Antonio Maria Carrati (1735–1812), who never published a book, but wrote more than fifty volumes of manuscripts, all conserved today in the Biblioteca Comunale dell’Archiginnasio in Bologna. Among his many archival contributions, Carrati investigated baptismal, marriage, and death records from the mid-seventeenth through the late eighteenth century, recording dates and other details in scores of volumes that are impressive for their reliability. The quantity and quality of information Carrati provides on seventeenth- and eighteenth-century Bolognese artists is in some respects unmatched by any other writer, and he was recognized for his contributions by the Bolognese Accademia Clementina, which elected him an honorary member in 1767.17 A second prolific historian who studied and collected documents on Bolognese families and individuals was Lodovico Montefani Caprara (1709– 1785), who wrote the eighty-four-volume Delle famiglie bolognesi, now preserved in the manuscript collection of Bologna’s University library. Montefani Caprara, like Carrati, is an invaluable source for Bolognese art historians, although his work is less frequently utilized by modern scholars. For the most part, the eighteenth-century Bolognese writers on art who succeeded Malvasia were inspired by his example, but they were uneven and failed to live up to the quality of their great seicento predecessor, although they collected a good deal of information on the Bolognese artists who had lived too late to receive Malvasia’s

16 One important eighteenth-century Bolognese writer who is not discussed here is Pellegrino Antonio Orlandi; see Orlandi 1704, 1714. 17 Boni, 2004, II, fasc. 147, fol. 78.

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attention. Giovanni Pietro Zanotti (1674–1765), who has been called ‘a fervent and convinced follower of Malvasia’ (‘un malvasiano fervente e convinto’),18 although some of his later writings were critical of his great predecessor, was a painter and writer. Zanotti, a founding member and long-time secretary of Bologna’s Accademia Clementina, wrote a history of that institution in 1739 that included lengthy biographies of the academy’s members through that date. The son of a Bolognese man and French woman, Zanotti was born in Paris and came to Bologna at the age of 10, studying painting with Lorenzo Pasinelli. Zanotti’s Storia dell’Accademia Clementina provides important biographical information on contemporary artists who were members of the Academy during its first few decades, a somewhat limited sample, but he rarely refers to documents and offers few original ideas.19 Two other art historical writers during the eighteenth century in Bologna were Luigi Crespi (1708–1779) and Marcello Oretti (1714–1787), both interesting but problematic figures. Crespi is best known for writing a third volume to Malvasia’s Felsina pittrice, published in 1769, and for his study of the paintings in San Girolamo della Certosa, Bologna, published in 1772. Like Zanotti, Crespi was a painter; he was the son of the famous Giuseppe Maria Crespi. In his preface addressed to the reader, at the outset of his Felsina pittrice volume, Crespi expresses his desire to continue Malvasia’s great project, acknowledging Zanotti’s book but noting its limitation to the members of the Accademia Clementina.20 Crespi also announces here his intention to include a consideration of sculptors and architects, professions that Malvasia had not explicitly considered in his book on Bolognese painting. But this goal was never realized. As the writer acknowledges in his preface, his work grew out of his correspondence with the learned Florentine, Giovanni Bottari. Crespi also provided a book of letters on art for Bottari’s series of volumes on the subject.21 Crespi’s critical reception as a writer was decidedly mixed. Although he was admitted to other academies in Venice and Parma, and even to the prestigious Accademia del Disegno in Florence, he was never admitted to Bologna’s Accademia Clementina, which was also strongly critical of his Felsina pittrice volume. The Academy’s secretary, the sculptor Domenico Piò, disparaged Crespi’s book as an ‘emporium of cruelties and sillinesses’ (‘emporio delle malignità e delle scioccaggini’).22 Crespi’s ambitious biographical compendium includes some 450 biographical notices, many of them founded on documents and other primary sources. But in none of his books is his information always reliable, and some of his mistakes even raise questions about his fundamental archival acumen. One telling error, in his book on the Certosa, involves his comments on Elisabetta Sirani. Crespi misreads a key 18 Perini, 1981, 235–36, which provides a discussion of Zanotti’s critical relationship to Malvasia. 19 Useful sources on Zanotti include his autobiography (1739, III, 143–56) and Roli, 1977. 20 Crespi, 1769, xii–xiii. 21 Crespi, 1773, v–vi. 22 Archivio dell’Accademia Clementina, c. 273, cited in Perini Folesani, 2017, 47, n. 79.

Introduction 

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document concerning Sirani’s first major public commission in Bologna, her Baptism for the church of San Girolamo della Certosa. Crespi was the first writer to note this document, which records a payment of 1,000 lire to the artist in 1657. The biographer deserves some credit for uncovering this important document, but he mistakenly thought that the painting was commissioned by Carlo Vannotti, who was actually the notary for the agreement, not the patron. The large painting, commissioned on the 28 February 1657, was to be completed within two years.23 Giovanna Perini Folesani, who has published extensively and authoritatively on Luigi Crespi as both writer and painter, criticizes Crespi’s Felsina pittrice for insufficient research, poor editing, omissions, imprecisions, a lack of homogeneous criteria, and personal prejudices.24 Although Crespi’s contributions to the study of Bolognese art were certainly important, his example shows that attention to primary sources and documents does not always guarantee accuracy. Crespi’s contemporary Marcello Oretti is also a complicated figure in Bolognese art historiography. He was a more prolific writer than any of his predecessors, but not a single one of his sixty manuscript volumes was ever published. Like Malvasia, Oretti came from an ancient, noble Bolognese family that produced many senators and magistrates. And like Carrati, he was elected an honorary member of the Accademia Clementina. He was well educated and well traveled, maintained an extensive correspondence with many scholars, collectors, and artists, was himself an amateur artist who received some training from Ludovico Mattioli and Donato Creti, and assembled a substantial art collection of his own. And Oretti avidly collected and consulted documents, including the wills of quite a few important Bolognese artists, such as Guercino, Guido Reni, Angelo Michele Colonna, Giovan Gioseffo dal Sole, Domenico Maria Canuti, and Alessandro Algardi. Some of Oretti’s correspondence with Bolognese artists is still conserved today in the Biblioteca Comunale dell’Archi­ ginnasio in Bologna.25 Oretti’s sixty manuscripts, all housed today in the Archiginnasio, include many important resources for the study of Bolognese art. The most significant among them is his Notizie, a thirteen-volume biographical compendium that focuses primarily although not exclusively on Bolognese artists. Also very useful are his two catalogues of the artworks in the noble and more ordinary private collections in the city; and his two-volume examination of Bolognese churches and the works they contained. All these manuscripts, and many others, provide a vast quantity of information on more than 2,000, primarily Bolognese painters, sculptors, architects, printmakers, and 23 Libro P, c. 133; Crespi, 1772, 20. Sirani’s patron was presumably the prior of the Certosa, Daniele Granchi, as suggested by Bohn, 2004a, 212–13 and 232, n. 31. This document was transcribed and published by De Töth, 1934, I, 33. 24 Perini Folesani, 2017, 37–39. 25 For Oretti’s biography, see Giordani, 1835; Perini, 1979, 1983; and her entry in the Dizionario biografico degli Italiani.

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embroiderers. His catalogues of Bolognese private collections record many works, particularly paintings, that are not mentioned by any other writers. And in his Notizie, Oretti includes detailed information on both well-known Bolognese artists, such as Guido Reni and the Carracci, and others who are less well studied. His information on women artists quantitatively surpasses the attention of any other early modern Italian writer to this subject, including discussions of a remarkable sixty-four, primarily Bolognese, female painters, sculptors, printmakers, and embroiderers. Oretti’s attention to the women artists of his native city built on Masini’s pioneering discoveries, although he also sometimes added new works to Masini’s lists. And we would know nothing about eight Bolognese women artists were it not for Oretti’s accounts, confirming his active original research, some of which is documented in his correspondence. But Oretti’s manuscripts are unedited, and sometimes he even contradicts himself within the same painter’s biography: Rosalba Bolognini Laurenti, for example, is described as dying at both age 52 and age 55;26 Elena Maria Panzacchi died at age 79 and elsewhere at age 69;27 Antonia Pinelli Bertusio died on 25 July 1644 but elsewhere on 10 May 1644; 28 and Flaminia Triva is characterized as both the daughter and the sister of Antonio Triva.29 These inconsistencies are perplexing, since Oretti directly consulted the death records in the archives of Bolognese churches; in fact, one of his other manuscripts is dedicated exclusively to recording these specific archival findings.30 But apparently, notwithstanding the numerous original contributions of his research, he did not check his work assiduously and failed to edit out these (and many other) factual inconsistencies and inaccuracies. Thus, as with Luigi Crespi, the contributions of Marcello Oretti are a mixture of useful new findings and unreliable allegations. The works of both these writers illustrate the unfortunate truth that archival research alone is no guarantee of accuracy. The passion for collecting written documents, begun in the mid-seventeenth century with Masini and Malvasia and continued by Crespi and Oretti, continued into the following decades, a period during which the Barbieri-Gennari archive, one of the most important private collections of documents on art, was sold. In 1772, Filippo Hercolani (1736–1810) purchased Guercino’s account ledger from the Gennari family, Guercino’s relatives. In 1808, having realized how important it was, both for information on Guercino and for identifying Guercino’s paintings, Hercolani decided to have the ledger transcribed. He entrusted the task to his art consultant, the painter Alessandro Calvi (1740–1815), who integrated the transcription with an original Life of Guercino.31 Filippo Hercolani had also acquired many other significant documents, 26 Oretti, Notizie, B.130, fol. 272r. 27 Ibid., B.128, fol. 298r. 28 Ibid., B.124, fols. 127Ar–29Ar. 29 Ibid., B.128, fol. 156r. 30 Oretti, Raccolta di Memorie delle morti, B.98r. 31 Calvi, 1808; Ghelfi, Chapter 6 of this volume.

Introduction 

21

including the preparatory notes made by Carlo Cesare Malvasia for his Felsina pittrice and the monumental series of sixty autograph manuscripts by Marcello Oretti,32 Luigi Crespi’s notes for the third volume of the Felsina pittrice, the autograph version of the Storia dell’Accademia Clementina by Giampietro Zanotti, and Pellegrino Antonio Orlandi’s Abecedario pittorico (The pictorial alphabet).33 Hercolani also possessed an impressive collection of about 8,000 letters, most of them by famous Bolognese figures from the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.34 The sources indicate that the Hercolani princes, besides cultivating their interest in the visual arts, also took extremely good care of their family archive and had a very rich library, which included manuscripts and printed works of great value, especially for the history of local art.35 For Filippo di Marcantonio, whom Luigi Crespi called ‘more than all the rest a literary scholar and researcher’, collecting was virtually a necessity.36 Filippo expanded the gallery, library, and archive, which included works crucial to the art history of Bologna. When Filippo died in 1810, the family fortunes began to decline rapidly, and the precious collection began to be sold off, beginning in 1837. In 1872, it was fortunately purchased for the most part by the city of Bologna. The nineteenth century is, in general, the century during which the most important bodies of letters and documents of various types were printed, publications that remain fundamental to art historical scholarship today. In these collections, Bologna, with its famous painters, is central. A crucial role was played by the Bolognese painter Michelangelo Gualandi (1793–1860). In his Memorie originali italiane risguardanti le Belle Arti (Original Italian memoirs regarding the fine arts), printed in six volumes in Bologna during 1840–45, Gualandi assembled a large number of documents on Italian artists, most of them Bolognese: wills, letters, contracts, inventories, reports, surveys, and birth and death certificates. These documents provided the basis for the modern philological reconstruction of entire registers of painters. It is no coincidence that in 1839, Gualandi also dedicated a book to Guercino, following one by Jacopo Alessandro Calvi, and anticipating the 1861 book by Gaetano Atti.37 More than ten years after the Memorie, Gualandi published a Nuova raccolta di lettere antiche […] in aggiunta a quelle date in luce da Mons. Bottari e dal Ticozzi (New collection of ancient letters […] in addition to those brought to light by Mons. Bottari and by Ticozzi), printed in Bologna in 1856.38 This publication added more than 200 letters to the collection referenced in the title. It anticipated the compendium by Campori and the much more systematic one by Antonino Bertolotti, who dedicated one of his 32 Perini, 1979; Fanti, 1982. 33 Orlandi, 1763. 34 Collezione di codici manoscritti; Manfron, 2001, 75. 35 Ghelfi, forthcoming. She is is currently studying the archives of Hercolani family in Bologna. 36 Descrizione di molti quadri, fol. 1r. 37 Atti, 1861. 38 Gualandi, 1844–56.

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most famous publications to Bolognese painters.39 To this long series of documentary investigations, it is worth adding a text that collected a type of document that had been previously neglected, a gesture that bears witness to a new attitude towards documentary studies: Campori’s Raccolta di cataloghi ed inventari inediti (Collection of unpublished catalogs and inventories), printed in Modena in 1870. Campori focused primarily on the Estense court but also included many references to the Bolognese art scene. Analogously, Antonio Bolognini-Amorini, Gualandi, and Giuseppe Guidicini each contributed to the creation of a new form of art historical studies based on a perspective that was more positivist than Malvasia’s approach, although the latter was already oriented in that direction.40 Guidicini’s work, along with Oretti’s, remains, even today, a necessary starting point for any study of noble residences and collections, the more so, because with the new century, many of these collections were divided up and dispersed. The nineteenth century is also the period during which the first monographic studies on Guido Reni were published.41 This was the century of Gaetano Giordani (1800–1873), the first curator of the Pinacoteca di Bologna, or Pontificia Accademia di Belle Arti, as it was called between 1822 and 1859. In 1826, Giordani published the first systematic catalogue of the paintings that had come to the Pinacoteca from the Zambeccari legacy and as a result of the Napoleonic suppressions. Along with bibliographical texts, he wrote many art historical essays, mostly devoted to Bologna and the surrounding areas. Among his many documentary studies, it is worth mentioning the first study of Bolognese woman painters.42 Giordani accurately examined the existing bibliography, verifying some information in person, and also elaborated some original ideas that are still central to our understanding of Bolognese art. Giordani’s most difficult undertaking was the editing of the Felsina pittrice by Carlo Cesare Malvasia. Between 1841 and 1844, this seminal work was republished in installments, a rather common practice at the time for works of this size. The new edition was not an updated version of Malvasia’s text, but nevertheless differed profoundly from the first edition. Giordani integrated the notes that Giampietro Zanotti had written in the early decades of the 1700s for his own, personal copy and added others whose authors are not always easily recognizable. The editors of the second edition felt the need in some situations (without making it evident) to correct Malvasia’s wording (Perini Folesani has conducted extensive research on these issues), normalizing it and deleting or amending some expressions in Bolognese

39 Gualandi 1844–56; Campori, 1866; Bertolotti, 1886. 40 Bolognini-Amorini, 1841–43, and Guidicini, 1868–73. 41 ‘Guido Reni, o il Guido, 1821, and Bolognini-Amorini, 1839. 42 Giordani, 1832.

Introduction 

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‘dialect’. In short, the 1841–44 edition is certainly not a critical edition and cannot be understood as providing an entirely satisfactory basis for the study of Malvasia’s text.43 In 1967, the publisher Forni decided to republish a facsimile of the 1841–44 edition. Notwithstanding all the critical limitations of an edition prepared by multiple hands, the quality of this version reflected the philological debate of the first half of the nineteenth century. The edition also offers information on the collections and locations of artworks in that period, providing a very useful support for modern historiographical research. The studies by Francesco Malaguzzi Valeri (1867–1928), who became director of the Pinacoteca Nazionale of Bologna in 1914 – published between the end of the nineteenth and the beginning of the twentieth century – inaugurated a new phase in the evolution of Bolognese art history.44 In his publications and their successors, the discovery of documents became fundamental to the identifications of paintings, fresco cycles, chapels, and altarpieces. In this period, which lasted up to the 1990s, sources were catalogued and documents were used to date works. In this first phase, the goal was to begin putting together catalogs, aggregations of works, based on chronological and stylistic affinities. Important studies of this type were published by Hans Tietze on Annibale Carracci’s Farnese Gallery in 1906, by Max von Boehn on Guido Reni in 1910, by Hermann Voss on Domenichino in 1913 and on Reni in 1923, and by Walter Friedländer on Ludovico Carracci in 1926. Then we arrive at the seminal Momenti di pittura bolognese (Moments in Bolognese painting) by Roberto Longhi (1935),45 which epitomizes this documentary emphasis, paving the way for the critical reconstruction of the history of the entire Bolognese school in the decades to come. It is beyond the scope of the present essay to list all the books, essays, and exhibitions dedicated to this great period of seventeenth-century Bolognese art. We may note, however, that documentary research is now used as a fundamental support for catalogs of artists’ works. Two publications in particular stand out: the monograph on Alessandro Tiarini,46 which includes an important, chronologically ordered transcription of pertinent documents, and the studies by Artioli and Monducci of the painters Bonone, Guercino, and Spada, which were integrated into the catalogs of exhibitions.47 After Longhi, during the late twentieth century, there followed a generation of Italian scholars such as Andrea Emiliani, Lea Marzocchi, Adriana Arfelli, and Giovanna Perini, who made some very important archival data accessible. One example is Arfelli’s partial study of the Scritti originali (original notes) by Malvasia for the Felsina pittrice, including the handwritten files that the author used to write the work. 43 See Girotto, 2012, 59–60. 44 Malaguzzi Valeri, 1895. 45 Longhi, 1935. 46 Benati, 2001. 47 Artioli and Monducci, 1982.

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Malvasia’s working notes are very important to the study of Bolognese art. Preserved by Count Filippo Hercolani, they are now housed at the Archiginnasio library. Rediscovered in 1961 by Arfelli, who published some sections that related to painters who had been excluded from the Felsina pittrice because they were still living in 1678, when the first edition was published, these notes were subsequently partially published by Lea Marzocchi, in 1983. The notes tell us a good deal about Malvasia and his working methods, his scrupulous dedication to personally examining the works, his attention to primary sources, and his skill in determining authorship, details that were often not included in the published Felsina pittrice. Meanwhile, portions of Malvasia’s Felsina pittrice began to be translated into English. In 1980, Catherine and Robert Enggass translated the Life of Guido Reni. In 2000, Anne Summerscale translated and annotated Malvasia’s lives of the Carracci. At present, an ambitious project coordinated by Elizabeth Cropper and Lorenzo Pericolo is in progress, meant to produce the first translated, critical edition ever of the entire Felsina pittrice, including the original Italian text alongside the translation, as well as a transcription of Malvasia’s notes and a full scholarly apparatus.48 Along with the studies of individual painters, which include detailed and careful documentary research, and the scholarship on Malvasia, during the second half of the twentieth century, documentary research followed various methodological directions. These can be summarized as follows: sources and historiography; examinations of patrons and collectors; correspondence; and investigation of art economics and the art market. In each of these categories, we find monographic studies and essays on the history of Bolognese art. One stellar example of this type of research is the critical edition of Guercino’s account ledger, published in 1997, which in the words of Denis Mahon is ‘a document of crucial importance for our understanding of Guercino’s work and is also unique for the light it sheds on the modalities of economic organization of a seventeenth-century atelier’.49 The edition offers an accurate, modern, annotated transcription of the precious manuscript. It had already been published in 1808 and 1841, in editions that included a few minor errors and failed to convey the complexity of the text, in which the handwriting and the organization change, depending upon the writer (there were at least three: Paolo Antonio Barbieri, Guercino, and Benedetto Gennari). The philological transcription of the register was integrated with a double apparatus of notes that enables scholars to compare it with the nineteenth-century editions and offers the fundamental bibliography for each work described.50 All scholars of Guercino must necessarily rely on this edition. The painter’s catalog is entirely correlated in the notes to his account ledger, which thereby becomes the main instrument 48 For example, the first volume was published in 2012. 49 Mahon, 1997, 13. 50 Ghelfi, 1997.

Introduction 

25

for reconstructing his career. Studies of Guercino have also focused on his market and clientele. Olivier Bonfait’s investigation of Guercino’s clients and the progression of his payments is one example. Another is Richard Spear’s 1994 study, which analyzes the painter’s financial situation in light of the prices for his works.51 These two important publications paved the way for further studies by Spear himself and by Raffaella Morselli, on the Bolognese painting milieu of the seventeenth century.52 The question of artists’ account ledgers is central for Bologna, because there are some surviving seventeenth-century examples of great interest for the economic and social history of art. These documents contribute precious information that elucidates both the personalities of the artists and their relationships with clients. In addition to the above-mentioned example on Guercino, another very interesting document is the painter Marcantonio Franceschini’s account ledger, in which the first entry is dated 1684 and the last one 1739. Guido Zucchini in 1942 had begun to study this important document, just purchased by the Archiginnasio of Bologna, but it has been fully studied only in recent times.53 Thanks to the rediscovery of the ‘memorie di casa’ or house journal, it became easier to understand the differences between the latter and the ledger, and how they complement one another. There are two other examples, transcribed by Malvasia in the Felsina pittrice: the lists of works by Bartolomeo Cesi and by Elisabetta Sirani from 1655 to 1665, both included in their respective biographies. Another trend in Bolognese art historical scholarship that has been very fruitful during the last two decades is research on the history of collecting. A systematic investigation of legal inventories written after the deaths of numerous Bolognese collectors during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries has been carried out by Morselli and Bonfait.54 These studies shed light on the dynamics of purchasing paintings and on collectors, negotiations, and the creation of drawing collections, involving painters and experts with the same background: the painters’ guild. The seven essays in this volume shed light on some important aspects of Bolognese seventeenth-century art, through systematic documentary studies. They explore many of the possible routes outlined above and employ all available sources. The central objective is not simply to present specific lucky discoveries, but rather to work on documents from a wide-ranging historical perspective, relating artists to their works, their clients, their collectors, and their native city, without neglecting any of the sources in which this information is found. The character of the specific essays differs, but the varied subjects are addressed from perspectives that have many points in common and are always based on archival documentation. 51 Bonfait, 1990; Spear, 1994. 52 Spear, 1997; Morselli, 2010. 53 Zucchini, 1942; Miller and Chiodini, 2014; Ghelfi, 2017. 54 The most important results of this research may be found in Morselli, 1997, 1998; and Bonfait, 2000.

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In Barbara Ghelfi’s chapter on Bolognese painters in the private collections of the Romagna region, the collections of the Marchesi Albicini of Forlì are examined through an analysis of their correspondence. The private Albicini archive contains rich and diversified seventeenth- and eighteenth-century documentation on the relations between the family and Bolognese painters and on the Albicini collection of art objects. The correspondence between the Albicini and their correspondents in Bologna from 1629 to 1682 is full of references to paintings for the Albicini private chapel and family palace. There is also some interesting correspondence between the family and the painters Francesco Albani, Guido Cagnacci, Carlo Cignani, and Cesare Pronti. This documentation, partly unpublished, elucidates the artists’ working methods and the pricing system employed in seventeenth-century Bologna, including payment notes and contracts underwritten by painters. The author also discusses two inventories that describe the state of the collection at the beginning and end of the eighteenth century. These provide important insights into the development of the collection and the paintings acquired in the course of the century. Raffaella Morselli’s chapter also employs correspondence, in this case as a crucial source for understanding the long-standing relationship between Francesco Albani and the city of Rome. Albani had resided in Rome for a long time and considered it an important center of art and culture. His correspondence, including more than 200 letters, was lost for centuries. The present publication examines thirty-five letters, some of them cited by Malvasia, others unpublished or only partly published. The letters written by Albani to his students Domenico Maria Canuti and Girolamo Bonini between 1637 and 1659 describe Rome during this period, the golden years of the Bolognese painters in Rome belonging to the circle of Annibale Carracci. They also provide important information for the art history of Bologna. Joyce de Vries discusses the art collection of the noble Bolognese Fantuzzi family, examining inventories and sketches indicating the precise positions and values of artworks. In particular, she considers a very rare diagram that represents the Fantuzzi collection in the palace of San Domenico, arranged according to the inventory of 1748. The only other known examples of such diagrams in Bologna are those of Boschi and Aldrovandi. The inventory and diagram are studied jointly in order to be fully understood. The diagram describes 378 paintings, drawings, and engravings, which were thoughtfully arranged on the walls of the palace. The collection was principally composed of works by Bolognese school artists of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries and was also described by Marcello Oretti, who particularly praised Elisabetta Sirani’s famous painting of the Beato Marco Fantuzzi. The interpretation of an inventory is never straightforward and always depends on the perspective and the goals. In this sense, Babette Bohn’s chapter is methodologically very important. In her search for information on Bolognese women artists,

Introduction 

27

Bohn examines an enormous number of Bolognese inventories from the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, some already known and others newly discovered. She traces the appreciation of forty-four Bolognese women artists who were active during the seventeenth century, considerably more than are recorded in any other Italian city. In addition to the better known Elisabetta Sirani and Lavinia Fontana, she reconstructs the history of more obscure women painters mentioned by Malvasia and Masini, whose limited information on these artists was sometimes compromised or confused by later writers. Focusing in particular on Ginevra Cantofoli and Lucrezia Scarfaglia, Bohn explains the piecemeal character of existing evidence for their artistic careers, combining the study of archives and documents with a careful examination of the early writers. Roberta Piccinelli’s chapter focuses on the collection of Bolognese art assembled by the last three Gonzaga Nevers dukes in seventeenth-century Mantua. Based on new documentary research, Piccinelli explores the status, salaries, and paintings of such leading Bolognese artists as Domenico Maria Canuti and Agostino Mitelli, commenting on the Mantuan fondness for Bolognese quadratura painting and illustrating how Bolognese artists contributed significantly to the decoration of villas and palaces in Mantua and the surrounding area. Elena Fumagalli’s chapter examines the Medici’s strong interest in collecting Bolognese paintings, investigating the necessary dialogue between different types of documents, including inventories, letters, and payment records. Several inventories of the residences of both the Medici grand dukes and of the cadet members of the family, written at different times, are carefully considered in this analysis. The comparison between these different accounts is crucial for verifying the presence of the works throughout the seventeenth century and for obtaining new details of their descriptions. Further important information comes from the private correspondence of the Medici, especially with their correspondents in Bologna, and from the annotations of specific payments contained in financial documents. In conclusion, the studies carried out for the present publication demonstrate how modern, archive-based research methods can produce entirely original results. The insights into Bolognese art that are offered here build on the great traditions of Bolognese scholarship while also demonstrating the continuing vitality of the discipline.

About the authors Babette Bohn, Professor of Art History at Texas Christian University, has published widely particularly on Bolognese art, including books on Guido Reni, Ludovico Carracci, and Federico Barocci. Her current book project is entitled Women Artists, Their Patrons, and Their Publics in Early Modern Bologna.

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Raffaella Morselli is Professor of Art History at Teramo University. She has also published extensively on Bologna, including books on seventeenth-century collecting of Reni, Albani, and Cantarini and the social history of artists. Her current book project is Bologna distretto delle arti: la società artistica felsinea nel XVII secolo.

2. Bologna and Rome F rancesco Albani’s Correspondence and his Reflections on Art (1637–59) Raffaella Morselli

Abstract Morselli’s chapter reassembles the surviving correspondence of the painter Francesco Albani to understand his relationship with the city of Rome, where he had lived for a long period and which he saw as a location of great artistic and critical complexity. Originally composed of more than 200 letters, the correspondence was dispersed for centuries. Thirty-five letters are reunited here, some cited by Malvasia, some publish­ed, and some unpublished. The letters, written by Albani to his students Domenico Maria Canuti and Girolamo Bonini between 1637 and 1659, investigate Roman art of the present day as well as the earlier golden years of the generation of Bolognese paint­ers close to Annibale Carracci. The correspondence furnishes important evidence for the history of Bolognese classicism. Keywords: classicism, Albani, letters, Canuti, Bonini, historiography

Of the almost 200 letters by Francesco Albani (Bologna, 1578–1660) that the historian Carlo Cesare Malvasia possessed and used to reconstruct the life of the painter in his Felsina pittrice (1678), not all are lost. A sizeable corpus of thirty-five letters still survives in libraries, private collections, foundations, and museums in Europe and the U.S.; the letters span a period from 1637 to 1659, the final period of Albani’s long life.1

1 Twelve letters are in the Biblioteca Estense in Modena (1640, 1653, 1655, 1658, 1659); three in the Biblioteca Piancastelli, Forlì (1653, 1654); one in a private collection, Florence (1654); two formerly in a private collection, New York (1658, 1659); two in the Biblioteca Comunale of the Archiginnasio of Bologna (1637, 1659); one in the British Museum (1655); three in the Pierpont Morgan Library, New York (one undated, two dated 1651); three owned by Fritz Lugt, now in the Fondation Custodia, Paris (1658, and two 1659); one in a private collection (1645); two at the Getty Research Institute, Los Angeles (26 July 1659 and 20 [no month] 1659); and five in the Archive Albicini in Forlì (3 November 1627–7 June 1628 and a receipt of 1626 in b. 18, fasc. 4). The first five series were catalogued and entirely transcribed in 1969a by Van Schaack; the letters dated 13 July 1655 and 27 May Bohn, B. and R. Morselli (eds.), Reframing Seventeenth-Century Bolognese Art: Archival Discoveries, Amsterdam University Press, 2019 doi: 10.5117/9789462986336_ch02

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The present study takes these letters into account, combining them with those cited by Malvasia but now lost: spanning about twenty-five years, this correspondence interweaves personal information with diverse considerations of seventeenth-century Bologna and the main figures of the city; comments on ancient and modern Bolognese painting, which Albani knows well and describes in detail; weaves together the memories of his patrons and collectors; and sends messages and greetings, which are returned affectionately and deferentially. These all came from his home workshop in the little square of Santa Barbara in Bologna, in the parish of San Pietro Maggiore, or from the school where he taught painting near his home, under the vaulted Polla­ roli archway (neither the square nor the archway are still extant):2 a gathering place for painters and collectors, Bolognese and foreign.3 The results of this study have a proper place in the history of seventeenth-century art, offering a firsthand account of the history of painting in Bologna and Rome, and helping to answer many unsolved questions on artistic developments of the time.

The History of the Correspondence Some information on the corpus of letters is found in a letter dated 27 March 1730. Thirty-seven years after Malvasia’s death, the painter Giampietro Zanotti, a founder of the Accademia Clementina, wrote from Bologna to Maria Nicolò Gaburri in Florence, referring to the letters as follows: ‘Concerning Albani, I know of one who has almost 200, I have a few. I refused to take them all, although they contain interesting and amusing pieces of news, because the effort of reading them made me lose interest’.4 Evidently the letters used by Malvasia were still in Bologna, and Zanotti had access to them. Zanotti’s effort was certainly the result, in Malvasia’s words, ‘of the hopping discourse and broken writing’ that characterize Albani’s prose. In these letters the painter seems to be engaged in intense conversations with his interlocutors: his sentences are syntactically disorganized, following the thread of his thoughts and memories, 1637 were cited by Van Schaack, 1969a, 318, 327; the next two were mentioned by Puglisi, 1999. The undated letter by Albani to Girolamo Bonini, in the Morgan Library, was published by Cacho Casal, 2014. Another dated 1659 in the same collection, once in a private collection in New York, was excerpted and cited in a 2016 article by the same author. The 1645 letter was published by Borea, 2000, with an appendix by Alessandro Boni and a few references to Padre Domenico Regi (ibid., 68–69). The tenth series is cited by Donatella Sparti, 1996, and by Cacho Casal, 2016, 61. The eleventh series is composed of five letters in Archivio Albicini in Forlì; see Giudici, 1991, and Ghelfi in Chapter 6 of this book. 2 It was here that, on 26 March 1650, a deed was signed before the notary Pompeo Cignani; see Van Schaack, 1969a, 322. 3 On the church, annexed in 1613 to San Pietro Maggiore and temporary seat in 1621 of the Congregation of the Oratory of Saint Philip Neri, see Fini, 2007, 31–32. 4 Bottari, 1758, II, 168: ‘Dell’Albani so chi ne ha quasi dugento, io ne ho alcune poche. Tutte non le ho volute, eppure vi faranno belle notizie e dilettevoli, ma la briga di leggerle me ne ha fatto passar la voglia’.

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combining past and present, everyday considerations with lofty reflections on art, references to collectors and patrons, friends and enemies, students and travelers, in no particular order. Today, the surviving letters offer the same experiences of difficulty and inadequacy. Initially they seem rambling and superficial, but in reality they are crucial for our understanding of the classicist axis between Rome and Bologna in the first half of the seventeenth century. Albani’s letters, part of a larger corpus of about 900 letters by Bolognese painters owned by Malvasia, were either purchased by Malvasia himself or were part of the original core of the archive of the Accademia Clementina.5 In April 1752, the erudite Giovanni Gaetano Bottari asked his Bolognese correspondent Luigi Crespi for help in finding Malvasia’s collections, to use them for his compilation of artistic letters;6 a month later, Crespi replied that all the letters were in Zanotti’s hands, but they did not deal with painting, although they were written by painters. The statement does not clarify whether Zanotti had acquired all 200 letters written by Albani, at some point during the twenty years that separate his 1730 letter from Bottari’s letter to Cres­pi, but he must have had a large number. Crespi’s reference to the irrelevance of the letters can be explained in terms of their personal content. Although they refer to painters and works, they are not formal epistles on painting, and there is not always an evident motivation behind Albani’s comments. According to Giovanna Perini, to grasp the criteria governing Malvasia’s collections of original letters, we must consider them in the context of Italian and European erudite culture. For Malvasia, these documents were crucial to a project that is historically apologetic, but characterized by an innovative method and form, ‘with a positivist drive towards investigating reality that is almost Vichian’.7 Malvasia supported the structure of his biographies with passages from previous biographies, academic orations, archival documents, and, above all, letters to and from artists, in summary or in extenso, some already found in collections of literary figures such as Cesare Rinaldi, and others published for the first time. Malvasia was aware of his intellectual role, and his approach is responsible and functional. He represents a collective sensibility tied to a dense network of interpersonal relations based on a strong sense of sociality. For Malvasia, the written document, and the letter especially, is a voice that participates in a dialogue, in a discussion with different interacting opinions. Many unpublished letters transcribed by Malvasia or mentioned in the Felsina pittrice were autograph texts that belonged to him. This much is confirmed by Giovanni Mitelli, the son of Agostino. In 1675, Mitelli wrote that Malvasia had 5 The calculations were made by Perini, 1992. 6 Crespi, 1754–73; Bottari, 1758. 7 Perini, 1992, 170: ‘con un’intenzione positiva di accertamento quasi vichiano della realtà’.

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150 letters by Albani and 60 by the Carracci, others by Agucchi, Reni, Guercino, Mitelli, and Colonna, as well as the account books of Francia, Primaticcio, Giacomo Alboresi, and Giovanni Andrea Sirani.8 As for the acquisition of Albani’s correspondence, Malvasia provided some indications himself. Albani gave his documents to Malvasia in 1660, shortly before his death.9 The legacy included not only letters to and from Albani, but also a ‘draft’, a manuscript of Albani’s autobiography that Albani had sent to Bellori (who, however, apparently never received it)10 and his personal copy of Francesco Scannelli’s Microcosmo della pittura, in which he had made several polemical annotations.11 Besides the letters acquired in 1660, Malvasia evidently already possessed many others. He wrote that these were given to him by Albani’s most faithful student, Girolamo Bonini: 110 letters from Albani to Bonini in Venice between 1653 and 1654, and 62 to Bonini in his old age, when Bonini was in Rome.12 Besides those in Malvasia’s hands, there were also many letters written upon Albani’s death by his colleagues Poussin, Mignard, Claude Lorrain, Cortona, Lanfranco, Maratti, Rosa, Cairo, and Maffei, and many others by various rulers of all sorts, letters owned by Albani’s heirs in Bologna. Among these is Bellori’s note to Bonini, dated 16 October 1660, in which Bellori speaks of his friendship with Albani, begun in 1645 if not earlier and consolidated thanks to their similar ideas on painting, without their ever meeting in person.13 Here Bellori mentions that Albani had sent him a text written by the artist, which the writer never received. Bellori encourages Bonini to continue collecting Albani’s writings so as to preserve them, adding that he is determined to write a Life of Albani and needs to have all the available material at his disposal, including the description of two paintings by Domenichino that Albani owned (possibly the altarpiece in the chapel of Villa La Querzola).14 In Bellori’s eyes, Albani was the lone survivor of a bygone era, the creative phase that manifested itself in Bologna and Rome during the early seventeenth century. Albani had known and worked with Annibale Carracci – who exhaled his last breath in Albani’s arms on 15 July 1609 – and had collaborated with Domenichino. This history was enough to make him a hero in Bellori’s eyes. 8 Perini, 1992, 171, n. 23. Giovanni Mitelli says he had intended to collect Albani’s letters before printing the lives of the painters; see Mitelli, Cronica con molte notizie pittoresche. 9 Malvasia, 1841 [1678], II, 188. 10 Ibid., II, 163. 11 Albani’s copy of Scannelli’s Microcosmo is in the Elmer Belt Library of Vinciata, University of California; the notes in the margins are transcribed in Van Schaack, 1969a, app. C, pp. 380–86. 12 Malvasia, 1841 [1678], II, 182–83. 13 Ibid., II, 190. On 28 June 1659, Albani wrote to Bonini in Rome, saying that he had sent the painter to look for Bellori and a Frenchman from Lyon, but Bonini evidently never found them. Albani concludes that he must write to ‘Signor Belori’ (Modena, Biblioteca Estense, transcribed in Van Schaack, 1969a, app. B, no. 15). See the previous letter (23 June 1645) from Bellori in Rome to Albani in Bologna. Father Domenico Regi is cited there, because he had given Albani Bellori’s Life of Caravaggio to read, a gift Albani appreciated; Borea, 2000. 14 Spear, 1982, I, 219–20, no. 66.

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Among the rich materials, however, a fundamental piece of the puzzle was missing, which every Bolognese painter jealously kept: the workshop ledger, or account book. We do not know whether Albani, given his long life and unruly working habits, ever kept a systematic account of his dealings, or whether an heir had taken it to ensure that debts to Albani’s estate were paid. In any case, in his Life of Albani, Malvasia discusses the painter’s works done in Rome, adding that in the absence of a systematic inventory, he had reconstructed the list from Albani’s annotations to Scannelli’s Microcosmo della pittura. 15

The Surviving Letters With a prolific writer like Albani, one might expect to find more than thirty-five letters. To these we must add another six that Malvasia referenced in his Life of Albani. Among these forty-one in all, six deal with Rome, with the painters and works found in the city, and Roman collectors and patrons. These six letters contain a crucial cross section of the world of painting in Rome from the privileged perspective of a Bolognese who knew that world very well, having lived there for more than twenty-four years, from 1601 to 1625, with occasional departures during which he had always remained in touch with Roman life. It is particularly evident in all these letters that Albani kept up to date with artistic trends in Rome to the end of his life; he knew the most important painters, and realized that he continued to enjoy a solid reputation; and he had a profound knowledge of Roman collections, merchants, and public and private works. In the letters, he appears to be staying informed from Bologna on the current scene in Rome, nimbly recovering ideas, descriptions, and episodes of classicist culture through his intellectual reflections. The Annibale-Domenichino-Albani-Sacchi-Maratti axis described by Bellori emerges clearly in Albani’s correspondence and receives its final seal in the letter Bellori sent to Albani’s faithful Roman correspondent, Girolamo Bonini (1620–1690), upon the death of the master. The group of Albani’s letters examined here, the survivors of an enormous seventeenth-century correspondence, must be considered in a historical context. Reading them out of context would mean losing the sense of hierarchy and the relation between sender and receiver, missing the network of interpersonal relations, and losing the sense of their duration. The correspondence must be considered in its entirety and not only with the goals of attributing works, clarifying chronology, or gathering information on other painters. Taken together, they allow us to weave a tapestry of infinite threads, each one of which can be followed until it connects with other events in the history of patronage and collecting. 15 Malvasia, 1841 [1678], II, 152.

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One might be tempted to follow a chronological order, or to arrange the subject matter according to other criteria, by correspondent or topic. But Albani’s letters are so entangled in terms of chronology, themes, and references that one can only follow the lead of the painter. The reader will excuse this writer if sometimes, in pursuing a line of inquiry, we seem to lose sight of the main argument, but this is necessary if we wish to follow Albani’s train of thought, where old topics often re-emerge in sudden flashbacks, as if months or years had never passed. The first letter from Rome is a request for an introduction: Antonio Santacroce writes to Albani in Bologna on 2 May 1637 about the painter Giacinto Campana, at the time ‘on familiar terms with Albani’,16 the former confidant of Guido Reni and his patron for the frescoes of Montecavallo. He asks Albani to help convince Campana to move to Poland to become court painter to King Ladislaw IV.17 Santacroce was apostolic nuncio in Poland at the time; more importantly, he had been cardinal legate in Bologna from 1631 to 1634 and therefore must have known Albani well. Campana, who had painted the now lost fresco of God the Father on the vault of the Zoppio chapel in Santa Maria dei Servi (where Albani’s altarpiece with the Noli me tangere [in loco] was found), presumably in 1634, accepted this advice and apparently left for Warsaw immediately, since in 1639 he was already registered at Ladislaw’s court. Although art historians always believed the fresco to be contemporary with the altarpiece and the perspectives of Colonna and Mitelli, and commissioned by Cesare Zoppio, the letter indicates that the fresco predates 1637–38.18 The second letter from Rome, dated 23 June 1645, was published and discussed at length by Evelina Borea.19 Bellori writes to Albani in Bologna and mentions the Camillian father Domenico Regi, who had given Bellori’s biography of Caravaggio to Albani and had presumably conveyed Albani’s appreciation for it to Bellori. Father Regi is another link in the chain connecting Bologna and Rome. Described by Malvasia as a ‘great virtuoso and lover of these arts’ (‘gran virtuoso e amatore di quest’arti’), Regi had left Fossombrone to study in Bologna in 1631 and was still there in 1644, when he was named provincial father of the Camillians. Perhaps Agostino Mitelli introduced Domenico Regi to Albani, since Mitelli had worked with Albani in 1644 on the Zoppia chapel in Santa Maria dei Servi in Bologna. Alternatively, perhaps a relative of Cucchi, the long-time doctor of Albani’s family, introduced the two men.20 In the letter, Bellori refers to Albani’s works in Rome, showing that he had a more than superficial knowledge of them, listing individually the paintings in the gallery of 16 Ibid., II, 174: ‘in dimestichezza con l’Albani’. 17 The letter is in Bologna, Biblioteca Comunale dell’Archiginnasio, MS B.16, fol. 107. It was used by Malvasia, but remained with his unpublished notes; published by Arfelli, 1961, p. xxxix, n. 38. On Giacinto Campana, see Kozakiewicz and Roli Guidetti, 1974. 18 See Puglisi, 1999, 198–99, no. 94. 19 Borea, 2000. 20 On Agostino and Giuseppe Maria Mitelli, see Arfelli, 1958.

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Fig. 2.1. Andrea Sacchi, Portrait of Francesco Albani, Madrid, Museo del Prado, 1635.

Palazzo Giustiniani in Bassano di Sutri (1609), the gallery of Palazzo Verospi in Rome (1611), the frescoes by multiple hands in the Herrera chapel in San Giacomo degli Spagnoli (1604), and the paintings for Benedetto Giustiniani. Malvasia published the third Roman letter, and the original is still missing: written from Rome by the painter Andrea Sacchi, it is dated 28 October 1651. In the letter, Sacchi offers his opinion on the Bamboccianti and their works, basically agreeing with Albani and attacking the paintings ‘by these barbarians’ and the collectors who purchase them.21 This is the first extant autograph document by Sacchi and has been widely discussed in previous scholarship. The memory of Sacchi often resurfaces in Albani’s letters of the following years: on 5 March 1651, Albani asks Domenico Maria 21 Malvasia, 1841 [1678], II, 268–69. The letter was noted by Puglisi, 1999, 43, 48, 51–53.

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Canuti, who was in Rome, about Sacchi; on 20 July and 30 October 1658, Albani writes to Girolamo Bonini, who had moved to Rome some time before, asking him to visit Sacchi and bring Albani’s letter of introduction; in the following letter he reminds Bonini of the small ‘daily’ works that Sacchi insisted Albani should paint, sold to Cardinal Antonio Barberini. Sacchi was Albani’s student, first in Rome, then in Bologna, before settling in Rome. It was he who fixed for posterity the image of Albani during a stay in Bologna in 1635 (Fig. 2.1), bringing the portrait to Rome, where it was certainly seen by Bellori.22 Albani saw Sacchi as a member of his household and treated him with great affection and respect.

‘Such a beautiful Rome’, 1651: Two Letters from Albani to Domenico Maria Canuti in Rome Domenico Maria Canuti (1626–1684), who initially settled in Rome in 1647 and again permanently in 1651, was first Albani’s student, then Reni’s and Sirani’s. During his first stay in Rome, he frequented Alessandro Algardi, a Bolognese who by then was very well known. Canuti mentions Algardi in the two surviving letters of a correspondence that must have been very frequent.23 The first letter is dated 4 February 1651:24 Albani is replying to Canuti’s letter of 21 January, in which Canuti presumably discussed Algardi’s health. Albani says he is glad to hear of Algardi’s recovery, adding that ‘such virtuous persons are not found easily’. He proceeds, as usual, to describe his everyday routine and complain about financial problems, then comments on Canuti’s decision to return from Rome, which occurred at the end of 1651, as attested by Canuti’s letter to Taddeo Pepoli, dated 18 December 1651.25 The central part of the letter discusses a group of young Bolognese painters who were friends of Canuti, Emilio Taruffi, and Flaminio Torri, the new generation which Albani regarded favorably, at the Academy of drawing and painting of Count Ettore Ghisilieri, where Albani himself taught.26 22 On the Albani-Sacchi relationship, see Puglisi, 1999, 43, 48, 51–53, and Harris, 1977, 77–78. 23 From Bologna to Rome, Albani to Canuti, 4 February 1651 and 5 March 1651, New York, Morgan Library. 24 From Bologna, 4 February 1651, New York, Morgan Library; Puglisi, 1999, 46, 79, n. 61; Puglisi, who had evidently read the letter, comments only on the paragraph in which Albani mentions the competitions at the academy of Count Ettore Ghisilieri. 25 Letter dated 4 February 1651, Puglisi, 1999, 46, 79: ‘di tali personaggi virtuosi non ne ritrovi al minuto’. 26 Letter dated 4 February 1651; Puglisi, 1999, 46, 79: ‘The Bologna academy continues and keeps itself busy; it will soon exhibit new works. Every mind and bright soul will have to represent a virtuoso caprice and there will be many drawings of many varieties and people are already expecting beautiful caprices to be shown at the end of the Carnival […] Signor Orego and Taruffi were appreciated universally by all as the best. Certain egregious troublemakers have been expelled from the academy […] It became necessary for them to leave the academy, and they have gathered under the protection of signor Flaminio but with the gracious consent of signor Count Ettore’.

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The last part is a request for a colored drawing from life: ‘I am anxious to see a drawing in color on a little sheet of paper; only the trunk of a palm and in particular the roughness of the bark with the beginning of the leaves to see if the leaf conforms to the trunk and then to know where the dates are normally located and their color if possible’.27 The request must relate to a composition in which the palm played an important role. This might have been a painting on copper of the Flight into Egypt, datable to the last decade of Albani’s career (formerly in the Walpole Gallery, London), in which a very realistic palm trunk is in the foreground, along with details of the tree and the dates, precisely the details Albani asked Canuti to provide.28 A request for a detailed drawing to be used for a painting is repeated on 6 February 1654. Albani writes from Bologna to Bonini in Venice, asking for some drawings of a camel: he remembers that there must have been some in a painting by Veronese and asks Canuti to please copy them.29 Four days later, however, in a letter dated 10 February 1654, Albani tells Canuti not to do it because, he writes: ‘I have a memory of the camels drawn by Agostino Carracci and the printed ones by Tintoretto, which I like a lot’.30 Albani was now 76 and continuing to work ceaselessly, following his curiosity, focusing on specific details, and expanding his knowledge. His memory was visual, cataloging, fixing the images of paintings and prints, as if in a universal iconographic archive. He says as much to Bonini on 28 June 1659,31 recommending that Bonini see the Logge of Raphael in Rome (Fig. 2.2). Albani himself had already seen them four times, but, he writes, these large works the more you look at them, the more they grow […] the Logge made by many assistants seemed to me somewhat crude the last time I went back to Rome, but not the Stanze […] I return to Raphael for a moment, I feel like saying that it is useless to draw them for oneself, and one must instead do like Annibale, that is, take them away in one’s memory.

He had already offered a similar opinion on the Logge and the Stanze six months earlier: ‘Raphael should really (in my opinion) apologize for the Logge, where he had all his students work in a hurry; one cannot say this of the Stanze, it seems to me, nor of his beautiful tapestries’.32 27 ‘vivo desideroso vedere in colorito sopra un poco di carta il solo tronco di una palma e particolarmente quelle ruvidezze della scorza col principio delle foglie per vedere se è conforme la foglia dal tronco et apresso sapere ove sieno colocati per ordinario i datoli e il suo colore se si potrà’. From Bologna, 4 February 1651, New York, Morgan Library; Puglisi, 1999, 46, 79, n. 61. 28 Puglisi, 1999, 205, n. 136. The sources attest to another late version on copper; a letter dated 1654, published in Van Schaack, 1969a, 349, n. 7, notes a Fuga in Egitto on copper by Signor Mondini. 29 Malvasia, 1841 [1678], II, 273. 30 Forlì, Biblioteca Piancastelli, in Van Schaack, 1969a, app. B, no. 8. 31 Modena, Biblioteca Estense, in Van Schaack, 1969a, app. B, no.15. 32 Letter from Albani in Bologna to Bonini in Rome, no pag., n.d., New York, Morgan Library.

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Fig. 2.2. Raphael, Vatican Logge, Rome, Palazzo Apostolico Vaticano, 1517–19.

There are still a few unresolved questions concerning Albani’s drawings during the last decades of his life. Although Albani taught drawing in the Bolognese academies, few sheets from that period survive.33 Richard Symonds, who visited the painter’s workshop in Bologna in 1651, noted that he made few preparatory studies.34 From these letters, it seems that Albani drew little himself, but he did ask his collaborators to supply drawings.

33 Puglisi, 1999, 42–48. 34 On Albani’s drawings, see Weston Lewis, 2006.

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Albani’s second letter to Canuti is dated 5 March 1651, one month after the previous one.35 This is certainly the best known letter of this group, because it was one of those donated by Canuti to Malvasia, so that the latter could add it to those of other painters he owned. The letter was partially discussed by Malvasia in his Life of Domenichino, while considering Domenichino’s students, focusing on the passage in which Albani invited Canuti to go to Rome, to see the fresco of Saint Cecilia in the church of San Luigi dei Francesi.36 The same letter was used again when discussing Caravaggio and the naturalists: ‘Because the melons, cucumbers, the various fruits [attract] any weak-minded person, incapable of spending more time before paintings, but stopping instead for the most meaningless things he can grasp easily’.37 Puglisi cites this same letter in relation to the exchanges between Domenichino and Albani during the 1610s, in which they express their appreciation for Raphael and the Roman works of Annibale.38 ‘Oh what a great mind we see in every work of his, but particularly in the concepts’ (‘Oh che gran cervello in ogni sua operatione, ma particolarmente ne concetti’),39 Albani says about Domenichino’s frescoes in the Farnese chapel in the monastery of Santa Maria in Grottaferrata, commissioned by Cardinal Odoardo Farnese in 1609–10 for 72 scudi. Albani tells Canuti that Domenichino was 22 when they were made, thus dating them to 1603 (a few years before the generally accepted chronology), and recommends that he copy them, stopping on his way back from Rome to Bologna. Albani had seen them ‘once with enormous pleasure and surprise’. Albani’s opinion on Domenichino is more clearly articulated, however, in the original letter. His argument revolves around Domenichino and Lanfranco and their frescoes of the Life of Saint Andrew (Fig. 2.3). Canuti himself, in a previous letter, must have commented on the apse decorations commissioned from Mattia Preti, which Preti had completed the year the letter was written (Fig. 2.4). Albani considered it completely inappropriate to associate the two Bolognese stars with such an inferior, pseudo-Caravaggesque naturalist. Therefore, although he had apparently not seen the frescoes, he insisted on the importance of representing ‘the concepts’ through study and drawing, citing in his conclusion Raphael, Annibale, Veronese, and Domenichino.40 Albani’s wording suggests that he found Preti devoid of any deep thought, without effective drawing skills, and a superficial and amateurish painter. 35 From Bologna to Rome, Albani to Canuti, 5 March 1651, New York, Morgan Library. 36 Malvasia, 1841 [1678], II, 242. 37 Ibid., II, 163. 38 Puglisi, 1999, 11 and 73, n. 80. 39 From Bologna to Rome, Albani to Canuti, 5 March 1651, New York, Morgan Library. 40 ‘In Santo Andrea dalla Valle much later Domenichino worked under the vault. Lanfranco did that [other part]. This Calabrian [Preti] wants to shame Domenichino, I don’t believe [he can]. These naturalists believe they can portray nature when it stands still, like cucumber and melons; I will say that it takes more than that: the important thing is to reason and then to depict intelligible concepts as well as internal and external passions, qualities which are achieved by using one’s head and by acquiring great drawing skills, as Raphael did in Urbino in just a few years, like an Annibale, a Paolo Veronese, a Domenichino. Your Grace must not fail to practice drawing and to find a way to draw the works they did in Naples’.

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Fig. 2.3. Domenichino, Stories of Saint Andrew, fresco, Rome, Sant’Andrea della Valle, 1622–27.

In a letter to Bonini dated 26 January 1654, Albani speaks again about the decline of study and drawing in favor of painting from life, which speeds up the work.41 At the end of the letter, Albani reminds Canuti of the drawing of a palm with dates, which he had not received, and declares his pleasure in the news he had received about Algardi, Sacchi, and Pietro da Cortona. Although the first two were already established presences in Albani’s circle, Cortona’s name is a novelty. The reference suggests the possibility of a previous meeting between Albani and Cortona in Bolog­ na. Cortona was part of Cardinal Giulio Sacchetti’s entourage in Venice in 1637, the year the cardinal was named vice legate of Bologna for three years, after governing Ferrara from 1627 to 1631, and the two had stopped in Florence to pay homage to the grand duke on their way from Rome to Venice. Bologna was a necessary stop between Florence and Venice, and it was probably on this occasion that Albani met Cortona, given his previous acquaintance with Sacchetti. This supposition is also supported by

41 ‘I am curious to understand those who can read and turn to the half figures, keeping nature always in front so long as the person who serves as model does not move and those who paint remain attached to this, so that if the poor Tintoretto were to return from the dead he would immediately die again in seeing all those tribulations’.

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Fig. 2.4. Mattia Preti, Crucifixion of Saint Andrew, frescoes, Rome, Sant’Andrea della Valle, 1651.

Albani’s familiar references to Sacchetti while Bonini was frescoing Palazzo Sacchetti in Rome in 1658.42

Girolamo Bonini, the faithful Achates Among extant documents is a receipt for 100 Bolognese lire signed by Albani and dated 5 September 1653, recording a down payment for two paintings, one of them on copper. The money was given to Albani by his ex-student and painter Girolamo

42 Paris, Fondation Custodia, no. 8735, 30 October 1658; Mahon, 1951, 230; Puglisi, 1999, 44, 78, n. 34.

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Bonini (Ancona, 1620–1690), a sign of the trust between the two.43 As already mentioned, it was Bonini who gave Malvasia his correspondence with Albani, 182 letters written during two periods, while Bonini was in Venice and later in Rome. In the letters, Albani guides Bonini like a wise old teacher: he advises Bonini about which paintings to see, writes letters of introduction to collectors and clients, and tells the younger man to visit Albani’s friends. The letters are frequent and intimate: Albani articulates his ideas but also discusses family troubles and more private reflections. An example of Albani’s reliance on Bonini is his request that Bonini ascertain how many copies of his Amori are in Rome, because, he says, he is now 80 and can no longer remember all of them. This passage also confirms that Albani did not keep a ledger. Instead, in the letters he asks his ex-student and friend to keep track of his works, evidently without concern that Bonini might see him as a nagging old man who had lost his skill and inspiration.44 Girolamo Bonini was so much a part of the old painter’s life that, in Malvasia’s words, Albani ‘called him in all his letters his faithful Achates, his North Wind, his staff’.45 Achates was one of Aeneas’ faithful companions, referenced repeatedly in Virgil’s Aeneid, his companion in every adventure, to whom Aeneas entrusted his weapons.46 In choosing the nickname, Albani must have been thinking of his painting of The Expulsion of Aeneas from Troy accompanied by the faithful Achates, in Palaz­zo Fava (Fig. 2.5), Bologna, which was influenced by Tibaldi’s Ulysses frescoes in Palazzo Poggi.47 In the Italian original, the expression ‘fido Acate’ derives from Annibal Caro’s translation, a copy of which was probably in the immense library of Albani’s brother Domenico.48

43 Receipt by Francesco Albani, 5 September 1583, Forlì, Biblioteca Comunale Piancastelli, n. 33, transcribed in Van Schaack, 1969a, app. B, no. 2, p. 335. On Bonini, see A. Ricci, 1834, II, 268, 269, 280, nn. 12–16. Altnoder, 1996, XII, 558. 44 Malvasia, 1841 [1678], II, 176; Letter by Albani to Bonini in Rome dated 1658. 45 Malvasia, 1841 [1678], II, 189. 46 Ibid., II, 281 and 271, 283. 47 See the entry by Puglisi, 1999, no. 1 VI, fig. 10. 48 Caro, 1581, libro I, vv. 304–7. The 3,583 books and manuscripts owned by Domenico Albani are cited in the letter dated 3 November 1646, the deed of Domenico’s inheritance. He had just died on 11 August of 1646; Van Schaack, 1969a, 319–20. Domenico Albani was baptized in 1575; a second brother, Giovanni Agostino, was baptized in 1588 (309). Francesco Albani had a sister who was a nun, called Elisabetta, but baptized Ginevra. She was in the monastery of SS. Concezione, Bologna in 1603 (311). In the registers of the Accademia di San Luca in Rome, however, another Albani is listed, a certain Antonio, who offered alms together with Francesco, in 1607; see Roma, Archivio di San Luca, Catalogue of the academics of San Luca of merit of the year 1673, envelope no. 28: in sheet 3 there is a list with a title (part of it is canceled) ‘[…] SS. Academics of Merit […]. Sculptors and architects’; in sheet 3 (verso) we find: ‘S.re Fran:co Albano Pittore’. In volume 42, sheet 35: ‘1607. Money collected […] Bacillo the day of St. Luca and had Jo. Paolo Brilli […]’ (there follows a list with sums alongside. In the second column we find written: ‘Ant.o et Fran.co Albani, 25[?]; sheet 36: Adi 22 October […] 1606’. Below is written ‘all those who had given alms and for [?] the candle the day of S.o Lucha […] Sr. Francesco Albano, 20.’ Thanks to Mariarosa Pizzoni for calling my attention to this.

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Fig. 2.5. Francesco Albani, The Expulsion of Aeneas from Troy accompanied by the faithful Achates, Bologna, Palazzo Fava, 1598.

When Albani died, Bonini painted his teacher’s portrait, later owned by Carlo Cignani, based on a drawing by Mola.49 One might identify this painting with the one traditionally considered Albani’s Self-Portrait now in Rome (Camera dei Deputati, Plate 1), but the latter is by a different and inferior hand and is clearly not a self-portrait: the subject is holding in his right hand his beret and in the left the easel and brushes, as if posing for someone else rather than portraying himself in a mirror.50 After the down payment of 1653, Albani and Bonini traded letters almost obsessively, especially when Bonini moved to the court of Cardinal Girolamo Lomellini in Rome in 1658. On 16 August 1658, Albani returns the greetings of Cardinal Lomellini

49 Malvasia, 1841 [1678], II, 271, 283. 50 Oil on canvas, 96 × 75 cm, inv. 600; Puglisi, 1999, 215, 216, no. 155(A).

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who, Albani writes, ‘every time he sees you, he inquires about me’, a phrase suggesting familiarity between Albani and the cardinal.51 Albani’s network of contacts was very broad: in the same letter he asks Bonini to pay his respects to cardinals Giovan Battista Spada, Girolamo Colonna, archbishop of Bologna from 1632 to 1645, Marcello Santacroce, and Antonio Barberini. He also mentions Girolamo Verospi, ‘to whom I have infinite obligations […]. The one I served for many years in his gallery, you could pay homage in my name’. He also recommends calling on Andrea Sacchi, Pietro da Cortona, and Cavalier Bernini.52 In the letter of 20 July 1658, Albani had already urged Bonini to offer his services to Carlo Maratti and, especially, to Sacchi, bringing a letter of introduction Albani had written.53 Albani also mentions some paintings in Rome that Bonini absolutely must see. Among these was the Saint Margaret by Annibale Carracci in Santa Caterina de’ Funari, according to him more beautiful than the version in Reggio Emilia, where a drape was inserted ‘to gratify the owner of the said little chapel’, that is Gabriele Bombasi, a man of letters from Reggio who was the tutor of Odoardo and Ranuccio Farnese. Then Annibale in Palazzo Farnese, ‘where you will find some of that color painted in his youth (before he saw Rome), Annibale I mean, and many others that I fear may have been taken to Parma’.54 For Albani, Annibale Carracci and Raphael were the guiding stars of Roman painting. The idea of Saint Margaret as a model of perfection in which nature and idea are perfectly integrated, to be admired and studied, emerges prominently also in another letter, better known and often cited, but never published in its entirety. The letter, of 30 October 1658, is crucial for understanding the classicism versus realism polemic of this period. It was owned by Malvasia, who cited it, reporting Caravaggio’s comment on Annibale’s Saint Margaret. It was cited again in 1951 by Sir Denis Mahon who had probably read it at Frits Lugt’s home.55 Although Puglisi knew the document and cited it in relation to Albani and Mola, it was never transcribed, nor was it associated with the reference to Caravaggio. ‘Well now, happily paint aspiring to that beautiful color of the Saint Margaret in Santa Caterina de Funari by the hand of Annibale Carrazzi [sic], the one that made Caravaggio feel weak in the knees whenever he looked at it’. Albani’s testimony is crucial, because it is a direct source and corrects later critical ideas about the author of the Roman altarpiece. It also clarifies the context of Caravaggio’s position and that of Giovan Pietro Bellori, who transcribed Albani’s letter in more narrative terms and must have debated with him concerning the 51 Letter from Albani in Bologna to Bonini in Rome, 16 August 1658, ibid., app. B, no. 11. 52 Ibid., app. B, no. 11. 53 Ibid., app. B, no. 10. 54 ‘dove trovarete di quel colorito (avanti che vedesse Roma) dipinto in sua gioventù, dico Annibale e molte altre che temo siano state portate a Parma’; Puglisi, 1999, app. B, no. 10. 55 Paris, Fondation Custodia, n. 8735 (03 recto, 01 verso); 30 October 1658, from Francesco Albani in Bologna to Girolamo Bonini in Rome. Malvasia also transcribes part of one dated 26 November 1658 (1841 [1678], II, 176), cited by Puglisi, 1999, 78, n. 34, and 44 in relation to Mola.

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collaboration of Lucio Massari on the painting.56 Also interesting is Albani’s opinion on Annibale’s two altarpieces in Reggio Emilia and Rome, both commissioned by Bombasi. For Albani, the first is superior to the second, supporting the hypothesis that the first is entirely by Annibale. The letter is also important in other ways. Albani responds to a previous letter from Bonini, citing some frescoes that Bonini has just finished in Palazzo Sacchetti, debating on other copies after Guido Reni in the Cappella Paolina in Santa Maria Maggiore, and, finally, by Mola, ‘who spent about two years in my room, I would say gaining by it, much improving in his color technique, so that, they tell me, he won the prize’. Bonini’s visit to the Sacchetti collection, ten years after Cardinal Ottavio Acquaviva d’Aragona purchased Palazzo Sacchetti in via Giulia, adds another interesting issue concerning connections between Bologna and Rome. Albani writes: ‘I know you have seen the Paintings of his Eminence Cardinal Sacchetti and many others after that and after you have finished the Holy house of Loreto at the head of the stairs you will paint a Saint Catherine of your own’. Although Albani knew Cardinal Giulio Sacchetti well, he probably had not seen the collection of about 700 paintings that the cardinal was assembling in those years. Sacchetti obviously owned a painting by Albani, a Magdalen (Rome, Pinacoteca Capitolina, Plate 2), probably datable around 1640, from the period when Sacchetti was legate in Bologna.57 The following letter, written probably on 1 January 1659, is the only one previously published in its entirety. Like the others, it still has much to tell, besides the reference to Poussin’s appreciation for Albani and a detailed description of an engraving by Guido Reni, still to be identified.58 Most of the letter deals with the attacks on Raphael and Annibale by the engraver Pietro dal Po (Palermo 1616–Naples 1693) and Albani’s passionate response. Albani must be responding to a previous letter in which Bonini had discussed this matter. Bonini and Albani do not seem to know much about dal Po, who was a rising star in the Accademia di San Luca in Rome, which he had joined in 1652, having associated himself with Algardi, who was the godfather of his daughter Teresa.59 In the letter, Albani discusses his memory of the vault of Palazzo Farnese and tries to understand the reasons behind dal Po’s accusations: 56 The question is debated in Ginzburg Carignani, 2000, 89–92, and 2006, 286–87, no. VI.5. See also Bellori, 1976 [1672], 44. 57 Puglisi, 1999, 196, no. 115. 58 Letter from Albani in Bologna to Bonini in Rome, without place or date, New York, Morgan Library, in Cacho Casal, 2014, 21–25. Previously cited by Puglisi, 1999,72, n. 71, who dates it 1659 and cites Albani’s criticism of the painted architecture on the vault of the Galleria Farnese, very different from the one he had painted in 1609 for the Galleria Giustiniani in Bassano di Sutri, also noting Poussin’s appreciation (82, n. 72). Cacho Casal proposes an erroneous identification, rejected by Danieli, 2015, who clarifies the engraving’s theme and source, terming it India presents flower’s seeds to Neptune to bring them in the Barberini’s garden. 59 His engravings are known, after works by Poussin, Domenichino, Carracci, Lanfranco, Giulio Romano, Raphael; see Prosperi Valenti, 1981, 174–90. For his works in Rome and Naples, see Guerrieri Borsoi, 1990.

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When Annibale was alive, I heard him say that he wanted to knock down his Diana, observing that it seemed as if she was plucking lice off her beloved Endymion, and in fact I did not like it because it [this comment] seems to me to express the truth […] as for the Gallery of the Farnese, I could perhaps say that in the four corners of the gallery, in the thickest part of the painted architecture, he decided to highlight those fighting putti and [I could say] that Carracci weakened the architecture, against the air, a thing that in truth cannot be allowed in a solid construction, one can take this liberty in painting, but the ‘finta aria’ should not weaken the true structure of the architecture that created solid matter, nor should it be able to do harm to the sense of air.60

Albani’s critique is intelligent. It shows that with the perspective he had gained over the course of sixty years, he was able to evaluate the work. He revealed that his beloved Annibale, having finished the portion of the fresco with Diana and Endymion (Fig. 2.6), was dissatisfied with the result because it seemed too realistic, insufficiently mediated by the intellect. As for the exuberant decoration on the vault, Albani criticizes it, because a proper architectural balance should not be altered by excessive painting. The distance from Rome was a problem for Albani: he wanted to meet Pietro dal Po, ‘this censor as I see him (who engraves in copper)’, to confront him. That being impossible, he decided to go and see dal Po’s prints in Bolognese shops, to determine his capabilities and whether he could justifiably make those statements.61 Albani wanted to be in Rome, to discover firsthand the new trends in painting, to meet critics he did not know, but his old age prohibited such travel. Bonini functioned therefore as Albani’s alert eye on the world of Roman painting, a careful and polite witness, his Achates. The letters during the first six months of 1659 were more frequent, and at least three survive, dated 15 January, 15 March, and 27 April.62 Albani says he is very tired, complaining about money problems and about being unable to paint at home because there was not enough light: ‘Lucky you who are in Rome and, if you go to 60 ‘Io mentre vivea detto Annibale lo sentii dire che voleva butar giù quella sua Diana dicendo a me che pare spidochiasse il suo caro amante Endemione come per apunto a me non mi piaque perché pare che esprima il vero […] quanto alla Galleria di Farnese forse devo dire che nelli quatro cantoni di detta galleria nel più sodo dell’architetura volse campeggiare quei putti che lottano e che esso Carracci indebolì l’architetura col fingere detti putti, contro l’aria cosa che nel vero dire non si concede ad una fabrica soda, ma questa licenza se le può concedere in pittura, che non può la finta aria indebolire la vera fabrica del architeto che la fece di materia soda, né le può fare danno con aria finta’. Letter from Albani in Bologna to Bonini in Rome, without location or date, New York, Morgan Library, in Cacho Casal, 2014, 21–25, and Puglisi, 1999, 72, n. 71. 61 This may be the letter Malvasia notes in 1841 [1678], II, 193, when he says that Albani defended Raphael from Pietro dal Po’s accusations. 62 From Albani to Bonini in Rome (Modena, Biblioteca Estense and Bologna, Biblioteca Comunale dell’Archiginnasio); Van Schaack, 1969a, app. B, nos. 13, 14. The letter, dated 27 April 1659, is in Paris, Fondation Custodia, no. 248; Puglisi, 1999, 77, n. 10. It states that Rosa visited Albani for two hours.

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Fig. 2.6. Annibale Carracci, Diana and Endymion, Rome, Galleria Farnese, 1597.

Naples do not forget to see it all’.63 He could no longer go down the stairs or rise from bed unassisted. However, he still receives visits from artists: ‘Yesterday morning, Sig. Salvatore Rosa came to visit and stayed two long hours; he has a very lively mind, he is going back to Rome, that’s why he came to visit me, so he told me’.64 This passage is very interesting because it ties in with Rosa’s movements and business relations in Bologna, both with Albani and, probably, with Francesco Cordini, his friend and agent.65 Already in 1652, the business dealings between Rosa and Albani are explicitly mentioned in at least three letters written by Rosa to Ricciardi. The topic was a small oval painting by Albani that Ricciardi did not like. On 6 July 1652, Rosa mentions ‘the poor Albano [sic], who believed he had achieved the ultimate perfection in art, and 63 ‘beato voi che siete a Roma e se andate a Napoli non dimenticate di vederla’. From Albani to Bonini in Rome (Modena, Biblioteca Estense and Bologna, Biblioteca Comunale dell’Archiginnasio); Van Schaack, 1969a, app. B, nos. 13, 14. 64 ‘Hieri matina mi venne a visitare il Sig.re Salvatore Rosa e si trattenne due grosse hore che è vivacissimo cervello se ne ritorna in Roma per questo mi ha detto’. Ibid. 65 Cordini moved to Bologna from Tuscany, marrying Ortensia Leoni, portrayed by Elisabetta Sirani as Saint Dorothy, in a painting signed and dated 1661 (Madison, University of Wisconsin, Chazen Museum of Art).

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Ricciardi, in seeing a painting of his, said he had never seen anything worse’.66 Ricciardi traded a landscape by Albani for one by Rosa, but Rosa added that Ricciardi’s taste was very different from that of other critics, who generally considered Albani an excellent painter. In another letter from Rosa to Ricciardi, dated 20 July 1652, Albani’s oval is mentioned again: Rosa asks Ricciardi, provocatively, if he might be interested in another painting by Albani ready to be given away, adding, ‘Mr. fashionable critic’ (‘signor critico alla moda’).67 In a letter of August 17, Rosa once again raises the subject of Albani’s oval with Ricciardi. He repeats his certainty that Ricciardi is wrong in rejecting the attribution to Albani. This allegation suggests that Rosa was in direct contact with Albani. Rosa reiterates that the oval ‘belongs to his last phase, it was done with the problems of old age’. He is convinced that in Bologna, there was nobody who could make a better landscape.68 In 1659, Rosa returned to pay his respects to Albani, perhaps to see him painting and to obtain a painting to sell. This visit of 27 April occurs during a few months from 1 March 1659 to 10 May 1659, during which we have no letters by Rosa. Albani clearly states that Rosa stopped in Bologna on his way to Rome. Rosa’s letter to Ricciardi, dated 10 May 1659, confirms that he had returned to Rome after a long journey, stopping in Bologna along the way. Albani’s long life was almost over, but he continued to work at a frenetic pace. Based on another letter to Bonini, asking him to visit Bellori, it seems that by 28 June 1659, Albani’s health problems prevented him from leaving home. But he seems quite aware of events in Rome, thanks to his visitors: Emilio Taruffi has just brought him two sketches, and Carlo Cignani wants to take him to see the frescoes for the palace of the jurisconsul Ponti and those he is finishing for ‘Sig. Davia, an extremely rich banker’.69 The affection expressed by Carlo Cignani (1628–1719), Albani’s last pupil, is touching. Unfortunately, Cignani’s paintings for the jurisconsul Ponti, in oil and fresco, are lost, although they are cited by his biographer Zanelli. In the decoration of a gallery for Senator Virgilio Davia (now in Palazzo Serafini), only a Strength and a Justice remain, which were moved to a new room in 1827.70

66 ‘Povero Albano che quando crede d’esser giunto nell’ultima perfetione dell’arte il Ricciardi vedendo una sua pittura dice di non aver mai visto niente di peggio’. From Rosa to Riccardi, 6 July 1652; Rosa, 2003, 153–54, no. 137. 67 From Rosa to Riccardi, 20 July 1652; Rosa, 2003, 154–55, no. 138. 68 Rosa, 2003, 153–54, n. 137; 154–55, n. 138; 161–62, n. 144. My thanks to Elena Fumagalli for discussing the question with me. 69 Modena, Biblioteca Estense, in Van Schaack, 1969a, app. B, no. 15. Albani writes that, ‘Cignani and Taruffi are much praised by those who are very knowledgeable’. 70 Buscaroli Fabbri, 1991, 105, n. 1.

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Albani also comments on the recent procession of the Corpus Domini in Bologna, citing the paintings that the Sampieri family had exhibited along the path of the procession, which passed their palace in Strada Maggiore. The ‘very superb museum’ of the Sampieri, as Malvasia described it in 1686, included paintings by such great Bolognese masters as Albani, Reni, Ludovico, Agostino, and Annibale Carracci, and Guercino. There are four surviving letters from late 1659, the final period of Bonini’s Roman sojourn. One is dated 4 October, another (cited by Malvasia) 24 October,71 another 12 November, and, finally, 20 December.72 The letter of 4 October is the most interesting. It refers to a previous one of 12 July, which may have alarmed Bonini about his teacher’s health. Albani says that he should not leave Rome, but Bonini seems to have decided to leave, perhaps due to some trouble in Sant’Andrea delle Fratte, during the painting of the frescoes. Albani was still at work and cites a few paintings he sent to Rome, which Bonini had not yet seen, because the recipients wanted to add gilded frames first. Albani complains about a market ‘agitated by rotten minds’ who wish to profit on every step of a transaction. The old master feels that he belongs to a bygone era. He is impatient with the new dynamics of the Roman market but still heeds his muse: he is finishing six paintings that were already sketched, and four are nearing completion: the woman, who is Venus, holds her torch for the convenience of the amorini, who are about to light their own little torches; the Father with the adolescent angels and the putti, and then a Samaritan still to be finished and a Saint Mary Magdalen carried by angels, which is finished. A not too small Galatea, an invention full of figures and other small paintings, like the Magdalen I mentioned, which I am about to finish.73

The Venus, ‘a new concept of my own’, must have been a different painting, perhaps larger than the one of the same subject now in London (Wallace Collection) dated 1640–45. Exactly one year later, on 4 October 1660, Albani passed away, with his brushes in his hand, at his home in via dei Pollaroli, assisted by his students and his family. His death prompted further expansion of the already abundant documentation on 71 Malvasia, 1841 [1678], I, 484–85, and II, 273–75. Part of the letter is in the Biblioteca Estense, Modena. 72 The first, dated 4 October 1659, is in Paris, Fondation Custodia, no. 9178; Puglisi, 1999, 193, no. 112 LV.b. For the two others, see Van Schaack, 1969a, app. B, nos. 16, 17. 73 ‘la donna che è Venere che tiene la face a comodo degli amori che per stiano accendere la loro faccelletta; il Dio Padre con angeli adolescenti e putti et poi una Samaritana ancor esser finita et una Santa Maria Madalena portata dagli angeli condotta a buon termine. Una Gallatea invenzione copiosa di figure non tanto picola et altri quadri piccoli come la Madalena che vi dissi che mi appresto a finire’. Paris, Fondation Custodia, no. 9178; Puglisi, 1999, 193, no.112 LV.b.

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Albani, because countless words were devoted to him by friends, admirers, fellow artists, and clients.

About the author Raffaella Morselli is Professor of Art History at Teramo University. She has also published extensively on Bologna, including books on seventeenth-century collecting of Reni, Albani, and Cantarini and the social history of artists. Her current book project is Bologna distretto delle arti: la società artistica felsinea nel XVII secolo.

3. Collezionismo in Early Modern Bologna The Fantuzzi’s Acquisition and Display of Drawings and Paintings by Local Masters Joyce de Vries

Abstract De Vries explores the complex art collection of the Fantuzzi, a prominent noble fam­ ily in Bologna. Drawing on recently discovered archival materials, she discusses a sizeable art collection that included works by some of the leading figures of Bolog­ nese painting, such as Ludovico Carracci, Guido Reni, Guercino, and Elisabetta Sirani. Notwithstanding their proclivity for famous local painters, detailed documentation confirms that the Fantuzzi’s interests extended to large and small works, drawings and paintings, copies and originals, shedding light on how such works were regarded, valued, and exhibited by the Bolognese nobility. Keywords: collecting, Bologna, Sirani, Carracci, Reni, Fantuzzi

Like numerous elites in the early modern era, the illustrious Fantuzzi family of Bologna expressed their socioeconomic status through the display of art in their residences. Documentation of their art survives in family records as well as notari­ al acts in the Archivio di Stato of Bologna. The evidence is unusually rich for the collection of one branch of the family in the early eighteenth century and includes informal diagrams that show how paintings and drawings were hung in the gallery and study in their house.1 Although the diagrams are largely schematic and specify only a few names of subjects or artists, archival sleuthing has uncovered account books, receipts, and inventories that deal further with the presentation of the art and its value. Taken together, these texts from the Fantuzzi archive provide remarkable information about what hung on the walls in terms of artist, medium, and subject; how the works were arranged; the prices paid for many of them; and their later val­ uations. The majority of the identified artists were local masters, mostly from the 1 The closest analogy to the Fantuzzi diagrams are the unofficial diagrams of the Aldrovandi and Boschi galleries, dated by Olivier Bonfait to c.1790s, ASBo, Archivio Aldrovandi, b. 464; ASBo, Archivio Boschi, b. 610; and Bonfait, 2000, 171, figs. 11–17, 22–34. Bohn, B. and R. Morselli (eds.), Reframing Seventeenth-Century Bolognese Art: Archival Discoveries, Amsterdam University Press, 2019 doi: 10.5117/9789462986336_ch03

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seventeenth century, the golden age of Bolognese painting. Drawings and paintings were displayed together, organized into what must have been thought-provoking jux­ tapositions of subject matter and style. Collecting art was a fundamental component of social practice in early modern Italy, especially in Bologna. Most households contained some art, and even very mod­ est homes displayed a religious painting or print for devotional purposes. Elite Bolog­ nese collections grew significantly between the late seventeenth and late eighteenth century and increasingly emphasized works by local masters. Among other factors, early histories of art spurred collecting, which was facilitated by rising standards of living generated by global trade and expanding industry. In Bologna, Carlo Cesare Malvasia’s Felsina pittrice (1678) and Le pitture di Bologna (1686) celebrated the city’s distinctive artistic innovations and cultural patrimony.2 Bolognese nobles, including the Fantuzzi, were undoubtedly familiar with Malvasia’s texts, and a display of valu­ able narrative paintings by local masters became a distinctive means for them to demonstrate their elite status. Exhibited in sculpted gilt frames in the reception hall of a palace, the grandest paintings represented the city’s great history and the nobili­ ty’s engagement with it. Many less opulent artworks populated other rooms, creating a lush visual environment with their abundance.3 Consonant with this model, the art presented in the Fantuzzi house was sure­ ly stunning, and a detailed analysis of the gallery in particular offers intriguing insights into the practices of collectors and the fluctuating values of artwork in eigh­ teenth-century Bologna. The collection was typical of what elite Bolognese families hung in their houses in the early eighteenth century: a comprehensive mixture of art­ ists, mediums, styles, and subjects that celebrated several generations of local talent. While there were some expensive canvases, the initial prices paid for much of the art in the gallery were relatively low. Some of the works appear in multiple records over time, and receipts and inventory estimates demonstrate that the art’s value fell in the decades following its acquisition. This devaluation of the Fantuzzi collection contrasts with the general rise in the worth of elite collections over the eighteenth century in Bologna, perhaps because it featured so few of the large narrative paint­ ings that surged in value. The Fantuzzi had been among Bologna’s nobility since the thirteenth century, when they moved to the city from Treviso. Pope Julius II, in his consolidation of power within the papal city, elevated them to senatorial status in 1506. Soon after, Francesco Fantuzzi built an imposing palace on the via San Vitale (begun 1517), where the main branch of the family resided until the middle of the eighteenth century.4 The palace, 2 For Bolognese trade and industry, see Guenzi, 2008. On the influence of early histories, see Morselli, 1997, xiii–xxxvi; and Perini, 1981. 3 Bonfait, 2000, 35–40, 113–32, 417–21. 4 For the Palazzo Fantuzzi, see R. Ricci, 1993–2000.

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featuring the Fantuzzi coat of arms with elephants on the facade, marked the family’s new status, which grew as they married among Bologna’s other elite families and pro­ duced generations of important statesmen, intellectuals, and clerics. Like their con­ temporary noble peers, members of the extended Fantuzzi family owned numerous income-producing properties in Bologna and the surrounding countryside, including villas, farms, workshops, and mills. Besides the main line in via San Vitale, several oth­ er branches of the family lived throughout the city in more modest residences. The diagrams for the Fantuzzi gallery and study are from one of these smaller dwellings, in the parish of San Procolo on the via del Cane. Because the house was near the church of San Domenico, this branch of the family became known as the San Domenico line.5 Giovanni Fantuzzi (d. 1716) renovated the house in the first decade of the eighteenth century, as two record books and other family documents attest. Much of the work involved shoring up foundations and building walls and windows, and the project likely united several smaller properties. More important for this essay, the records also indicate a cohesive scheme of frescoes, framed works of art, and other decorative items like mirrors, furniture, draperies, and paintings throughout the house. Still more documentation focuses on the paintings and draw­ ings in the rooms of the appartamento nobile (prime or main apartment), especially the gallery and study, and my analysis will focus on those works. Giovanni hailed from a cadet branch of the Fantuzzi family, but he was still a prominent citizen of Bologna. For instance, he maintained family chapels in three of the city’s major churches: in San Petronio, where he was buried; San Giacomo; and San Giovanni in Monte.6 The documentation of Giovanni’s gallery reveals how a nobleman with limited resources made the most of his collection by purchasing many inexpensive works by important artists, framing them elegantly, and displaying paintings and drawings together for maximum visual impact. The diagrams of his gallery and study allow for a more pre­ cise reconstruction of the decorative scheme than would be possible from invento­ ries alone, granting a clear view into the elite interior. While there were some highly valued paintings in the house, the Fantuzzi evidence underscores the importance of the myriad less valuable works that comprised the majority of elite collections.

Giovanni Fantuzzi’s Decorative Program in the San Domenico House Emulating noble practices in early modern Bologna, Giovanni Fantuzzi lavishly decorated his new house. The multistory structure consisted of several apartments along with kitchens, storerooms, rooms for servants, and stalls for animals, organized 5 This branch of the family also acquired the diminutive nickname ‘Fantuzzini’. Montefani Caprara, Delle famiglie bolognesi, XXXII, fol. 188v. See also Giacomelli, 1994. 6 ASBo, AFC, b. 170, inventory of real estate left by Giovanni’s son Scipione, dated 1747. For the burial location, see Montefani Caprara, Delle famiglie bolognesi, XXXII, fol. 187v.

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around a courtyard.7 Construction on the main apartment, which consisted of five rooms (camere), a larger room or hall (sala), the gallery (galleria), and the study (gabinetto), commenced in 1702. The following year artists started frescoing the rooms and painting architectural details such as beams, banisters, and furniture.8 The main rooms of aristocratic residences typically featured frescoes of family heraldry, per­ spectives, landscapes, and historical scenes by local artists, and the Fantuzzi house was no exception. Angelo Michele Mannini and Stefano Orlandi painted quadratura with small figures and flowers in the gallery and two other rooms. Giuseppe Gamba­ rini added larger full- and half-length figures in one room and on the walls and vault of the gallery.9 Mannini soon completed friezes in two other rooms and painted the study.10 Finally, in 1709, Giovanni Battista Gratti frescoed the hall with landscapes, perspectives, and figures.11 The walls of the main apartment were then ready to be decorated further with portable pictures. All the rooms in the San Domenico house featured some type of artwork, and by 1749, when a family inventory of the movable art was compiled, a total of 378 paint­ ings, drawings, and prints graced the walls. About a quarter of the entries included an artist’s name, many from the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, and works by contemporary artists figured highly, including twelve drawings by Aureliano Milani (1675–1749). Giovanni commissioned a number of works, such as paintings of per­ spectives, flowers, and landscapes by Domenico Bettini, Nuncio Ferraiuoli, Angelo Michele Monticelli, Pietro Paltronieri, and Ippolito Sconzani.12 Several older images 7 ASBo, AFC, b. 169, booklet labeled, ‘Libro di Spese e Fature di Fabriche fatta nella Casa da me habitava sotto la Parochia di San Procolo principiando dal Anno 1701, sino al Anno presente’. For contemporaneous building projects by Bolognese elites, see Giuliani, 2004; Medde, 2004; and Pigozzi, 2004. 8 ASBo, AFC, b. 170, receipt dated 26 January 1703. On domestic frescoes, see Roli, 1977, 72–90. 9 ASBo, AFC, b. 169, booklet labeled, ‘Libro di Spese e Fature […] 1701’, 67–68. The labor and materials, including ultramarine and gold, for frescoing the three rooms cost L. 379.11.2, with Mannini receiving L. 286 and Gambarini, L. 13. NB: All monetary figures in this essay are in lire bolognesi (L., followed by figures for lire, soldi, and denari). On p. 71, the gallery measurements are noted: ‘larga piedi 8 o. 10 longha piedi 22 o. 8’; the gallery was thus about 3.35 × 8.65 m, or 11 × 28 ft. Little is known about Mannini beyond that he worked with his brother Giacomo Antonio (1646–1732), a student of Andrea Monticelli in Bologna. See Campori, 1885, 304; and Dolari, 2007. Stefano Orlandi (1681–1760) studied with his father Orlando, who had worked with Pasinelli, and Pompeo Aldrovandini. See Crespi, 1980 [1769], 287–88. Gambarini (1680–1725) studied with Pasinelli and Gennari. See Lanzi, 1847, III, 153. 10 Mannini received L. 200 for these paintings. ASBo, AFC, b. 169, ‘Libro di Spese […] 1701’, 81. Mannini received L. 63 for the gallery; see ASBo, AFC, b. 170, receipt dated 5 November 1707. 11 Gratti received L. 167.10 for the hall frescoes and some easel paintings. ASBo, AFC, b. 170, receipt dated 6 February 1709. Gratti (1681–1758) studied with Pasinelli and Dal Sole. See Falabella, 2002. 12 These artists painted overdoors (soprausci). ASBo, AFC, b. 170, receipts dated 4 August 1705 for canvases by Bettini; 28 August 1707, for Ferraiuoli; 8 June 1708, for Sconzani; 5 September 1708, for Monticelli; and 18 December 1708, for Sconzani and Paltronieri. For more on Bettini (1644–1705), a Florentine flower painter, see Meloni, 1967; Ferraiuoli (1661–1735), trained in Naples by Luca Giordano and then in Bologna by Dal Sole, see Maugeri, 1996; Monticelli (1678–?), studied with Domenico Maria Viani, see Orlandi, 1719, 71; Pietro Paltronieri (1654–1717) was a Mirandolese painter known for perspectives; see Imbellone, 2014. Little is known about Sconzani (active 1708–24). For the 1749 inventory, see ASBo, AFC, b. 170, folder labeled, ‘Li Stati ultimamente fatti’.

Collezionismo in Early Modern Bologna

55

had been in the collection for some time, such as Elisabetta Sirani’s large painting of the Beato Marco Fantuzzi, which Giovanni had inherited from his uncle Francesco in 1663 and exhibited in a room adjacent to the gallery.13 The display of art in the home had increased since the sixteenth century, encouraged in part by Cardinal Gabriele Paleotti’s Discourse on Sacred and Profane Images (1582). Paleotti recommended the inclusion of religious works to reinforce church doctrine, and boosted the market for images in general.14 Indeed, many religious subjects appeared throughout the house. For instance, ten religious paintings hung in one of the bedrooms of a sepa­ rate apartment, including two by Guercino and three by Francesco Francia. Others by Giacomo Cavedoni, Giovan Francesco Gessi, Orazio Samacchini, and copied from Guercino and Guido Reni were in another apartment. The lively market for these masters in the eighteenth century ensured that they were readily identified in the 1749 inventory. Although the rooms in the subsidiary apartments were well appointed with works of art, the locus of the collection was in the main apartment, the social center of the house, where Giovanni and his heirs lived and received guests. Two hundred and fifty­-three of the works in the 1749 inventory appeared in this apartment, including 219 in the study and gallery alone. The other rooms housed the remaining 34 paint­ ings and drawings. The framed art in the hall (sala) presented landscapes and per­ spectives that complemented the quadratura frescoes, with twelve works by Monti­ celli, students of Antonio Calza, and followers of Ferdinando Bibiena; one painting of a figure, done in the manner of Raphael, was the exception to the theme.15 The five rooms (camere) each displayed three to five images, a mixture of landscapes, por­ traits, religious subjects, flower paintings, and battle scenes, all popular subjects for domestic interiors in the early modern era.16 For instance, one room featured three landscapes by Ferraiuoli, a self-portrait of Guercino, and a large Saint Ursula. Anoth­ er room had two battle scenes and paintings of Saint Jerome and the Mystic Marriage of Saint Catherine. This variety of subjects was typical in elite Bolognese interiors.17 The more profusely decorated study in the main apartment exhibited 168 works of art, as recorded in the inventory. Of these, 133 were small, oval portraits of unidentified sitters; other subjects included landscapes, battle scenes, flowers, and figures. Only two artists were named in the inventory: Carlo Antonio Buffagnotti 13 Fra Francesco Fantuzzi commissioned the painting of Marco Fantuzzi, along with a copy for his cousin Pandolfo Fantuzzi of Ravenna, in 1661. See ASBo, Archivio Notarile, Notaio Carlo Antonio Mandini IV, 6/15, mortuary inventory dated 27 February 1663. See also Modesti, 2014, 286–87. 14 See Paleotti, 2012 [1582], 107–23; Murphy, 2003. 15 The inventory identifies the students of Calza as Gian Martini, whom I have not been able to trace, and a ‘Suizero’ (‘Swissman’), who may be the same artist. Calza had at least two Swiss students. See Crespi, 1980 [1769], 189. 16 See Morselli, 1998, 497–628, for categorization and quantification of subjects of art in Bolognese inventories; and Bonfait, 2000, 76–80, on trends for the display of particular subjects. 17 Bonfait, 2000, 54–57, 76–78.

56

REFR AMING SEVENTEENTH- CENTURY BOLOGNESE ART

Fig. 3.1. Diagram of the wall in the Fantuzzi study with Franceschini’s Sleeping Cupid, ASBo, AFC, b. 170.

(c.1660–c.1717), a student of Bibiena known for perspective painting, composed four pen-and-ink drawings of unknown subjects;18 and Marcantonio Franceschini and his followers produced two paintings of cupids. The 1749 inventory confirmed the information for the larger paintings on the diagrams of the study, but did not pro­ vide any further details regarding the portraits. A separate, incomplete list of the portraits identified four artists – Cesare Gennari, Lavinia Fontana, and the schools of Torri and the Carracci – and its numbering corresponded to the diagrams.19 Both the list and the diagrams probably date to the early eighteenth century, as the val­ uations of the portraits on the list differ from those in the later inventory. Giovan­ ni likely amassed the study’s collection, because he built the space that housed it, although his son and grandson may have augmented the display; Giovanni, or some­ one working with him, may have also drawn these unofficial diagrams, along with those of the gallery. Considering the diagrams in tandem with inventory information, we can recreate the study as it appeared in the eighteenth century. In the center of the main wall was a large painting of a Sleeping Cupid by Franceschini (see Fig. 3.1). Below it hung 18 See Borroni, 1972. 19 The list of the portraits and the diagrams of the study are in ASBo, AFC, b. 170.

Collezionismo in Early Modern Bologna

57

Fig. 3.2. Diagram of the wall in the Fantuzzi study with the painting of Two Cupids waving a Flag, ASBo, AFC, b. 170.

a painting on copper, with two embroideries of flower vases on either side. Four oval landscapes ran along the top and another four along the bottom of the wall, and six­ ty-nine small oval portraits were grouped around the larger paintings. On the oppo­ site wall, a large painting of two cupids waving a flag by Franceschini’s followers took center place, with two Buffagnotti drawings to its right and left; below was another painting on copper (Fig. 3.2). Four oval landscapes hung at the four corners of the wall, with thirty-one small oval portraits dispersed around them. One of the shorter walls featured two more landscapes, two battle scenes, and two works that represent ‘Bertoldo’, which may refer to the protagonist of the Bolognese poet Giulio Cesare Croce’s popular tales, Bertoldo, Bertoldino, e Caca­senno (1620; Fig. 3.3). Twenty-four small oval portraits filled out the space, and an oval image of a woman and a satyr, according to the diagram, but identified as a Venus in the inventory, was installed over the door. The last wall presented two landscapes on each side of a fake doorway, a Buffagnotti drawing between each pair, and six small portraits; the 1749 inventory indicated a flower painting, which is not on the diagram, over the door (Fig. 3.4). The study as a domestic space – typically a small room with an array of imag­ es, objects, and books, contemporary and antique – developed in elite palaces in fifteenth-century Italy; this collection facilitated intellectual pursuits and contem­ plation. Owners could retreat alone to their study or invite guests to admire and

58

REFR AMING SEVENTEENTH- CENTURY BOLOGNESE ART

Fig. 3.3. Diagram of the wall in the Fantuzzi study with two battle scenes, ASBo, AFC, b. 170.

Fig. 3.4. Diagram of the wall in the Fantuzzi study with the fake doorway, ASBo, AFC, b. 170.

Collezionismo in Early Modern Bologna

59

discuss the contents.20 Studies often featured images of famous men who served as role models or predecessors of the owner, akin to the compendia of great men that flourished in the Renaissance. The Fantuzzi example adhered to this tradition with its numerous small portraits. Although there is no extant information on the sitters, it seems likely that these images might have depicted not only famous men but also women, since Bologna was known for its talented and intellectual women. And, judging from the names in the documents, at least some of the portraits were by well-known, local artists. The room apparently contained mostly secular works, as none of the identified subjects were religious. Instead, the battles, landscapes, and even the children waving a flag embodied the masculine endeavors of war and prowess over territory, as would have befitted a man’s intellectual retreat. The myth­ ological subjects of the sleeping cupid and the woman (or Venus) and the satyr were consonant as well with the sensual, humanist decorative schemes found in other early modern examples. For the larger, more public space of the gallery, Giovanni purchased numerous works of art, and evidence in the Fantuzzi family archive speaks to his meticulous attention to their exhibition. Besides the renovation account books, another docu­ ment outlined the acquisition and framing costs of eighteen paintings and thirty-two drawings, produced by thirty artists (see Table 3.1). The receipt carefully itemized the prices of the paintings and drawings if newly purchased and the costs for all aspects of the framing: the materials of wood, glass, and gold leaf as well as the labor to gild and sculpt the frames. Although undated, this receipt was written in the same hand as the renovation accounts and other Fantuzzi documents firmly dated to the first decade of the eighteenth century, and it seems to be a contemporary consolidation of separate receipts. Eight works were already in the collection, and received a new frame or glass; for these, only the framing costs were included and no valuation of the art provided. A few others arrived already framed, and the receipt recorded only the total price paid for the item. By the time they were displayed in the gallery, all the works of art were encased in carved gilt frames that rendered a grand and cohesive display.21 Although it named fewer than one-third of the subjects of the fifty artworks, the receipt identified the majority of the artists, underscoring Giovanni’s interest in attri­ butions. The forty-one works newly purchased for the gallery were by artists repre­ sentative of local production throughout the early modern era, almost a who’s who of Bolognese talent. The earliest artist named was Garofalo (1481–1559) and the latest were Carlo Cignani (1628–1719) and Giovan Gioseffo dal Sole (1654–1719), but most had careers spanning from the late sixteenth through the late seventeenth centu­ ry. The several artists represented by multiple works hailed from Bologna, with the 20 For an overview of early modern studies, see Volpi, 2014. 21 On the importance of carved gilt frames, see Bonfait, 2000, 65–69.

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REFR AMING SEVENTEENTH- CENTURY BOLOGNESE ART

Table 3.1 Works of art on the early eighteenth-century receipt, for display in the San Domenico Fantuzzi gallery N.B. Prices in lire bolognesi

Artist

Receipt/ Diagram #

Subject & Medium P=painting; D=drawing

Initial cost of the art

Total cost, with gilt frames & glass

1749 value

F. Barocci

22

Head, D

1.10

8.5

4.10

F. Brizio V.

37

Musicians, P

13

18.12.6

10

Brusasorci

24

Unknown subject, D

*

2**

4

D. Calvaert

48

Unknown subject, D

15

15***

3

D.M. Canuti

10

Head, D

6

10.5.5

7.10

“

11

Head, D

6

10.5.5

7.10

“

12

Head, D

6

10.5.5

7.10

“

13

Head, D

6

10.5.5

7.10

“

40

Jacob’s Ladder, D

18

23.12.6

7.10

Ag. Carracci

42****

Portrait, P

6

6***

10

L. Carracci

3

Madonna, D,

15

26.5

21

“

35****

Child Sleeping on a Cross, P

*

11.11.8

12

G. Cavedoni

16

St. Teresa, D

2

6.8

2.10

C. Cignani

2

Joseph & Potiphar’s Wife, D

13

24.5

9

G. Dinarelli

5

Head, after Reni, D

8

“

6

Head, after Reni, D

8

85.5.8

10

“

7

Head, after Reni, D

8

(^ total for 5)

7.10

“

8

Head, after Reni, D

8

7.10

“

9

Hercules, after Reni, D

8

11

L. Fontana

46

Portrait of a Lady with a Lapdog, P

10

31.10

10

Garofalo

31

Madonna & St. Roch, D

1.10

5.18

3

C. Gennari

15

Madonna & Child, D

2

6.10.6

4

G.F. Gessi

32

Unknown subject, D

2

6.18

3

Guercino

18

Flagellation, D

10

14.10

15

“

19

Mary Magdalen, D

10

14.10

7.10

Morazzone (?) 41****

Portrait, P

*

13.10

10

P.F. Mola

25

7.10

Landscape w/ child, P

*

***

5

G. Palma Giov 14

Venus, D

2

6.10.6

5

“

33

Baptism of John the Baptist, D

2

6.11

6

“

34

Child, D

2

6.11

6

61

Collezionismo in Early Modern Bologna

Parmigianino 1

Holy Family, D

12

23.5

10

“

17

Holy Family with saints, D

2

6.8

3

L. Pasinelli

20

Satyr, D

1.10

15.15

12

“

21

Satyr, D

1.10

(^total for 2)

12

“

23

Head P

6.10

13.5

10

“

28

Assumption, P

18.10

26.10

9

“

36

St. Lucy, P

13

27.15

10

“

43****

Joseph & Potiphar’s Wife, P

270

270***

90

“

44****

Sleeping Cupid, P

300

300***

100

G. Reni

29

Madonna, P

*

18.17.6

30

O. Samacchini 49

Holy Family w/Angels, P

115

118.14**

50

E. Sirani

4

Holy Family, D

45

56.5

9

G.A. Sirani

26

Head, D

*

1**

7.10

“

27

Head, D

*

1**

7.10

G. G. dal Sole

30

Holy Family, P

90

105.17.6

21

A. Tiarini?

38

Head, P

*

15.7.6

8

F. Torri

45

John the Baptist, P

30

50.17.6

30

German artist 39

Flight into Egypt, P

*

5.12.6

15

Unknown

Jesus on a donkey, D

13

13***

2.10

Total

1107

1445.0.8

688

47

* Work already in the collection, no cost or valuation indicated on receipt ** Work already framed, only needed glass added *** Work already framed, no separate framing expenses recorded **** Work numbered on the receipt but not on the gallery diagrams, where it is described by subject or artist.

one exception of Parmigianino. For the previous acquisitions, the receipt identified the local artists, but proved vague about the foreigners. The collection included a drawing by Brusasorci Veronese, who might have been either Domenico or Felice, and a portrait of Cosimo de’ Medici by ‘Maronzoni’, perhaps the Lombard artist Pier Francesco Morazzone. The ‘Tedesco’ (‘German’) who painted a nighttime scene of the Flight into Egypt on copper could have been one of several artists since this was a popular subject and medium. Only one work had no attribution whatsoever: a draw­ ing that, according to the receipt, elicited diverse opinions about the artist’s identity, a comment that suggests Giovanni consulted with several art connoisseurs about his collection. Giovanni likely purchased some works directly from artists’ work­ shops, but since many of the artists were long dead, he probably also turned to the

62

REFR AMING SEVENTEENTH- CENTURY BOLOGNESE ART

city’s secondary market.22 Unfortunately, the dealers who sold Giovanni these works remain unnamed in the Fantuzzi accounts. The numbering of the items on the receipt coincided with numbers found on the diagrams of the gallery, which specifically identified some works with enough infor­ mation to confirm that the two documents were related.23 Indeed, the receipt was not simply a financial document, but also the key to the diagrams since it included a painting already in the collection that did not need any updates and thus had no costs recorded. In addition, while there are fifty works listed on the receipt, only forty-­nine are numbered, the same quantity that appears on the gallery diagrams.24 The 1749 inventory further confirms that the artworks listed on the receipt correspond with the gallery diagrams. This inventory was compiled like most others in the early mod­ ern era; it assessed items systematically while moving across and down a wall before proceeding to the next. The inventory’s numbering system coincided with this meth­ od, as the works were ‘each labeled with its number as they occur at present’.25 This method deviated from the numbering of the receipt and diagrams, and it further sug­ gests that the diagrams date to early in the century, and not to the time of the inven­ tory. Giovanni likely drew up the diagram once he finalized the gallery layout in the early 1700s and, because displays of art in eighteenth-century Bolognese houses were remarkably stable and treated as if immovable, his organization probably remained largely intact until his grandsons sold the house.26 If one aligns each of the works on the receipt with its number on the diagrams and reads the 1749 inventory, the artists’ names and the mediums correspond with the order of the inventory with only a few discrepancies, such as a different or dropped attribution. For example, the inventory attributed one of the drawings to Elisabetta Sirani that the receipt noted as by her father Giovanni Andrea. In addition, the 1749 inventory filled in some of the gaps of information regarding the subject matter of the works. While the receipt specified the subjects of only fourteen paintings and one drawing, the inventory provided gen­ eral titles for all of the works except three drawings. Of the twenty-one religious sub­ jects, thirteen were devotional images and eight presented biblical narratives. The rest were more secular in nature: twelve ‘heads’, four portraits, four mythological or historical subjects, four genre scenes, and one landscape.

22 See Modesti, 2003b. The receipt did identify the local artisans responsible for the frames. 23 See ASBo, AFC, b. 170 for the diagrams of the gallery. 24 A Saint Ursula exhibited in one of the nearby rooms was included on the receipt, clearly a part of this phase of collecting, but was not numbered. The receipt identified the artist as Simone Cantarini, but the 1749 inventory considered it ‘manner of Flaminio Torri’(‘maniera di Flaminio Torri’). Already framed, it initially cost L. 170; in 1749, it was valued at L. 50. 25 ‘Inventario de Quadri ciascheduno contrasegnato con il suo numero come vengono nel presente anunciati’. ASBo, AFC, Filza 170, folder labeled, ‘Li Stati ultimamente fatti’. 26 Bonfait, 2000, 54–56.

Collezionismo in Early Modern Bologna

63

Fig. 3.5. Diagram of the wall in the Fantuzzi gallery with Pasinelli’s Sleeping Cupid and the wall leading into an alcove, ASBo, AFC, b. 170.

As with the study, the archival records allow us to visualize the works in the gallery and to reconstruct how Giovanni organized the space. The two most costly images – according to the receipt, both large canvases by Lorenzo Pasinelli – dominated the opposing long walls. Pasinelli’s painting of a Sleeping Cupid with three half-length figures hung on the wall with windows that looked onto the garden; on either side were portraits; below those were two paintings in chiaroscuro, a Holy Family by dal Sole, and an Assumption, also by Pasinelli (Fig. 3.5). Five works ran across the bottom of the wall: a drawing of the Holy Family by Elisabetta Sirani, a drawing by Brusasorci, a Madonna and Child painted by Samacchini, a landscape by Pier Francesco Mola, and a drawing of the Holy Family by Parmigianino. A Madonna and Saint Roch by Garofalo, a Venus by Palma Giovane, and a drawing with unidentified subject by Ges­ si hung on the same wall in the narrow space between a window and the corner. The centerpiece of the opposite wall was Pasinelli’s painting of Joseph and Potiphar’s Wife (Fig. 3.6). Across the top of the wall were six drawings of heads, four by Domenico Maria Canuti interspersed with two by Giovanni Andrea Sirani. At the center of this upper row were two paintings: a Portrait of a Lady with a Dog by Lavinia Fontana and a Saint Lucy by Pasinelli. Flanking the large Joseph was a Madonna painted by Reni and a head of John the Baptist by Torri. On the same level, but on the other side of the doors, were drawings of Saint Teresa by Cavedoni and a Holy Family with Saints

64

REFR AMING SEVENTEENTH- CENTURY BOLOGNESE ART

Fig. 3.6. Diagram of the wall in the Fantuzzi gallery with Pasinelli’s Joseph and Potiphar’s Wife and the wall facing the street, ASBo, AFC, b. 170.

by Parmigianino. Below them were paintings of the Flight into Egypt by the unknown German, a Child sleeping on a Cross by Ludovico Carracci, and Musicians in chiar­ oscuro by Francesco Brizio. On the lowest level was a string of drawings: Jesus on a Donkey by an unknown artist, Joseph and Potiphar’s Wife by Cignani, a Madonna by Lodovico Carracci, and an unknown subject by Denys Calvaert. The diagram identi­ fies at either corner two cassette (boxes) that seem to coincide with two engravings in box (incasate) frames in the 1749 inventory. The two shorter walls featured mostly drawings. On the wall that led into an alcove, eight drawings and two paintings surrounded the doorway. Across the top of the wall were five works: three drawings of heads, two copied from Reni by Giuliano Dinarelli and another by Federico Barocci, and two painted heads, one probably by Alessandro Tiarini, the other by Pasinelli (Fig. 3.5). Below these were more drawings, to the left of the door was a Hercules, copied from Reni by Dinarel­ li, and a Flagellation by Guercino. On the other side of the door were a Madonna and Child by Cesare Gennari, a Jacob’s Ladder by Canuti, and a Mary Magdalen by Guercino. On the wall that faced the street, six drawings bracketed a window: at the top two heads in pastel by Dinarelli, again copied after Reni; in the middle, two Satyrs by Pasinelli; then below, a child and a Baptism of John the Baptist, both by Palma Giovane (Fig. 3.6).

Collezionismo in Early Modern Bologna

65

Bolognese galleries usually featured images for instructional purposes, including series, and the Fantuzzi example fits into this model, with its juxtaposition of reli­ gious and secular subjects, drawing and painting, and cinque-, sei-, and settecento examples that would likely have sparked dialogue about the merits of the artists from the family and their guests.27 The most important works, indicated by size, medi­ um, and subject, were more prominently displayed on the larger walls in the Fan­ tuzzi gallery. Most of the heads and portraits ran along the tops of the walls. If there were two of the same subject or by the same artist, they were shown in tandem, as with Pasinelli’s satyrs and Palma’s drawings. The several Madonnas and Holy Fami­ lies appeared together, but, as on the wall facing the garden, interspersed with other works. Cignani’s drawing of Joseph and Potiphar’s wife was displayed nearby Pasinel­ li’s painted version of the subject, to facilitate comparison of the two interpretations of the story. Stylistic comparisons were also in play. A Madonna attributed to Reni hung next to Pasinelli’s Joseph, noted on the receipt as being a copy of Reni’s painting of the same subject; this pairing in the Fantuzzi gallery surely prompted discussions of the artists’ styles. An entirely accurate account of the Fantuzzi collection remains elusive. Tracing the provenance and current whereabouts of the art is difficult, especially for the many works with general or common subjects, like the Madonna or saints.28 In addi­ tion, the fate of the collection after the San Domenico line died out in the late eigh­ teenth century is unclear, although some of the art may eventually be identified. For instance, Lavinia Fontana produced several portraits of women with little dogs, and research may reveal which one was once in the San Domenico house. Though we cannot identify specific canvases, we can guess at the appearance of Pasinelli’s two large paintings from surviving works. Reni’s Joseph and Potiphar’s Wife (c.1630), once owned by Pasinelli and copied by him for the Fantuzzi, is now in the Getty.29 Pasinel­ li’s large painting of a Sleeping Cupid accompanied by three half-figures is likely sim­ ilar to his Cupid Disarmed by Nymphs, now in the collection of the Banca Popolare d’Emilia in Modena.30 It would take further research to complete the formidable task of identifying any extant works, yet the archival records still allow for a reconstruc­ tion of the Fantuzzi gallery and study. Even more information is available for us to consider the Fantuzzi collection in light of the art market and aristocratic culture in eighteenth-century Bologna.

27 Ibid., 78–81. 28 See Warwick, 2000, 3, on the difficulty of tracing drawings. 29 Joseph and Potiphar’s Wife, J. Paul Getty Trust, www.getty.edu/art/collection/objects/867/guido-renijoseph-and-potiphar’s-wife-italian-about-1630/ (accessed 24 February 2019). See also Kerber, 2014. 30 See Baroncini, 2010, 193–98 and 298–99, plate 16; and Bartoni, 2014.

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Prices and Valuations of the Fantuzzi Collection Giovanni Fantuzzi’s investment in art for his gallery was substantial, even if many of the individual works were very inexpensive. As the prices on the early eigh­ teenth-century receipt for the art and frames attest, the forty-one newly acquired paintings and drawings together cost L. 1,107; with the carved and gilded frames and glass, including those for works already in the collection, the total expense came to L. 1,445.0.8 (see Table 3.1). The individual numbers indicate that the cost to frame a work was often more expensive than the art itself, but the L. 338 spent on framing was a necessary expense as the gilt frames were fundamental to the aesthetic cohe­ siveness of the gallery. The prices of the drawings were typically less than those of the paintings, with some notable exceptions. Eleven of the twenty-nine newly pur­ chased drawings cost L. 1.10 or L. 2; and seventeen were between L. 6 and L. 18. The most expensive drawing by far was Elisabetta Sirani’s Holy Family at L. 45, a price that suggests it was more refined than a preparatory sketch. The paintings generally cost more than the drawings, although some were quite affordable.31 The least precious was Agostino Carracci’s already framed portrait at L. 6; six others cost between L. 10 and L. 30. The most expensive works were large narrative paintings, like Pasinelli’s Joseph, which cost L. 270, and his Sleeping Cupid, L. 300. While the total cost of the gallery works was significant, the expenses itemized on the receipt seem remarkably modest when compared to the money Giovanni Fan­ tuzzi spent on other furnishings for the San Domenico house. For instance, in 1704, he paid L. 407.5 for silk damask for portiere (‘door coverings’) and other draperies for the main hall alone.32 He bought two mirrors from Venice for L. 353.8 for another room, and paid L. 472.5 for their carved gilt frames and installation, a total invest­ ment of L. 825.13.33 The price for thirty small items made of pear wood that Giovanni ordered in 1712 for a woman’s dressing table was L. 275.1, including L. 145 paid to a nun who lacquered the pieces in the Chinese style.34 Those three receipts together totaled L. 1,507.19, somewhat more than the L. 1,445 Giovanni spent on the paintings and drawings in the gallery, and are just a few examples of the many expenses he incurred to furnish his house. Essential to a well-appointed noble house, the silks, mirrors, and lacquerware were all luxury items by virtue of their materials and exot­ icism, and through much of the early modern era, elite Bolognese typically spent comparatively more on domestic furnishings than on art, a trend that would shift 31 On the prices for paintings in Bologna, see Morselli, 2010. 32 ASBo, AFC, b. 170, receipt labeled, ‘Notitie per fare aparati da camare di Damasco […] 1704’ (‘Account for the furnishings of the Damask room […] 1704’). 33 ASBo, AFC, b. 170, document dated 16 April 1707. The mirrors were for the ‘camara ghrande del partimento di sopra’(‘large room of the upper apartment’), probably the room in which Sirani’s Marco Fantuzzi hung, the only room in which two mirrors were documented in the 1749 inventory. 34 ASBo, AFC, b. 170, document dated 16 July 1712.

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over the eighteenth century.35 Further proof of his commitment to maintaining the appropriate level of material splendor for his family, Giovanni spent a staggering L. 18,406.13.6 on the clothing, jewels, carriages, furniture, and other essentials for the wedding of his son Scipione to Orsina Castelli in 1712.36 If considered as an ensemble, and not individually, the gallery art, displayed in sculpted gilt frames, achieved a bril­ liant effect, especially when reconstructed in tandem with the textiles, mirrors, and other furnishings in the house. Despite their collective grandness, by mid-century, most of the works in the Fan­ tuzzi gallery had depreciated. While we must take care to not confuse cost with val­ ue, when initial costs from the early eighteenth-century receipt are juxtaposed with values on the 1749 inventory, the decline is significant. Of course, these two docu­ ments served rather different purposes: one is a receipt of actual costs, the other esti­ mated valuations for inheritance purposes, but the change is still remarkable. The inventory values the gallery art at L. 698, which includes the two engravings that were not on the receipt. Without those two prints, the forty-nine works from the receipt were worth L. 668 in 1749, less than half of what Giovanni had spent on them. Taking into consideration the fact that the prices of several gallery works were not includ­ ed on the early eighteenth-century receipt because they were already in the house, the worth of the collection in 1749 was an even smaller portion of the initial invest­ ment. As the aggregate numbers suggest, most of the art dropped in value, some dramatically. Elisabetta Sirani’s Holy Family tumbled to L. 9, and Pasinelli’s two large paintings plunged by two-thirds, the Joseph valued at L. 90 and the Sleeping Cupid at L. 100. A 1783 Bolognese inventory estimated the worth of an elaborate devotion­ al drawing by Elisabetta Sirani at L. 42; the iconography of the Fantuzzi Holy Family might have been less sophisticated, contributing to its drastic decline in value.37 While some of Pasinelli’s works boasted high estimates in eighteenth-century inven­ tories, his painting of Pallas Athena with Nymphs was valued at L. 90 in another 1786 inventory, demonstrating that the valuations assigned to his Fantuzzi paintings were not unique.38 Also, his Joseph was a copy, which may have affected its depreciation.39 Some of the inexpensive Fantuzzi art retained its value. For instance, the two Pal­ ma drawings initially each cost L. 6.11 with the frame. In 1749, they were still valued at L. 12. Agostino Carracci’s portrait increased from L. 6 to L. 10, and the two Pasinelli drawings of satyrs gained even more: together they initially cost L. 15.15 with their frames, and were later estimated at L. 24. Likewise, the small portraits in the study 35 Bonfait, 2000, 116, 123–27. 36 ASBo, AFC, b. 170, booklet labeled, ‘1712 Spese per lo Sposalizio del Co. Scipione colla Co.sa Orsina Castelli’. 37 ASBo, Archivio Notarile, Notaio Francesco Triboli, inventory for Angelica Teresa Zanchini Zambeccari, dated 17 February 1783; Getty PI I-3541. 38 ASBo, Archivio Notarile, Notaio Zenobio Egidio Teodori, inventory for Federico Calderini, dated 20 February 1786; Getty PI I-3468. 39 On copies, see Bonfait, 2000, 160–70 and 420–21. Bonfait also notes that values of paintings in bourgeois collections fell over the eighteenth century, p. 110.

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lost little of their value. An early eighteenth-century account labeled ‘Cost of the small portraits in the study’ tallied up 117 of them at L. 129.17. With figures ranging from L. 0.10 to L. 3.10 for individual images, the average is about L. 1.2.40 The 1749 inventory values the portraits together for each wall, appraising all 133 at a total of L. 141, an average of about L. 1.1 each. These humble works could barely decline fur­ ther, and their gold frames helped to stabilize their worth. Comparisons to contemporary noble collections in Bologna show that while the Fantuzzi gallery was typical in its range of subjects and emphasis on local masters, it was hardly the most opulent. The 1700 inventory of the goods of the wealthy silk merchant Gaspare Bassi, for example, listed seventy-nine works, split almost evenly between religious and secular themes, worth a total of L. 5,274.41 Bassi’s collection featured fewer, but more precious works, with fifteen paintings valued at at least L. 100, including four worth over L. 500. Giovanni Fantuzzi also purchased some expensive paintings, but their initial prices and later valuations were significantly lower. The inventories of the Ratta family, who joined the senatorial class in 1676, recorded even more impressive figures. Brothers Giuseppe Carlo (d. 1679) and Ludovi­ co (d. 1683) displayed almost 400 works of art in their palace on the via Castiglione.42 In the main apartment alone, there were 16 paintings valued at L. 4,645 in 1679, and numerous other expensive works, many by Bolognese artists, throughout the resi­ dence. Drawings were only exhibited in the smaller rooms, a practice that contrasted with the Fantuzzi strategy of integrating drawings and paintings in the gallery, one of the most important spaces in the house. The status of drawing had been rising in Bologna since the sixteenth century, and finished drawings were increasingly con­ sidered works of art in their own right.43 Giovanni Fantuzzi was perhaps progres­ sive in his decision to display drawings so prominently in his gallery, although the low prices of his suggest that many were preparatory sketches and not stand-alone works. Even so, their elaborate gold frames boosted their visual impact and signaled that they were produced by masters. The cadet branches of senatorial families were often at the forefront of the trends in collecting in Bologna, and Giovanni may have been pushing the limits of what was acceptable by including so many inexpensive drawings in his gallery.44 Elite collections largely consisted of lesser works, even if the demand for grand paintings grew over the eighteenth century. As the 1748 inventory of his palace in the via Galliera reveals, Filippo Maria Aldrovandi owned 307 works worth a total of L. 19,572.3.45 Several of his paintings had high estimates, including 5 of L. 1,000 or 40 ASBo, AFC, b. 170, document labeled, ‘Costo de ritratti picioli del Gabineto’. 41 Morselli, 1998, 85–88. 42 Ibid., 393–408; Mozzati, 2009. 43 Bohn, 2004d, 57–57. See also Turner, 2003; Warwick, 2000, 2003. 44 Bonfait, 2000, 69, 81–83. 45 ASBo, Fondo Aldrovandi, b. 374, inventory dated 20 November 1748. Getty PI I–643.

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more. These are impressive figures, but two-thirds of the works in his collection were individually valued at L. 25 or less, with numerous works below L. 10. Inventoried in 1783, Senator Giovanni Luigi Marescotti’s collection of 325 images in his Bolognese palace and country house was worth L. 2,720.4, with only 3 paintings at L. 100 or more and over half valued at less than L.10.46 The Marescotti numbers are similar to the data from the 1749 Fantuzzi inventory, which estimated the 378 paintings, drawings, and prints in the San Domenico house at L. 2,924.12. While important master paint­ ings increased in worth and prominence in elite palaces over the eighteenth century, there were still plenty of modest images. Even so, the value of the 219 artworks the Fantuzzi gallery and study, together worth L. 1,008 in 1749, was indeed remarkably low when compared to those in the finest rooms of Bolognese palaces. In the early eighteenth century, when Giovanni assembled the collection in his new residence, the gallery and study in Bolognese houses generally did not feature the most luxurious displays; these spaces were meant more for instruction and con­ templation. Rather, a reception room or hall showcased the family’s status by pre­ senting a few grand narrative paintings and exquisite furnishings, including elab­ orate mirrors, a hallmark of the space.47 In the San Domenico house, this seems to have been ‘la stanza dalli Spechii’ (‘the room of the mirrors’), as labeled on the gal­ lery diagrams, where Elisabetta Sirani’s Marco Fantuzzi hung, along with two flower paintings and two large mirrors, all in sculpted gilt frames. These five items were valued in the mid-eighteenth century at L. 960: the Marco Fantuzzi was L. 130 and the two flower paintings were together L. 30 on the 1749 inventory, and the mirrors were estimated at L. 400 each on a 1754 Fantuzzi document.48 While the Marco Fantuzzi is not a narrative painting per se, it certainly represents the illustrious history of both family and city, as the display in this type of room in eighteenth-century Bolognese palaces was meant to symbolize. If the reception room impressed with quality, the abundance of works in the Fantuzzi gallery and study impressed with quantity.

Conclusion Giovanni and his descendants enjoyed the decorative program in their house for less than fifty years. The main line of the Fantuzzi died out in 1749, and the San Dome­ nico branch inherited the San Vitale palace along with the family’s seat in the sen­ ate. Giovanni’s grandson, also named Giovanni (1718–1799), became the Fantuzzi senator, and with his brothers and sisters, he divided up the many goods in the San 46 ASBo, Archivio Notarile, Notaio Giovanni Battista Guarmani, inventory dated 17 August 1783; Getty PI I–3498. 47 Bonfait, 2000, 76–81. 48 ASBo, AFC, b. 169, folder labeled, ‘1754 Divisione’. If these two mirrors are indeed the ones ordered in 1707 by Giovanni, his initial investment of L. 825 largely retained its value. See note 33.

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Domenico house, sold the building to the Mazzini family, and relocated to via San Vitale in 1752.49 This division was the motivation for the 1749 inventory consulted throughout this essay. While each of the eight Fantuzzi siblings received a portion of the goods and properties, only the three brothers, Giovanni, Prospero, and Giovanni Paolo, inherited the art. A 1754 document, based on the 1749 inventory, detailed the equitable dispersal, noting who received each item.50 The art moved with the Fantuzzi brothers to the San Vitale palace. In the 1760s, Marcello Oretti observed Elisabetta Sirani’s Marco Fantuzzi there.51 Part of Prospero’s share, this important painting was one of the few items noted specifically by Oretti in the Fantuzzi palace. Oretti focused mostly on the frescoes and sculpture, but com­ mented, ‘In this palace they made a room with various celebrated painters, among which is the famous Guido Reni’.52 Perhaps some of this art by celebrated painters observed by Oretti was originally from the San Domenico house, integrated into the San Vitale collection. At the end of the eighteenth century, the art passed out of the direct Fantuzzi line. Giovanni retired from the senate in 1774, when he decided to concentrate on his intellectual pursuits; he ceded the seat to Giovanni Paolo, who died without sons in 1779. Prospero had already died in 1766, and the succession went to the Ceretoli of Parma; one of the Fantuzzi sisters had married into that family, and they eventually claimed the via San Vitale palace and its contents. Giovanni survived until 1799, still residing in the palace, and became a prominent historian, the author of several biographies of Bolognese luminaries.53 Although he did not write about the visual arts, Giovanni’s everyday contact with the Fantuzzi collections, assembled in part by his grandfather, certainly would have nurtured his cultural acuity, fundamen­ tal to his status as an aristocrat and intellectual. Whereas the art collected by the elder Giovanni Fantuzzi in the eighteenth cen­ tury for his gallery was typical in its emphasis on local artists, the surviving docu­ mentation on its valuation and display is exceptional. For a relatively modest outlay of funds, Giovanni amassed a comprehensive array of paintings and drawings that included many of the most important early modern Bolognese artists. A significant portion of the art was quite inexpensive, but he splurged on some key works. He framed the works elegantly and organized them to allow for meaningful compari­ sons of style, medium, and iconography. He likewise featured Bolognese artists in his study, judging from the more limited sources, and adhered to traditions for deco­ rating that space with portraits, battle scenes, and other thought-provoking themes. As a nobleman, Giovanni understood the social importance of collecting art, and he 49 Giacomelli, 1994. 50 ASBo, AFC, b. 169, folder labeled, ‘1754 Divisione’. 51 Oretti, Le pitture che si ammirano, B.104, I, fol. 88r. See also Modesti, 2014, 286–87. 52 ‘In questo palazzo vi fecero stanza varii celebri pittori frà li quali il Famoso Guido Reni’. Oretti, Le pitture che si ammirano, B.104, II, fol. 172v. 53 Giacomelli, 1994.

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acquired works within his means to embellish his new house. Fortunately for us, he preserved many receipts, compiled account books, and made diagrams of the rooms most densely hung with art, enabling us to understand and reconstruct the spaces today.54

About the author Joyce de Vries, Associate Professor of Art History and Director of Women’s Studies at Auburn University, is the author of a book on Caterina Sforza.

54 Many thanks to Babette Bohn and Raffaella Morselli for their insights and guidance as I developed this essay.

Plate 1: Girolamo Bonini, Portrait of Francesco Albani, Rome, Camera dei Deputati, c.1660.

Plate 2: Francesco Albani, Saint Mary Magdalen, Rome, Musei Capitolini, c.1640.

Plate 3: Ginevra Cantofoli, Saint Thomas of Villanova, Bologna, convent of San Giacomo Maggiore, 1658.

Plate 4: Ginevra Cantofoli, Immaculate Conception with the Virgin of the Rosary, Bologna, Pinacoteca Nazionale, in storage at the Istituto Suore Francescane dell’ Immacolata, n.d.

Plate 5: Gabriele Brunelli, statues, Loggia di Davide, Mantua, Palazzo Te, 1653.

Plate 6: Giovanni Battista Caccioli, ceiling fresco, chapel of San Carlo, Mantua, Palazzo della Ragione, 1674.

Plate 7: Guido Cagnacci, The Virgin of the Rose, private collection, c.1647.

Plate 8: Carlo Cignani, Dawn, Forlì, Palazzo Albicini, 1672–74.

Plate 9: Angelo Michele Colonna, Agostino Mitelli, and Francesco Albani, Jupiter and Ganymede, Villa di Mezzomonte (Florence), 1634.

4. Collecting Women’s Art in Early Modern Bologna Myth and Reality Babette Bohn

Abstract This chapter examines the collecting of Bolognese women’s art in seventeenth- and eighteenth-century Bologna, a city that, uniquely in Italy, recorded at least forty-four women artists during the Seicento. Extrapolating from hundreds of Bolognese inventories and other manuscripts, Bohn argues that Bolognese women’s works attracted local collectors to a disproportionately high degree for a group constituting only 12 percent of all Bolognese painters. The ninety-one known inventories with women’s artworks frequently feature works by Lavinia Fontana and Elisabetta Sirani, but the works of their followers appear only rarely. Although these other women were celebrated by local biographers and produced works for public locations in the city, their absence from private collections raises questions about their production and critical reception. Keywords: women artists, Fontana, Sirani, Cantofoli, Scarfaglia

Many early Bolognese writers express pride in their city’s women artists. And no wonder: At the peak of their accomplishments during the seventeenth century, forty-four women artists are recorded by documents or early writers in Bologna, the largest number in any Italian city by a considerable margin.1 Also unusual was their diversity of specializations; although there were no recorded women sculptors in Bologna during the seventeenth century, as there were during the sixteenth and eighteenth centuries, the seicento group included thirty-five painters, five printmakers, and four 1 These numbers, based on original research in the Bolognese archives, will be discussed further in my forthcoming book, Women Artists, Their Patrons, and Their Publics in Early Modern Bologna. My comprehensive examination of the women artists who are documented during the same period in other Italian cities confirms that no other metropolis could claim nearly as many recorded women artists during the seventeenth century. Although these statistics may change somewhat as more women artists are rediscovered, it seems clear that no other Italian city boasted a comparable number of women who were artists as seventeenth-century Bologna.

Bohn, B. and R. Morselli (eds.), Reframing Seventeenth-Century Bolognese Art: Archival Discoveries, Amsterdam University Press, 2019 doi: 10.5117/9789462986336_ch04

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embroiderers.2 These unprecedentedly high numbers and diverse specializations indicate an urban environment that was unusually receptive to women artists. A sizeable percentage of these women superseded the usual constraints that inhibited professional success for most women artists in early modern Italy. Many, including almost half of the recorded painters, produced works for public commissions; most of the painters specialized in history painting rather than portraiture, the traditional (and less lucrative and prestigious) specialization for women’s painted production; some made original etchings; and others created woodcuts for illustrated books. For such Bolognese writers as Count Carlo Cesare Malvasia and Antonio di Paolo Masini in the seventeenth century and Luigi Crespi and Marcello Oretti in the eighteenth, the city’s talented women artists were a fundamental and even inspirational component of local cultural identity that distinguished Bologna from all other artistic capitals in the Italian peninsula. Indeed, in the introduction to his lengthy biography of Elisabetta Sirani in 1678, Malvasia cites the accomplishments of Bolognese women artists as one of the three principal arguments for the city’s claims to uniqueness in the visual arts.3 Some of my prior publications have examined patronage for the two leading figures in this development, Elisabetta Sirani (1638–1665) and Lavinia Fontana (1552–1614).4 This essay expands on those considerations to investigate the interests of Bolognese collectors in all local women’s artworks, based on my examination of Bolognese inventories and other manuscripts from the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. These documents confirm that Bolognese women’s paintings in particular attracted local collectors to a disproportionately high degree for a group that constituted only about 12 percent of all Bolognese painters during the seventeenth century, reflecting the strong pride and interest of the Bolognese in their exceptional women. But this unusual record is not unequivocal. With few exceptions, works by Elisabetta Sirani’s successors rarely appear in inventories or other early descriptions of private collections besides those of their own families, raising questions about their accomplishments and about the critical reception of their works. This essay presents some of the ideas that have emerged from my research, outlining some general patterns, considering as case studies two specific artists who were among Sirani’s immediate successors, and finally, reflecting on how Lavinia Fontana’s and Elisabetta 2 During the sixteenth century, Properzia de’ Rossi (c.1490/91–c.1530) was active as a sculptor in Bologna, and during the eighteenth century, both Anna Morandi Manzolini (1716–1774) and Clarice Fortunata Pellegrina Vasini (1732–1823) were recorded as sculptors in the city. All three produced some works for public commissions. Information (including detailed references to all documentation and early sources) on these women and on all Bolognese women artists who lived from the fifteenth through the eighteenth century will be provided in my forthcoming book (see note 1). 3 Malvasia, 1678, II, 453–54; 1841 [1678], II, 385–86. Malvasia’s two other arguments here are the ancient origins of art in Bologna and the numerous great artists produced in the city, in contrast to other cities with only one eminent figure. 4 See especially Bohn, 2013.

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Sirani’s achievements did and did not transform opportunities for their later female compatriots. In my archival research, which builds on the work of such eminent scholars as Raffaella Morselli and Olivier Bonfait, I have examined about a thousand seventeenthand eighteenth-century Bolognese inventories. Although most Bolognese inventories from this period do not include works that are credited to specific artists, I have found 361 that do include artworks ascribed to specific artists. Ninety-one of these 361 inventories include works attributed to Bolognese female painters who were active during the seventeenth century (Table 4.1).5 These ninety-one inventories constitute more than a quarter of the 361 inventories with attributions to specific artists – a remarkably high percentage for a group accounting for only 12 percent of all seicento Bolognese painters.6 During the seventeenth century, among 232 inventories with attributions, 48 include works ascribed to Bolognese women artists, constituting about 21 percent of all seicento inventories with attributed works. This percentage rises to a stunning 33 percent in the eighteenth century (43 out of 129 inventories), although this statistic is based on a significantly smaller group of inventories.

Table 4.1. Three hundred and sixty-one Bolognese inventories with attributed artworks

5 A few were also active during other centuries at well; Lavinia Fontana, for example, was also active during the Ceinquecento, and Lucia Casalini Torelli worked principally during the eighteenth century. 6 Morselli estimated that there were about 300 painters active in Bologna during the seventeenth century, a number she bases on a combination of the painters mentioned by Malvasia and Masini (Morselli, 2010, 146).

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Perhaps the most dramatic statistics are from the second half of the seventeenth century, when the 48 inventories that include Bolognese women’s artworks constitute 23 percent of the 212 inventories with attributed works. These numbers are particularly striking because they are entirely unprecedented: I have found no Bolognese inventories whatsoever during the first half of the century that include works ascribed to Bolognese women. This significant change during 1650–99 suggests that the impact of Elisabetta Sirani’s career (which began in the 1650s) was a major catalyst in women’s success. The strong presence of women’s art in inventories during the latter half of the century is particularly telling, since there were so many more male artists, reflecting local pride in Bologna’s exceptional women and a widespread desire to own a piece of that singularly Bolognese cultural capital. This pride is also expressed by early Bolognese writers such as Malvasia, who asserts, in his biography of Elisabetta Sirani: Bologna had nothing to cede to any other city in the art of painting, as is manifest, whether in terms of origins and antique beginnings in that worthy profession, or for the quality of the gifted artisans, who in every period emerged […]. Whereas all other cities […] have one or at the most two leading painters […] in Bologna, there was not only one great painter, but many […]. The women themselves, the daughters have here followed the guidance of their progenitors […]. Now we have […] Elisabetta Sirani, who by a large margin surpasses the others. Her perfect works avoid timidity, employing an animated and daring way of working that has virility and greatness, surpassing even her father […] she worked not only beyond any woman, but also beyond any man.7

Malvasia knew Elisabetta Sirani and her father Giovanni Andrea Sirani personally, and his biography of the Sirani (principally devoted to Elisabetta) provides the concluding chapter in the Felsina pittrice, his collection of biographies of Bolognese painters. His unfettered enthusiasm for the young woman’s accomplishments (she died at the age of 27) and lengthy celebration of her artistic brilliance supersede any prior biography of an Italian woman artist. Even the title of his book, which combines Felsina, the ancient Etruscan name for Bologna, with pittrice, or woman 7 ‘Bologna alle altre Città nulla dover cedere in ragiona di Pittura, manifestamente appare; siasi ò per l’origine, & antico principio in essa di sì degna Professione, ò per la qualità de’ dotti Artefici, che in ogni tempo ne uscirono […]. Dove tutte l’altre Città d’un intero Stato, ò Provincia, d’una, ò al più di due copie d’insigni Pittori Capi di Scuola si vantano, questa unica e per se sola di molte, e molte si pregia […] Le donne stessa, le fanciulle han quì seguito la scorta de’ loro Progenitori […]. ora un’altra [Elisabetta Sirani] di poch’anni succede, che di gran longa quella supera, che nel suo perfetto anch’ operare non lasciò mai una certa timidità, e leccatura propria del debil sesso; la dove questa ardita più tosto se vedersi, & animosa, oprando in un modo, ch’ebbe del virile, e del grande, nella risoluzione, e feracità superando, quasi dissi, anche il Padre […]. Non solo non oprò mai da donna, e più che da huomo […]’. Malvasia, 1678, II, 453–54, 478; 1841 [1678], II, 385–86, 388, 402.

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painter, positions the woman painter at the center of his argument for Bologna’s distinctiveness in the visual arts.8 Elisabetta Sirani is consistently the woman whose artworks appear by far the most frequently in Bolognese inventories (see Table 4.2). Her works appear in seventy-three inventories, constituting 80 percent of the ninety-one Bolognese inventories that include women’s work: rather higher during the seventeenth century (85 percent), but still constituting an impressive 74 percent of the appearances in eighteenth-century inventories. No other woman comes close, although Lavinia Fontana’s works make a growing number of appearances in the inventories, rising from 21 percent of the seicento inventories to 51 percent in the next century, constituting overall 35 percent of the ninety-one inventories in both centuries. It seems very likely, judging from these statistics, that Fontana’s pictures became more sought-after as the notion of collecting women’s art benefited from Sirani’s eminent reputation and the stimulus that reputation provided to Bolognese collectors who became increasingly interested in acquiring art by local women for their collections. Sirani’s pictures are usually valued more highly than Fontana’s, occasionally even reaching the top valuation in a collection.9 Moreover, during the Seicento, if we exclude the family inventories of women artists, she is the only woman with more than one work in a single collection, as occurs in about half of the pertinent inventories. And she is the sole woman with copies after her works during both centuries, another marker of how highly her paintings were valued.

Table 4.2. Women artists identified in seventeenth- and eighteenth-century inventories

8 My forthcoming book (see note 1) will include a comprehensive analysis of Malvasia’s biography of Elisabetta Sirani, examined in the context of other early Italian biographies of women artists. 9 Since most of Fontana’s inventoried works are portraits, and portraits are usually valued lower than history paintings, however, this discrepancy can be ascribed only partially to their respective reputations.

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Painting attributions in the inventories appear far more frequently than drawing attributions, for both male and female artists. But Sirani is also the only woman to whom drawings are often attributed during the seventeenth century, when sixteen drawings in nine inventories are ascribed to her, placing her among the most frequently collected creators of drawings in the Bolognese school, on a par with the Carracci. Apart from their own families’ inventories, no other woman’s drawings are ever identified during the Seicento, with a single exception for Fontana in 1685.10 And Sirani’s drawings frequently appear in collections with only a few sheets, suggesting a particular interest in her draftsmanship – which is no surprise: She was the first Italian woman whose drawings elicited strong admiration; for her biographer Malvasia, the artist’s dynamic wash studies provided particularly compelling evidence of her ingegno. In the eighteenth century, despite the appearance of many large drawing collections, only five drawings by women are identified, all by Elisabetta Sirani. One of the most valuable was a pastel drawing of a head in the collection of Conte Ferdinando Vincenzo Ranuzzi-Cospi, assessed at 150 lire bolognesi, a sizeable amount for a drawing.11 The latest inventory with a sheet by Sirani is that of the Contessa Angelica Teresa Zanchini Zambeccari in 1783, with a wash compositional study, valued at 42 lire – also a fairly substantial sum for a drawing, although the sheet unfortunately cannot be identified today. The Contessa also owned two paintings by Sirani, who was the only woman artist whose works were represented in this large collection.12 Whereas Sirani’s reputation as a painter evidently stimulated some collecting of other women’s paintings, this was not the case with drawings. Sirani remained the only Bolognese woman who was celebrated for her drawings and the only woman whose drawings were widely collected by her compatriots during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. In contrast to the eighteenth century, when a majority (70 percent) of the collectors who owned local women’s art were noble, only half of the seventeenth-century inventories document noble collections. Half document the collections of individuals who were lower down the socioeconomic ladder, including merchants, goldsmiths, and artists, consistent with Morselli’s illuminating observation that art collecting in Bologna was pervasive from the lower-middle economic tier up.13 During the Seicento, few inventories include more than one woman painter, but the collections of 10 The sole Bolognese inventory to include a drawing ascribed to Lavinia Fontana is that of the Marchese Alessandro Facchinetti in 1685: ASBo, fondo notarile, notaio Magnani Giuseppe, 19 May 1685; Morselli, 1998, 224: ‘Un quadrettino picciolo il dissegno della Vigna Fontana con cornicetta, e filetto dorato’ (‘a small painting, the drawing of Lavinia Fontana with a small frame with gold trim’). 11 Ranuzzi-Cospi’s inventory of the 26 February 1728 is in the ASBo, fondo notarile, notaio Bartolotti Giovanni Camillo. 12 The inventory of Zanchini Zambeccari includes a substantial drawing collection, numbering some 300 sheets. ASBo, fondo notarile, notaio Triboli Francesco 5/12, 17 February 1783; Getty PI, archival inventory I-3541; also cited by Bonfait, 2000, 408. 13 Morselli, 2010, 148.

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two Reni school artists are exceptions: In 1679, Matteo Borboni (c.1600–1667) owned works by both Elisabetta Sirani and her sister Anna Maria (1653–1715); a decade later, Giovanni Battista Bolognini (1611–1688) owned three paintings by Elisabetta and three by his relative, Anna Bolognini (1636–1706).14 During the eighteenth century, more inventories include works by multiple women: fifteen of the forty-three, more than a third. The most diverse of these collections belonged to Valerio Boschi, a relative of the painter Elena Maria Panzacchia (1659–1737). In 1777, he owned two of her works, three by Elisabetta Sirani, and two by Lavinia Fontana.15 One pressing question that has arisen with this archival research is: where are the works by Sirani’s many successors? Most (thirty-nine) of the forty-four women artists who worked during the Seicento were active during or after Elisabetta Sirani’s lifetime, and forty-four women were also recorded as artists in Bologna during the following century. Any consideration of this question should begin with the early writers. In his 1678 biography of Sirani, Malvasia notes in passing that her example was followed by thirteen other women, including her two younger sisters, Anna Maria and Barbara (1641–1692). Masini, in his guidebook of 1666 and the additions to it in 1690, supplies most of the same women’s names and adds one more. Eighteenth-century writers such as Crespi and Oretti add to this list. But if we limit our considerations to the fourteen Sirani followers noted by Masini and Malvasia in the seventeenth century, five have no extant, identifiable works today, and most of the others are currently known in only one or two.16 If these women signed their paintings, as Elisabetta Sirani often did, it is possible that more of their works will eventually emerge, as the recent rediscovery of one extant, signed and dated painting of 1686 by Teresa Coriolani illustrates.17 14 Borboni’s 1679 inventory is in the ASBo, fondo notarile, notaio Lodi Giuseppe, Minutario 1679, 13 November 1679, fols. 14r–14v: ‘La scultura dipinta della Signora Maria Sirani con Cornice oro e Agiura L. 15’ (‘the painted sculpture of Signora Maria Sirani with a gold frame, valued at 15 lire’); ‘Un ritratto della Signora Isabetta Sirani L. 7.10’ (‘a portrait of the Signora Isabetta [sic: Elisabetta] Sirani, lire 7.10’); Morselli, 1998, 116. Bolognini’s inventory is ASBo, fondo notarile, notaio Giacobbi Giovanni Petronio, 5 December 1689: ‘Due quadri compagni in tela da – con cornice bianche dipinte vi dentro una le tre dee e paride e nell’altro Orpheo con Oridice nella buca dell’inferno. Disse che siano della Signora Elisabetta Sirana; Due puttini tela da 22: di mano della Signora Anna Bolognini; Una cena del S.re tela da 22: di mano della Signora Anna Bolognini; Una tela da 12: con dentro un piombo mano dicessi della Signora Elisabetta Sirana’. Mentioned by Bonfait, 2000, 403. 15 The merchant Valerio Boschi’s vast art collection, which included more than 1,100 works, is described in his inventory of 1777: ASBo, fondo notarile, notaio Guidi Antonio 5/19, 26 September 1777. See also Perini, 1988, 286–87 and Bonfait, 2000, 194. 16 In addition to Sirani’s two sisters, Anna Maria and Barbara, Malvasia lists Ginevra Cantofoli, Veronica Franchi, Teresa Muratori, Elena Maria Panzacchia, Teresa Coriolani, Lucrezia Bianchi, Maria Oriana Galli, Lucrezia Scarfaglia, Camilla Lauteri, Caterina Mongardi, and Veronica Fontana, although for most of these women, he supplies only the surname and lists no specific works (1678, II, 487; 1841 [1678], II, 407). Masini adds Vincenza Fabri to this list and specifies two of her paintings (1690, fol. 34v, published in Arfelli, 1957). No works are currently known by Franchi, Panzacchia, Bianchi, Mongardi, or Fabri. 17 See Bohn, 2004c; Marinig, 2017.

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Lucrezia Scarfaglia, who was mentioned by both Masini and Malvasia, provides an interesting case that illustrates one common outcome for Sirani’s immediate followers: very few extant works and a paucity of biographical information. Little is known about her natal family, but she married Carlo Forni, who died in 1678.18 As far as we know, Scarfaglia was not the daughter or relative of an artist, so she presumably received her professional training outside of her home and family. Malvasia specifies nothing about that training or indeed about any aspect of her artistic production in his Felsina pittrice, simply mentioning Scarfaglia among the women who followed Sirani’s example; and he records none of her paintings in his 1686 guidebook of Bolog­na.19 Masini terms Scarfaglia a disciple of Domenico Maria Canuti (1625–1684), a prominent Bolognese painter of the period.20 Typically for the eighteenth-century biographers, who tend to be more expansive in terming women students of Elisabetta Sirani, both Crespi and Oretti report that Scarfaglia worked first under Sirani and later with Canuti.21 None of the early writers knew either Scarfaglia’s birth or death date; they note only that she was active in 1677, a chronology confirmed by the one extant painting that is securely credited to her: a signed and dated Self-Portrait painting the Madonna of Saint Luke, of 1678 (Fig. 4.1). Masini supplies the most extensive early information on Scarfaglia, listing thirteen works by the artist, including eleven paintings and two drawings, the latter without specified subjects. Masini’s list, which was reiterated by Crespi and Oretti, suggests that Scarfaglia was principally a religious painter. Her group of listed works includes paintings of various saints, a Flight into Egypt, a Dead Christ with two Angels, and a Virgin Mary appearing to the Custodian Angel with a Soul. All of these paintings and drawings, including even the three public pictures that were painted for Bolognese churches, are lost today.22 In addition, Scarfaglia makes occasional appearances in several of Oretti’s manuscripts, with six of her paintings distributed among one noble collection (the Grimaldi), two non-aristocratic Bolognese collections, including that of her own family (Papazzoni and Scarfaglia), and two Bolognese churches.23 Only one 18 Morselli, 1998, 230, explains that Forni added his wife’s surname to his own, so as to prevent the Scarfaglia name from becoming extinct. This confused Oretti, who mistook Forni for the artist’s maiden name and hence called her Lucrezia Forni Scarfaglia. Carrati does not mention the marriage of Forni and Scarfaglia, but he does record the marriage, on 15 January 1681, of Giovanni Antonio Sassi to Lucretia Scarfaglia (Li Matrimonii contratti in Bologna, B.901, fol. 52). Either this was a different woman with the same name, or the artist remarried three years after her first husband’s death. Carrati also records Carlo Forni Scarfaglia’s death at the age of 60 on 12 March 1678 (Li morti di Nobili che Civili, B.912, fol. 329); the inventory of his collection is dated 24 February 1678 (see note 24). 19 Malvasia, 1678, II, 487; 1841 [1678], II, 407. 20 Masini, 1690, fol. 28v (in Arfelli, 1957). 21 Crespi, 1980 [1769], III, 119; Oretti, Notizie, B.129, fol. 121. 22 Masini, 1690, fols. 28v–29r (in Arfelli, 1957). The two other paintings produced for Bolognese churches, in Masini’s account, were a Blessed Pasquale Bailon for the Corpus Domini and a Madonna and Child with Saint Elizabeth for Santa Cattarina. 23 Oretti, Descrizione delle Pitture, B.109, fols. 65r and 65v; Notizie, B.129, fol. 121r; Le pitture che si ammirano, B.104, fol. 168r; Le pitture nelle Chiese, B.30, fols. 225r and 244r.

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Fig. 4.1. Lucrezia Scarfaglia, Self-Portrait painting the Madonna of Saint Luke, Rome, Galleria Pallavicini, 1678.

seventeenth-century Bolognese inventory includes works attributed to her: that of her husband, Carlo Forni Scarfaglia, in 1678.24 As is true of the paintings listed by Masini, most of the paintings described in this inventory are religious, including an Ecce Homo, a couple of Madonnas, a Sudarium, and pictures of several saints, including Joseph, Cecilia, Mary of Egypt, and Agnes. Unfortunately, no subjects are specified for the drawings listed.25 The only work described by the early writers that is still known today is Scarfaglia’s Self-Portrait painting the Madonna of Saint Luke, which is signed and dated 1678 (Fig. 4.1).26 This portrait is either the painting of this subject noted by Oretti in the Grimaldi collection or the version painted for Lazzaro Pallavicini, Cardinal Legate to 24 Inventory of Carlo Forni Scarfaglia, 24 February 1678, ASBo, fondo notarile, Boari Domenico, 1656–1717, prot. RR 1678, c. 72, fols. 1r–4r; Morselli, 1998, 230–32. 25 Ibid. 26 The work is signed at the base of the picture within the painting: ‘LVCRETIA M.A SCARFAGLIA F. 1678’.

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Bologna, which was later inventoried in the collection of his nephew Duke Giovanni Battista Rospigliosi.27 The 1713 Rospigliosi inventory is not Bolognese, but it is the only appearance of a painting by Scarfaglia in an early inventory, with the exception of her husband’s in 1678.28 Scarfaglia’s dated painting was inspired by Elisabetta Sirani’s Self-Portrait as the Allegory of Painting, with its over-half-length seated figure before the painting on an easel on which she works.29 Both sitters hold a palette and brushes; both pause in their work to suggest the intellectual, as opposed to manual, character of painting, an implication that is reinforced by the books that surround each artist; both are sumptuously dressed to confirm their elevated status; and both look out to engage the viewer directly. But one significant difference is that in Scarfaglia’s painting, the image on the easel is visible and depicts the Madonna of Saint Luke, a miracle-working icon in Bologna that was popularly believed to have been painted by the evangelist Saint Luke. Thus Scarfaglia’s depiction signals that the artist herself is a female Saint Luke. Here the artist’s overriding concept is to elevate the status of the female artist as intellectually, materially, and spiritually superior. Stylistically, Scarfaglia’s emotionally restrained and tightly painted picture shows little relationship to Canuti’s more painterly, expressive manner and seems much closer to Elisabetta Sirani’s works. Based on stylistic similarities, two other paintings are candidates for Scarfaglia’s authorship, although neither is mentioned by the early writers or in early inventories. The first, published by Angela Ghirardi with a tentative attribution to the artist, is the Portrait of Elisabetta Agucchi Fioravanti (Fig. 4.2).30 The treatment of facial features and drapery in this work resembles that of the signed portrait. Although the early writers describe a production of exclusively religious pictures, apart from the two self-portraits, Scarfaglia’s family inventory of 1678 does include three painted portraits, confirming that she was at least occasionally active in this genre.31 A second promising candidate for Scarfaglia’s oeuvre is an unpublished picture in a Bolognese

27 The appearance of the painting (as Elisabetta Sirani’s work) in the 1713 inventory was first noted by Zeri, 1959, 242 and 333. Graziani suggested, based on this documentation, that Lazzaro Pallavicini was probably the patron (in Bentini and Fortunati, 2004, 125). 28 On the inventory of Carlo Forni Scarfaglia, dated 24 February 1678, see notes 18 and 24. As Morselli explains, Carlo Forni Scarfaglia’s beneficiaries were his two sons, Lorenzo and Giuseppe Maria (1998, 230–32). 29 On Sirani’s painting in the Pushkin Museum, Moscow, which is signed and dated 1658, see Victoria E. Markova’s catalogue entry in Bentini and Fortunati, 2004, 166–67, no. 2, and Modesti, 2014, 239–40, no. 22. 30 Bentini et al., 2008, 453–54, no. 271. This painting was previously classified among the anonymous works at the Pinacoteca. An inscription identifies the sitter and includes the date 1662, the year of her death. In her catalogue entry in the book cited above, Ghirardi suggests a date of c.1665 for the picture. The 49-year-old woman is dressed as a widow, since her husband, Francesco Fioravanti, had died a decade earlier. 31 Inventory of Carlo Forni Scarfaglia, 24 February 1678, ASBo, fondo notarile, Boari Domenico, 1656–1717, prot. RR 1678, c. 72, fols. 1–4r; Morselli, 1998, 230–32. The specific subjects of these portraits are not indicated in the inventory.

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Fig. 4.2. Lucrezia Scarfaglia, Portrait of Elisabetta Agucchi Fioravanti, Bologna, Pinacoteca Nazionale, 1665.

private collection (Fig. 4.3). A Holy Family with the Young Saint John the Baptist, the work is essentially a copy after Elisabetta Sirani’s Anna Maria Ranuzzi as Charity (Bologna, Cassa di Risparmio, signed and dated 1665), with a revised iconography. The tightly painted, faceted draperies and facial physiognomy of the Virgin’s face, with its prominent nose and eyebrows, are strikingly similar to Scarfaglia’s signed self-portrait, making this picture a strong candidate for her authorship. Even if all three of these paintings can be accepted as Scarfaglia’s work, obviously only a small fraction of her original output is still known today, although Masini’s list of eleven paintings and two drawings, her husband’s 1678 inventory, and the information from Oretti provide some basis for potential future discoveries. But with no other currently traceable works by her that are described by the early writers, noted

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Fig. 4.3. Here attributed to Lucrezia Scarfaglia, Holy Family with the Young Saint John the Baptist, Bologna, private collection, c.1670 (photo: the author).

in early inventories, or signed, Scarfaglia’s production is mostly lost; and it is striking how quickly she seems to have evaporated from the historical record. Oretti wrote two manuscripts that provide extensive information on the contents of Bolognese private collections. But in contrast to his Notizie, a vast compendium of artistic biographies that includes discussions of sixty-four women artists, his two manuscripts on Bolognese private collections share the paucity of appearances in the inventories by women other than Fontana and Sirani. In his catalogue of noble Bolognese collections (Le pitture che si ammirano …), 133 of the 4,365 listed artworks are by Bolognese women – only about 3 percent – though more than a third of the collections he catalogues include at least one work by a woman artist. Even so, Oretti’s manuscript on noble Bolognese collections excludes any works by most of his female compatriots. More than half of the works he catalogues are by Elisabetta Si­rani, and almost a third are by Lavinia Fontana. In his second manuscript, devoted to middle-class Bolognese collections (Descrizione delle Pitture …), Oretti notes only fifty-five artworks by local women, who appear in a mere 19 percent of the collections

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he includes. More than half of these works are by Sirani, and 16 percent are by Fontana – so information on other women is quite sparse in both documents.32 Ginevra Cantofoli (1618–1672) was a painter and possibly also an occasional etcher who, like Scarfaglia, had no other recorded artists in her own family.33 She is one of four women in the group of Sirani’s immediate followers for whom Malvasia and Masini both specify individual works. Their information on the artist is repeated and slightly expanded by Oretti and Crespi, and she is also discussed briefly by both Orlandi and Macchiavelli.34 Cantofoli is also the only one of Sirani’s immediate followers who is still known in a significant surviving oeuvre – with some forty paintings and four drawings ascribed to her.35 But a reconsideration of these works and the early sources illustrates the piecemeal character of historical evidence for Sirani’s successors, making it difficult to reconcile the scant early documentation with the numerous works currently credited to the artist. Malvasia writes that Sirani ‘sustained and helped’ Cantofoli, who progressed from small to large pictures. Neither Malvasia nor Masini cite any private pictures by her, but between them they identify six of her paintings in Bolognese churches (see Table 4.3). Malvasia also reports that three of these – the Saint Thomas of Villanova for San Giacomo Maggiore, the Last Supper for San Procolo, and the Sant’ Apollonia for the Chiesa della Morte – were designed and retouched by Elisabetta Sirani.36 Two of these six paintings survive and are still identifiable. The Saint Thomas of Villanova (Plate 3), which was moved from the church of San Giacomo Maggiore to the adjacent convent during the eighteenth century, is one of the three works that Malvasia says were designed and retouched by Sirani. The second work seems to be Cantofoli’s Immaculate Conception for San Lorenzo, based on its provenance and unusual combination of the Immaculate Conception with the Rosary, necessitated by the dedication of the altar (Plate 4). But there are problems with the identification of this picture with that work. Malvasia, Oretti, and Crespi all state that the Virgin was surrounded by the mysteries of the Rosary. Perhaps this original framework is lost; a suggestion that three small canvases representing the Resurrection, Pentecost, 32 Le pitture che si ammirano, B.104, also mentions two works each by Properzia de’ Rossi, Teresa Muratori, and Lucia Casalini Torelli and one each by Barbara Sirani, Antonia Pinelli, Lucrezia Scarfaglia, Vincenza Fabri, Elena Maria Panzacchia, and Anna Morandi. Descrizione delle Pitture, B.109, also notes two works by both Morandi and Panzacchia and one each by Anna Teresa Messieri, Barbara Sirani, and Rosalba Bolognini. 33 Cantofoli’s dates are recorded by Carrati, Li morti di Nobili che Civili, B.910, fol. 189r (‘Santa Maria Ceriola, 1672, 11 maggio: Ginevra Cantofoli Facchini d’anni 54, San Giacomo Maggiore’). 34 Malvasia, 1678, II, 407; 1841 [1678], II, 407; 1969 [1686], 88, 217, 243, 249, 257; Masini, 1666, 46, 126, 175; 1690, fol. 17v (in Arfelli, 1957); Macchiavelli, Delle donne bolognesi per letteratura e disegno illustri, fols. 11v–12r; Orlandi, 1704, 182; Crespi, 1980 [1769], III, 75; Oretti, Notizie, B.129, fols. 119r–120r; Le pitture nelle Chiese, B.30, fols. 44r, 55r, 84r–85r, 153r–54r, 217r, 220r, and 226r. The four women by whom Malvasia identifies specific works are the painters Anna Maria Sirani, Barbara Sirani, and Ginevra Cantofoli and the woodcutter Veronica Fontana. 35 Most of these works are catalogued in Pulini, 2006. 36 Malvasia, 1678, II, 407; 1841 [1678], II, 407.

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Table 4.3. Ginevra Cantofoli’s public pictures and the early writers

and Presentation in the Temple may have come from this original ensemble is not convincing.37 Another problem with the Immaculate Conception is that it is stylistically dissimilar to the Saint Thomas of Villanova. Malvasia does not mention Sirani’s collaboration on this work, so perhaps the maestra’s lack of involvement explains this discrepancy. But the weak handling of the four angels in the Saint Thomas is quite unlike the more convincing treatment of the Christ Child in the Immaculate Conception, raising questions as to whether both pictures can possibly be by the same artist. A remark in Malvasia’s unpublished notes for the Felsina pittrice is pertinent here. Discussing Cantofoli’s (lost) Last Supper, Malvasia mentions that he has seen a preparatory study for this work by Elisabetta Sirani in the collection of Cantofoli’s heirs; he is struck by the discrepancy in quality between Sirani’s beautiful wash drawing and Cantofoli’s terrible altarpiece (‘cattiva tavola’).38 Whereas the awkward 37 Pulini, 2006, 110–12, no. 21. Rightly acknowledging the weakness of these three works, Pulini suggests that they might have been carried out by an assistant of Cantofoli’s, but there is no real evidence to support such a hypothesis. 38 Malvasia, 1961 (ed. Arfelli), fol. 193r: ‘Ho veduto oggi, Gennaro 1673, presso gli eredi della Cantofoli, molti Disegni della Sirana, ma in particolare quello della Cena che la Cantofola fece in San Procolo, disegnato al solito di sola acquerella, che non ha niente che fare con la cattiva tavola (essendo il disegno bellissimo e grazioso), che mai parrà che sia stato pensiero della Sirana, non si scorgendo punto il suo fare nella tavola’ (‘I saw today, January 1673, in the home of Cantofoli’s heirs, many drawings by Sirani, but in particular the one

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passages in the Saint Thomas are consistent with this criticism, the Immaculate Conception is not, making this attribution somewhat problematic despite its apparent documentation. But leaving these reservations aside for the moment, we might posit that we have two attributions to the artist that are confirmed by seventeenth- and eighteenth-century writers. In addition, there are two seventeenth-century inventories that include works ascribed to Cantofoli. The most important is the inventory of Cantofoli’s and her husband’s estate in 1668, with fourteen paintings and one etching by the artist, all lost today.39 The only other known inventory with a work by Cantofoli is that of the goldsmith Orazio Ceschi in 1689, which includes a now lost Sant’Apollonia, valued at 60 lire.40 The absence of any other work by Ginevra Cantofoli in Bolognese inventories during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries is perplexing. Cantofoli’s scarcity in early inventories parallels her complete absence from Marcello Oretti’s catalogues of Bolognese private collections. Oretti certainly knew about Cantofoli: he wrote a two-page biography devoted to her in his Notizie and recorded her six pictures in Bolognese churches. But he did not cite a single painting by her in any of the 335 private collections listed in his two manuscripts. He noted only one private picture by the artist in Cantofoli’s biography in his Notizie: a portrait of Sirani. Thus Cantofoli’s only documented, private pictures are the portrait of Sirani mentioned by Oretti, the Sant’Apollonia in Ceschi’s collection, and fourteen paintings owned by her family.41 It seems very unlikely that the paucity of references to private pictures by Cantofoli means that she rarely painted them; and the almost universal silence on the subject by the early Bolognese writers more probably reflects a lack of appreciation for her small paintings. In other words, they were not highly valued and hence were not identified in early inventories. Whatever the explanation, the absence of any other documented private pictures complicates the attribution of such works to Cantofoli. The first private picture ascribed to the artist in the modern era was the so-called Self-Portrait [?] as the Allegory of Painting in the Pinacoteca di Brera, Milan (Fig. 4.4), which was first recorded in 1806 as an anonymous work. The earliest attribution of this picture to Cantofoli appeared in 1902, almost a century later, with no explanation. Whatever its foundation, this attribution has been accepted by virtually all modern scholars, including for the Last Supper that Cantofoli made for San Procolo, drawn as usual entirely in wash, which has nothing to do with the terrible painting (since the drawing is beautiful and graceful), so that it would never seem that it was Sirani’s sketch, without perceiving its exact relationship to the painting’). 39 ASBo, fondo notarile, notaio Pellegrini Lorenzo, 6/14, prot. 8, 10 October 1668, fol. 75. The inventory was first discovered by Sabbatini, 1995, 98. 40 ASBo, fondo notarile, notaio Pedrini Francesco, 1660–1701, minutario n. 45 1689, I semestre, 21 April 1689, fol. 71r; Morselli, 1998, 161–63, no. 26; Getty PI, archival inventory I-1393: ‘Una Sant’ Appolonia della Cantofoli con Cornice, e Cassa dorata 60’. The most valuable painting in this inventory was Elisabetta Sirani’s Holy Family with Saints Anna, John the Baptist, and Angels, assessed at 300 lire. 41 Oretti, Notizie, B.129, fol. 119r.

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Fig. 4.4. Attributed to Ginevra Cantofoli, Allegory of Painting, Milan, Pinacoteca di Brera, n.d.

(formerly) this writer.42 Pulini, logically endeavoring to corroborate the attribution to Cantofoli with early documentation, suggested that the Brera painting was the portrait of Elisabetta Sirani noted by Oretti – but this argument is unsustainable, since neither figure in the painting resembles other portraits of Sirani.43 Nevertheless, this painting has provided the basis for assigning at least thirty-five other pictures to Cantofoli, based on their alleged similarity to this work. In my view, this group is not in 42 Pinacoteca di Brera, 1902, 59, no. 419. The single exception is Fiorella Frisoni, who sensibly qualified the attribution to Cantofoli with a question mark (in Zeri, 1991, 153, no. 66). 43 Pulini, 2006, 99–102, no. 16, where the painting is identified simply as an Allegory of Painting. Pulini unequivocally accepts the attribution to Cantofoli and hypothesizes that there might originally have been a signature on this work that disappeared during the course of restoration. For an overview of Sirani’s selfportrait paintings and drawings, see Bohn, 2004b.

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any case by one artist, though some works, such as the Sibyl (formerly titled Beatrice Cenci) in Rome, are manifestly by the same hand as the Brera picture.44 But there is no firm basis for identifying that hand as Cantofoli’s. Comparison with her two extant, documented altarpieces suggests that the Brera picture and the group of similar works are by another artist. In the Saint Thomas, the angels’ faces, with deep-set eyes connected by line to angular noses and formulaic mouths, are less naturalistic, sensual, and idealized than the attributed pictures. And these works are more painterly, heavily shadowed, and emotionally expressive than the Immaculate Conception. A few pictures ascribed to Cantofoli based on their alleged similarity to the Brera painting, such as the Allegory of Vanity (Fig. 4.5), appear to be by another hand.45 And perhaps they were painted by the creator of the Immaculate Conception. They feature similarly boneless hands, thin eyebrows, and rosebud mouths – though they lack the strong shadows and eyebrows of the Brera picture. Should we assume that hand to be Cantofoli’s? How do we resolve the stylistic discrepancy with the Saint Thomas, for which her authorship is confirmed by all of the early writers? With no extant, documented paintings for private patrons, no signed works, and two documented public pictures that are so different, a final resolution of the situation manifestly requires further evidence. The recent appearance of a drawing on the art market, with a ‘traditional’ but late attribution to Cantofoli, may very well derive from its similarity to the Brera picture (Fig. 4.6).46 So although it might be tempting to see this drawing as corroboration of Cantofoli’s authorship of both works, this may prove to be a circular argument. Cantofoli’s situation highlights some key issues for the study of early modern women artists. The piecemeal character of surviving documentation for her works, the shaky basis for many attributions to the artist that have in turn provided the basis for other attributions, and the complete absence to date of any discernible signatures on her paintings create critical obstacles that are currently unresolvable. With only two documented works still extant, and those two works so dissimilar stylistically, until further documentation or paintings with attributions that are corroborated by the accounts of the early writers emerge, she will remain a frustratingly problematic figure. Among the fourteen women who were noted during the seventeenth century by Masini and Malvasia as artists who followed Elisabetta Sirani’s example, only Ginevra Cantofoli and Sirani’s two sisters, Barbara and Anna Maria Sirani, are 44 Pulini, 2006, 84–87, no. 7. 45 Sotheby’s, 9 July 2009, London, lot 153, as Cantofoli’s painting; Pulini, 2006, 122–24, no. 32, oil on canvas, 92 × 73 cm, formerly in the collection of Eduardo Moratilla, Paris, and the collection of Eduard Safarik, Rome, now in the collection of Luigi Koelliker, Milan. 46 Sotheby’s 31 January 2018, New York, lot no. 133 as attributed to Ginevra Cantofoli, in red, black, and white chalk, 269 x 200 mm., inscribed by a later hand in black chalk: ‘Ginevra Cantofoli’.

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Fig. 4.5. Attributed to Ginevra Cantofoli, Allegory of Vanity, Milan, private collection, n.d.

explicitly recorded during the Seicento as having worked directly with the maestra. Scarfaglia exemplifies a more ambiguous relationship: Although neither Masini nor Malvasia specifies that she was a Sirani student, and in fact Masini characterizes her instead as a disciple of Canuti, some later writers have posited a direct connection to Elisabetta Sirani. Such a connection is supported by the Siranesque style of her one signed painting, as well as the similar style of the newly discovered picture that, like the signed picture, was inspired by a specific Sirani painting. But stylistic influence does not confirm a teacher-student relationship. Without further corroboration such as her birth date, her exact relationship to her great predecessor remains uncertain. Such uncertainty also applies to most other members of the group of fourteen Sirani followers noted by Masini and Malvasia. For Camilla Lauteri (1649/59–1681), the situation is only slightly clearer: Her two extant works also demonstrate stylistic affinities with Elisabetta Sirani’s work, but none of the seventeenth-century writers

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Fig. 4.6. Attributed to Ginevra Cantofoli, drawing in red, black, and white chalk, 269 × 200 mm, private collection, n.d. (photo: Sotheby’s).

characterize her as Sirani’s student, and Crespi terms her Cignani’s disciple, although Oretti links her to both Cignani and Sirani. The key question for Lauteri is her date of birth, which Oretti places in 1649 and Crespi puts in 1659. If the latter date is correct, she would have been only 6 years old at Sirani’s death and could not have studied with the maestra. Newly recovered chronological data for several other women in this group also precludes a direct teacher-student relationship with Elisabetta Sirani: for Teresa Coriolani (1657–after 1686), who was born in 1657 and hence was only 8 years old when Sirani died; Teresa Muratori (1661–1708), who was 4; Elena Maria Panzacchia (1659–1737), who was only 6; and Maria Oriana Galli (1656–1749), who was 9. For other women in this group whose dates are still unknown, such as Vincenza Fabri and Lucrezia Bianchi, their relationships to Sirani cannot yet be securely determined.

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For a few other women, other factors problematize the question of their relationships to Elisabetta Sirani. Veronica Fontana (1651–1688/90), for example, was 14 when Sirani died and consequently old enough to have studied with her. But Fontana is recorded exclusively as a woodcutter, and Sirani’s printmaking activities were confined to etching. Thus it is far more likely that Fontana was trained by her father, Domenico Maria Fontana (1634–1676), a professional printmaker who produced both engravings and woodcuts. Caterina Mongardi (1645–1680) was also old enough to have worked with Elisabetta Sirani, since she was 20 when Sirani died. But her father, Lodovico Mongardi (d. 1686) was also a painter who seems likely to have provided his daughter’s earliest instruction; and Masini terms Caterina the disciple of another Bolognese male painter, Filippo Brizio (1603–1675). In the absence of any identifiable works by Mongardi, it is impossible in any case to judge the relative influences of these three painters.47 Thus for most of the women artists who were active in Bologna shortly after Sirani’s lifetime, it is currently impossible to ascertain whether they worked with her directly. This uncertainty suggests that it may be more productive and accurate to think of Elisabetta Sirani’s impact not as a teacher but as an influential example that stimulated other women to consider artistic careers and also encouraged others (such as family members or male artists outside of their families) to support those careers. Unquestionably, in the aftermath of Elisabetta Sirani’s remarkable career, several realities changed for female artists in Bologna. Sirani was one of the first known female peintres-graveurs, and a few women painters, perhaps including Cantofoli, followed her example in adding etchings to their artistic production. Sirani was also the first Italian woman to be acclaimed for her drawings, and although the early writers note drawings by some of her successors, none achieved fame for their drawings as she had. Most significantly, more Bolognese women became artists than ever before, 47 On Lauteri’s dates, see Masini, 1690, fols. 9r–v (in Arfelli, 1957); Crespi, 1980 [1769], III, 193; Oretti, Notizie, B.129, fol. 123r. Coriolani’s date of birth is recorded by Carrati, Nascite e battezzi, B.885, fol. 15r (‘1657, 2 maggio, Teresa Maria del Cavaliere Bartolomeo Coriolani ed Elisabetta Venturri Zani, nata 28 aprile sotto la Porta di San Donato’); her single extant painting is dated 1686, but her precise death date is unknown. Muratori’s date of birth is documented by Carrati, Nascite e battezzi, B.885, fol. 25r (‘1661, 18 ottobre, Angela Teresa del Signore Roberto Muratori medico e di Cecilia Fungarini, nata 17 d.o sotto la Porta di San Tommaso del Università’); her death is recorded by Oretti, Raccolta di Memorie delle morti, B.98, fol. 174r (‘Madonna di Galiera, 1708, 21 aprile, Angela Teresa filia di Dottore Roberto Muratori e moglie di Tomaso Scanabechi, mori 20 aprile, anni 47’). Carrati records both the birth and death dates of Panzacchia: Nascite e battezzi, B.885, fol. 20r (‘1659, 5 luglio: Elena Maria del Signore Riniero Siena Panzacchia e di Taddea Mezzetti’); Raccolta di Memorie delle morti, B.911, fol. 100r (‘Sant’Andrea degli Ansaldi, 1737, 7 maggio: Elena Panzacchia moglie del Dottore Landi d’anni 79’). For further biographical information on Panzacchia, see Modesti, 2003a [2001], 183–84. Although Crespi inexplicably records Veronica Fontana’s death date as 18 March 1746 (1980 [1769], III, 249–50), Carrati places her death much earlier (Li morti di Nobili che Civili, B.910, fol. 258r (‘San Procolo, 1688, 2 ottobre: Veronica Fontana, moglie del Dottore Domenico Maria Bosi’). The earliest record of her birth date in 1651 is provided by Malaspina, 1869, 172. Several modern writers simply give Fontana’s dates as 1651–1690, without explanation or reference to documentation. Information on Mongardi’s birth and death dates is recorded by Oretti, Raccolta di Memorie delle morti, B.98, fol. 139v (‘San Procolo, 1680, 19 gennaio, Laura de’ Mongardi, anni 35’).

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and many painted public pictures. Sirani was the third Bolognese woman to paint altarpieces, and so did at least eleven of her successors in the Seicento, including both Cantofoli and Scarfaglia. This highly significant accomplishment, which lifted women beyond portraiture to a more esteemed and lucrative genre of painting, was indebted to both Lavinia Fontana’s and Elisabetta Sirani’s achievements. But the few references to works by their successors in early documentation of private collections complicate attributions to these artists and suggest a limit to women’s success. Several factors may account for this sparse record. Many of Sirani’s successors, including Cantofoli, are recorded as copyists, and their copies were rarely identified. Malvasia’s remarks hint that the issue was sometimes quality. But however we explain it, later Bolognese women painters, with a few qualified exceptions such as Lucia Casalini Torelli (c.1677/80–1762), all failed to match Sirani’s success.

About the author Babette Bohn, Professor of Art History at Texas Christian University, has published widely particularly on Bolognese art, including books on Guido Reni, Ludovico Carracci, and Federico Barocci. Her current book project is entitled Women Artists, Their Patrons, and Their Publics in Early Modern Bologna.

5. Bolognese Artists and Paintings in Mantua during the Gonzaga Nevers Period Roberta Piccinelli

Abstract This chapter focuses on the collection of Bolognese art assembled by the last three Gonzaga Nevers dukes in seventeenth-century Mantua. Based on new documentary research, Piccinelli explores the status, salaries, and paintings of such leading Bolognese artists as Domenico Maria Canuti and Agostino Mitelli, commenting on the Mantuan fondness for Bolognese quadratura painting and illustrating how Bolognese artists contributed significantly to the decoration of villas and palaces in Mantua and the surrounding area. Keywords: Mantua, Gonzaga Nevers, Canuti, Mitelli, quadratura

Mantua’s figurative art had long been influenced by the neighboring region of Emilia and in particular by the artistic innovations of Bologna. The attraction of the Bolognese school, particularly of artists like the Carracci and Guido Reni, was propagated through a wide network of collaborators and students from the beginning of the seventeenth century, both in the city of Mantua and at the court of the Gonzaga, in its seats both within and outside of the city. The fashion of quadratura painting on the one hand and the innovativeness of Bolognese artistic culture on the other are two of the reasons for the widespread influence of Emilian art on Mantuan production in the seventeenth century, not only at the court but also among the aristocratic families that gravitated around it. No school of painting left more of a mark on Mantua than the Emilian school, notwithstanding the loss of a good part of the works brought to Mantua, including the substantial losses occasioned particularly by the destruction of the Villa in Marmirolo. The presence of Bolognese artists in Mantua and in the neighboring area during the second half of the seventeenth century has been documented in surveys by other scholars, including the syntheses of Ercolano Marani and Chiara Perina and the

Bohn, B. and R. Morselli (eds.), Reframing Seventeenth-Century Bolognese Art: Archival Discoveries, Amsterdam University Press, 2019 doi: 10.5117/9789462986336_ch05

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contributions of Raffaella Morselli, Renato Berzaghi, and Stefano L’Occaso.1 On the Bolognese front, the question has been examined by Anna Maria Matteucci, Eugenio Riccomini, Renato Roli, Marinella Pigozzi, and Deanna Lenzi.2 Lenzi noted for the first time the presence in the Marmirolo workshop of Gian Giacomo Monti, who worked as both architect and painter, and of Andrea Seghizzi, who was active as both quadratura painter and scenographer. The present essay will offer an exposition of the Gonzaga Nevers family’s wide range of interests in Emilian art, based on numerous archival sources – including inventories, wills, orders, patents, bills, and letters – that provide firsthand evidence of this phenomenon. The documents confirm that Bolognese artists in particular enjoyed notable attention from this family of patrons. In the first decades of the seventeenth century, the Bolognese artists most in demand in Mantua were the Carracci, Lorenzo Garbieri, Lucio Massari, Francesco Albani, Domenichino, Alessandro Tiarini, Guido Reni, Francesco Brizio, Francesco Gessi, Gian Giacomo Sementi, Giovan Battista Valesio, and the sculptor Alessandro Algardi. These are the most celebrated names that emerge in letters and other documents, to which we might add the less well-known names of Pellegrino Bonesi, Antonio Gatti, and Florio Macchi, of whom Malvasia underlines ‘the marvellous trompe l’oeil that he went on to do in Mantua’.3 Guido Reni, beloved as much by the Gonzaga as by the Gonzaga Nevers, painted the four Labors of Hercules, now in the Louvre, for Duke Ferdinando, while his students Francesco Gessi and Gian Giacomo Sementi frescoed part of the Galleria degli Specchi in the Palazzo Ducale around 1618. Shortly after the dispersal of the Gonzaga collections, Duke Carlo I Gonzaga Nevers tried to obtain an altarpiece from Reni, and Malvasia also recalls Reni having painted in Mantua the Rape of Cassandra, two heads of the Blessed Virgin, and the Venus with Cupid and Doves (‘Il Diamante’) now in Toledo, Ohio.4

‘Looking for Bolognese paintings’ In the correspondence to and from Carlo II, there are many documents that attest to the presence of numerous Bolognese artists in the Gonzaga workshops and of a continuing search for works of art by the family. The large array of Bolognese artists, employed mainly in the renovating and decorating of the villas, demonstrates their ability to supervise the entire organizational process of a work site and their capacity to stay in touch with the new European trends.5 1 Berzaghi, 1989; Furlotti, 2000; L’Occaso, 2010; Marani and Perina, 1965, III, 513–18; Morselli, 2000 and 2002. 2 Lenzi, 1985; Pigozzi, 1988; Roli, 1977, 5, 73, 292. 3 Malvasia, 1678, I, 578. 4 Malvasia, 1678, II, 91. On the lost Rape of Cassandra, see Pepper, 1984, 305; on the Venus in Toledo (Ohio), see Pepper, 1973. 5 Frommel, 2013.

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Responding to the duke’s peremptory invitation to look for ‘Bolognese paintings’ for sale, Piero Aimondi, who was then residing in Bologna, replied: I will give you the evidence that I have obeyed you in particular for paintings. […] I have chanced to find two paintings by excellent hands, one by Michelangelo, who depicts three players, which is absolutely exquisite and of a value of 400 scudi, of paoli; the other by Carazza with a Saint Francis in the act of praying before Christ, whose price I will not specify to Your Highness, waiting for You to let me know whether it is to your taste.6

We do not know from the duke’s letters whether the transaction was concluded, but the inventory of 1709 mentions a copy after Carracci depicting precisely a Saint Francis that, incidentally, may also be the similar painting by an anonymous artist that was mentioned in the 1707 inventory.7 In December 1648, Bartolomeo Bonaccorsi proposed another painting by Annibale Carracci, along with a canvas by Guido Reni, to the duke. In a letter sent to the court, Bonaccorsi writes that if one is looking for Bolognese paintings, ‘they say that above all the excellent paintings the most precious ones will be by Reni and similar artists’.8 The two paintings were in the hands of Bonaccorsi, who – after having shown them to the duke’s servant Masini – had permission to keep them for fifteen days while awaiting a response from the duke. The letter does not specify the subject of Carracci’s painting, but it describes Guido’s picture as a Saint Sebastian ‘with three tiny figures that are barely visible. I understand these to be absolutely among the best paintings that Reni ever made […] The price they want is 60 doble, that is 30 doble per piece’.9 In September 1661, the ‘books of Aldrovandi’ were sent to the duke from Bolog­ na, bought for 25 ongari, and a chest ‘for the framed painting donated by Bolognini to Your Excellent Highness’.10 This unpublished statement is the first documented evidence of the relationship between Giovan Battista Bolognini, a student of Guido Reni, and Duke Carlo II. The painting mentioned could be the Death of Adonis, a painting that emerged on the antiquarian market in 2010 and has been unanimously attributed to Bolognini, whose presence in the Villa in Marmirolo is confirmed by the 1665 inventory.11 A Sibyl by Bolognini is documented among the assets of Anna Isabella di Guastalla, wife of Duke Ferdinando Carlo. This was most likely the same 6 ASMn, AG, b. 1176, partially transcribed in Luzio, 1913, 310, and in Piccinelli, 2010, 38, 57. 7 Piccinelli, 2010, 326 (275), 380 (720). 8 ASMn, AG, b. 1175, fol. 124r, Bologna, 18 December 1648, from Bartolomeo Bonaccorsi to Duke Carlo II Gonzaga. 9 ASMn, AG, b. 1175, fol. 121r, Bologna, 3 December 1648, in Luzio, 1913, 83, n. 1. 10 ASMn, AG, b. 1175, fol. 216r. 11 Piccinelli, 2010, 285 (3565).

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Sibyl, copied from Guercino, that was listed in the inventory of 1709 and the ‘Sibyl noted under number 86’ in the 1707 inventory.12 We also know of two prints by Bolognini, both based on works by Guido Reni, that were dedicated to Duke Carlo II: one picturing the Massacre of the Innocents and the other depicting Bacchus and Ariadne on Naxos.13 Also documented only in the sources is the activity in Mantua of Giacomo Bolognini, nephew of Giovan Battista.14 Between August 22 and September 1651, Carlo II and his wife Isabella Clara, during a trip to Florence, stopped in Bologna. There they were the guests of the nobleman Enrico Sampieri, and there they met Guercino. Perhaps it was on this occasion that the painter invited the duke and duchess to visit his studio. Carlo II and Isabella Clara were favorably impressed by the painting Lot and his Daughters, that Guercino was working on at that time, and by a painting of Tancred that the archduchess intended to purchase. On 9 November of the same year, Enrico Sampieri communicated to the court in Mantua that Guercino was ready to deliver the painting of Lot to the duke, while the one picturing Tancred ‘for the lady archduchess is not perfected yet, nor is it varnished, and for this the Signor Cardinal said that he would pay 125 doble, since the one for Your Highness was paid 100’.15 On the same day, the painter stated, in a letter written in his own hand to the duke, that he had just sent the ‘painting of Lot, excellently conditioned and with that same subject that I, in my own voice, described in the house of the illustrious Sampieri’, whose price is therefore 100 doppie.16 On Christmas eve of 1657, Guercino wrote again to the duke to inform him that he had just sent by courier a painting of Samson and Delilah and that he was at the duke’s disposal for any other commission.17 From a letter sent to Paolo Moscardini, we learn that there must have been a problem, because the work was shipped back to the sender only a month later, on 30 January 1652: Signor Domenico Santi arrived with the painting in truth very badly treated; but in agreement with what was indicated by Your Excellent Highness the Signor Giovan Francesco has begun to fix it and very soon with greater care and diligence it will be sent again and Your Highness may rest assured that it will be fixed by Barbieri in such a way that the cracks will be in no way evident. Already with extraordinary care, patience, and labor he is at work and soon he hopes Your Highness to have it again brought back to perfection and to your complete satisfaction.18 12 Brown and Lorenzoni, 2004, 16; Piccinelli, 2010, 327 (302), 387 (989). 13 Ebert-Schifferer et al., 1988, 414–16. 14 L’Occaso, 2010, 129–30. 15 ASMn, AG, b. 1175, fol. 216r, Bologna, 9 September 1651, from Enrico Sampieri. 16 ASMn, Autografi, b. 7, fol. 13r, in Luzio, 1913, 106. 17 ASMn, Autografi, b. 7, fol. 14r, Bologna, 24 December 1657, from Giovan Francesco Barbieri to Duke Carlo II Gonzaga. 18 ASMn, AG, b. 1175, fol. 413r, Bologna, 30 January 1658, from Paolo Moscardini to Duke Carlo II Gonzaga.

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Guercino himself, however, believed it ‘impossible to bring it back to its original state’. Furthermore, the coldness of the winter season made an ex novo painting impossible (the imprimatura would have taken too long to dry), so Guercino proposed to the duke to use a copy of the same painting made by his brother-in-law Ercole Gennari, which he would use ‘as a draft to redo it entirely in my own hand, so that it will be an original and not a copy’, in agreement with Paolo Moscardini and the painter Domenico Santi.19 For the painting representing Tancred and Erminia, Guercino was paid 1,500 lire on 6 May 1652, states Malvasia,20 while in Guercino’s Libro dei conti (Account book), we read that on 23 December 1657 he received the final payments for two other paintings, for a total sum of 2,000 lire.21 It is possible to surmise that for the Lot, the artist had been paid 1,500 lire, as initially agreed upon, while for the pendant Samson and Delilah, he received only 500, as a partial refund for the mishap with the original painting. Two paintings depicting Lot and Samson appear in the 1665 list and are described as ‘two large paintings by Guarzin, one Lot and one Samson with gilded frames’.22 These can be identified with the Lot and his Daughters (Louvre, Paris), and Samson and Delilah (Musée des Beaux-Arts, Strasbourg).23 Francesco Albani was also in direct contact with Carlo II.24 In Novembre 1652, Albani asked the duke to help him find a painting representing the Rest on the Flight into Egypt that had recently been stolen from him.25 Again in November 1652, the court received a proposal from Baldassare Magni in Bologna, suggesting that Giovanni Andrea Sirani could make a copy of the Saint Mary Magdalen for the Signora Anna Vitoria. I made friends with Signor Sirano, a very famous poet, who is a student of Guido Reno [sic] and 19 ASMn, Autografi, b. 7, fol. 10r, Bologna, 5 February 1658, from Giovan Francesco Barbieri to Duke Carlo II Gonzaga. 20 Malvasia, 1841 [1678], II, 333. 21 Ibid., II, 338; Salerno, 1988, 354. 22 Piccinelli, 2010, 299 (4259). 23 Mahon, 2003, 262 and 270, with earlier bibliography; Salerno, 1988, 364, no. 296; 375, no. 307; Loire, 1990, 72–74, 79–80; Mahon, 1991, 351–53; Stone, 1991, 279, 301; Malvasia (1678, II, 264, 317) mentions other paintings made by Guercino for the court of Mantua: ‘1639, a Judith for the illustrious Princess of Mantua’ (‘1639, Una Giuditta per la principessa serenissima di Mantova’) and ‘1638, 12 July, from the illustrious Signor Duke of Mantua there have been received 200 ducatoni for the painting of Judith and for two other paintings made for him by me, one of Flowers, the other of Fruits; the total sum is scudi 258, lire 1’ (‘1638, il dì 12 Luglio, Dal serenissimo signor duca di Mantova si è ricevuto ducatoni 200 per il quadro della Giuditta e per due altri quadri da me fattogli, uno di Fiori, l’altro di Frutti; fanno in tutto la somma di scudi 258 lire 1’). 24 Francesco Albani had been already in contact with Duke Ferdinando Gonzaga, who described the artist as a ‘very insolent and demanding person’ (Luzio, 1913, 296) for not having delivered the sketches for the Villa Favorita, some portraits, and a painting on copper. However, in the 1626–27 list of the ducal assets, an Actaeon turned into a Stag by Albani, now in the Louvre in Paris (inv. no. 15) is mentioned. On the relations between Albani and the Gonzaga, see Puglisi, 1999, 59, 81, 135–36; Loire, 2002, 269; Lapenta and Morselli, 2006, 321. 25 ASMn, AG, b. 1175, fols. 256r–257r, Bologna, 27 November 1652, from Francesco Albani to Duke Carlo II Gonzaga, transcribed in Piccinelli, 2010, 58, no. 76.

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has a school of many youngsters all of them talented, it will be my utmost pleasure and it will be a beautiful thing, although a copy. Send the measurements with a string of the length and width that the painting must be and the money and let me take care of serving you.26

Later documents do not allow us to surmise whether the commission was carried out, but in the list of the Canti-Calabrò paintings, one painting is mentioned that may be Sirani’s Magdalen: ‘a Magdalen two arms long made by Carni [sic]’.27 Between the end of 1652 and the first months of 1653, the Bolognese Magni managed to reach an agreement with a painter who had left a few paintings with a merchant. The duke had seen these but had not liked them. When, in April 1652, Carlo II and his wife stopped in Bologna, accompanied on their Italian journey by their brother-in-law Archduke Ferdinando Carlo and his wife Anna de’ Medici, they saw the paintings and ordered them to be replaced with others they preferred, notwithstanding the reservations of the resident, Baldassare Magni: ‘Once I have received them, I will try and see if I can sell them, or trade them for other paintings, as I was ordered upon your leaving this place’.28 The transaction was carried out successfully, and the result was immediately communicated to the court: I have finally sealed the contract for the paintings for Your Illustrious Lordship in this form: the painter will take the three paintings for the value of 4 doppie, and he will make so many landscapes that some will serve to balance the value of 4 doppie for the three paintings, and for the others will be paid 1/2 doppia, having thus made the agreement for his landscapes for 1/2 doppia each. I believe that when you see them you will like them, since they are beautiful. Two have already been made, and the others are being made. All that is left for Your Illustrious Signoria is to send me the 4 doppie, so that I can conclude the contract, which everyone considers to be very advantageous for having given the three paintings for the equivalent of 4 doppie in these times when portraits are not in fashion, and everyone was surprised. Overall there will be therefore sixteen landscapes, that is eight for the value of the three paintings and eight for the other 4 doppie. Please do send me your answer immediately, and send me the money because the painter needs to buy the canvases, colors, oil and other things, as you know. For my part, I will not give him anything other than the money for the value of the landscapes I will receive by and by, nor will the three paintings be given to him until I will have the sixteen landscapes in hand. I await therefore a response from Your Illustrious Signoria.29 26 ASMn, AG, b. 1175, fol. 255r, Bologna, 27 November 1652, from Baldassarre Magni to his brother Paolo Magni. 27 Piccinelli, 2010, 164–66. 28 ASMn, AG, b. 1175, fol. 255r, Bologna, 27 November 1652, from Baldassarre Magni to his brother Paolo Magni. 29 ASMn, AG, b. 1175, fol. 282r, Bologna, 28 May 1653, from Baldassarre Magni to his brother Paolo Magni.

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This letter is extremely interesting insofar as it outlines the characteristics of the contract and offers information on the relative values of portraits and landscapes. The agreement with the painter entailed that he would receive the three portraits refused by the duke, estimated at 4 doppie, and that he commit to replacing them with sixteen landscapes worth 1/2 doppia each. Therefore eight landscapes would be offered in exchange for the three portraits, while the other eight were to be paid for in cash. The sender believes the contract to be very advantageous during a period in which portraits are not in fashion (‘in questi tempi che non sono in stima li ritratti’). The equivalent value in scudi would be roughly 2-1/2 scudi for the portraits and 1 scudo for the landscapes.

Bolognese Artists Working in the Ducal Residences The main site at which Bolognese artists were employed during the second half of the seventeenth century was the Villa in Marmirolo, which was renovated beginning in 1661 (Fig. 5.1).30 The preference for quadratura painting and the fact that Bolognese artists were capable of taking care of all aspects of the work were the reasons the duke decided to place his trust in the painters, sculptors, and artisans from Bologna, even though their demands in terms of payment and housing conditions were often judged to be excessive. The sources attest to the presence on the work site of a team including, at different times, the painters Domenico Santi, Andrea Seghizzi, Domenico Maria Canuti, Baldassarre Bianchi, Francesco Villa, a ‘man from Bergamo’ (‘bergamasco’), the engineer Gian Giacomo Monti, and the sculptor Francesco Agnesini, who had already worked at the Palazzo Te and at Maderno. The unspecified man from Bergamo cited in the Mantuan documents, based on early Bolognese sources, is believed to have been Lorenzo Pasinelli, sometimes referred to as ‘Lorenzo from Bergamo’ after his father’s birthplace. Zanotti writes that Pasinelli went to Mantua following Seghizzi, a ‘quadratura painter who did very well in painting certain rooms in Marmirolo’.31 It was therefore Seghizzi, with whom Pasinelli had already worked in Bologna between 1659 and 1660, who obtained the commission from Mantua. However, after having completed the first commission for the fresco decoration of a number of rooms in the villa and the great painting of The Marriage of Perseus, Pasinelli did not feel like staying any longer in Mantua and returned to Bologna, notwithstanding the duke’s insistence that he remain in Mantua.32 30 Carpeggiani, 2018. 31 Zanotti, 1739, 26 and 85; Baroncini, 2010, 18–20. 32 A large painting on canvas made in Mantua, now in the Sala Consiliare del Comune di Mantua, has been attributed to Pasinelli. According to Benati, it belongs to the early phase of his career and therefore the years of his stay in Marmirolo; see Benati, 2001, I, 174, no. 43.

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Fig. 5.1. Giuseppe Maria Mitelli, Fountain in Marmirolo, etching, Mantua, private collection.

After Pasinelli’s departure, Carlo II tried to get Domenico Maria Canuti to come to Marmirolo.33 In general, the work in the Villa had a difficult beginning, due to delays in the arrival of the painters from Bologna, bad weather, and technical problems. Architectural and decorative issues and the demands of the workers are documented in the letters in which Ludovico Asiani and the supervisor of the works (prefetto delle fabbriche) Daniel van den Dijck referred to the duke. 33 Stagni, 1988, 20–21; Baroncini, 1993, 19.

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On 1 April 1661, everyone was anxiously awaiting the arrival of the Bolognese painters, as Van den Dijck wrote: We are expecting any day the arrival of the painters from Bologna. In the meantime, the Signor don Lodovico is having the ceiling of the new room above finished, so as to set them all to work. I will not fail to exhort them to do the said rooms with all diligence, having perfectly understood the intentions of Your Excellent Highness.34 While waiting, the chambers were prepared to be frescoed: the loggia is all finished, that is its ceiling, and so is the ceiling of the room next to the large new room, which has nice proportions. The large room above will also be ready, and we have set to work on the ceiling of the large room below, so that on the arrival of the painters, they will have their work cut out for them.35

On 24 April, Domenico Santi and Andrea Seghizzi finally arrived. But after a brief tour of the place, they left again for Bologna to prepare for their final move to Mantua, which was to begin fourteen days later, asking the duke for 100 doppie each, to give their families.36 The demands of the painters were judged excessive by the superintendent Asiani, who complained that the artists were even more demanding than Titian or Giulio Romano. But Asiani left it to the duke to decide because, ‘Your Highness is a prince who knows what they might deserve’.37 Without hesitation, the duke granted the requests of the Bolognese artists38 and even gave a young sculptor-engraver, also Bolognese, three Mantuan lire per day, in addition to room and board.39 Santi, who in the meantime had been designated ‘famigliare of the Duke’, and Seghizzi organized things so that, upon their return to Mantua, the painters could immediately begin frescoing the two small rooms leading to the loggia. Meanwhile, the ‘man from Bergamo’ was entrusted with frescoing a room that was judged ‘to be of nice proportions’,40 next to the large room, while the Milanese Francesco Villa was entrusted with frescoing the loggia.41 During the early months of 1662, Francesco Villa left to work in the Certosa in Pavia. He was replaced in Marmirolo for some time by Domenico Maria Canuti in his work on a room that was decribed as ‘being done very vaguely and capriciously, and I despair that it will be ready by Monday, which will be the end of April’.42 34 ASMn, AG, b. 2800, fol. 134r, Mantua, 1 April 1661, from Daniel van den Dijck. 35 ASMn, AG, b. 2008, fol. 158r, Mantua, 8 April 1661, from Daniel van den Dijck. 36 ASMn, AG, b. 2800, fol. 203r, Mantua, 24 April 1661, from Daniel van den Dijck. 37 ASMn, AG, b. 2800, fol. 206r, Mantua, 29 April 1661, from Ludovico Asiani. 38 ASMn, AG, b. 2800, fol. 58r, Mantua, 6 May 1661, from Ottavio Gonzaga. 39 ASMn, AG, b. 2800, fol. 90r, Mantua, 17 March 1661, from Daniel van den Dijck. 40 ASMn, AG, b. 2800, fol. 158r, Mantua, 8 April 1661, from Daniel van den Dijck. 41 On Francesco Villa, see Dell’Omo, 2015, 102–15. 42 ASMn, Archivio Davari, b. 3, fol. 150r.

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In April 1662, there arrived in Marmirolo the sculptor Francesco Agnesini, a former student of Alessandro Algardi, who had worked for Duke Ferdinando Gonzaga from 1620 to 1624 and whose workshop had produced the small statue depicting the Madonna and Child now in the Diocesan Museum in Mantua.43 Agnesini made two statues, one picturing the Mincio and the other a Triton,44 and in May 1662, he had ‘almost finished the standing figure’.45 But in May 1662, work came to halt. The man from Bergamo, who had been helped by Van den Dijck and Canuti, was sent away with 100 doppie. While waiting for the return of Francesco Villa, Canuti asked permission to go to Padua, promising to return as soon as the duke required it. When Villa and Canuti returned to work in Mantua, they were each given the official title of ‘Ducal Painter’, which gave them the right, among other things, to enter and exit ducal territories bearing arms. Between 1663 and 1666, Canuti often moved back and forth between Padua and Mantua, and twenty years later, in 1683, Duke Ferdinando Carlo again gave him the title of Ducal Painter. After a lapse caused by the death of Daniel van den Dijck and his replacement by Frans Geffels as supervisor of the works, the work at Marmirolo resumed in 1663.46 The aviary was completed and connected to a new loggia ‘inside and outside the court’, based on a project by Geffels.47 At the end of 1663, after finishing work for the solemn funeral of Alfonso IV d’Este in Modena, Gian Giacomo Monti and Baldassarre Bianchi arrived at the villa. ‘Having taken their leave from that court’, Crespi writes, they returned to Bologna, where, as soon as they arrived, they were summoned by the Duke in Mantua […], to follow the conclusion of the many projects started in Marmirolo and to finish a great number of fountains and to paint many rooms. Among them was a very large one, which was to be called the room of fountains. In its great vault the valiant Canuti was called upon to paint fables about Neptune, and Bianchi with Monti painted the architecture. But when this was finished, the excellent Duke Carlo II also ceased living.48

In all likelihood, the very large room ‘of the fountains’ painted by Bianchi and Monti with architectural frameworks that surrounded the fables of Neptune frescoed by Canuti, was the ‘new large room’ that had been recently finished in terms of structure 43 ASMn, AG, b. 2305, from Mantua, 12 February 1624: ‘The sculptor Algardi, having made some works in the service of Your Highness, supplicates you to have these works appraised from whomever you please with the order to have the earned compensations, finding himself without […] and in need of a salary’ (‘L’Algardi scultore havendo fatte alcune opere per servitio di Vostra Altezza la supplica che le faccia stimare da chi le piacerà con ordinare che gli per poterne havere le dovute soddisfazioni ritrovandosi senza sp[---] et salario in necessità’). 44 ASMn, Archivio Davari, b. 3, fol. 150r. 45 ASMn, AG, b. 2800 bis, fol. 81r, Mantua, 11 May 1662, from Daniel van den Dijck. 46 On the architect Frans Geffels, see Girondi and Sordi, 2017. 47 ASMn, AG, b. 408, 1663, in Piccinelli, 2010, 98. 48 Crespi, 1769, 63–65 and 68–69.

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and masonry. The short but intense stay of the three artists is also confirmed by Malvasia, Marcello Oretti, and Bolognini Amorini and documented by the attestations of ‘benservito and curialità’ that Isabella Clara gave them in December 1665: to Bianchi as painter, to Monti for the ‘virtuous profession of engineer’.49 It is not clear whether they immediately returned to Bologna, but it is certain that they remained in touch with the Mantuan court for a long time. Monti’s presence in Bologna is confirmed in 1671 and 1673, when he built the Tribuna di San Petronio in collaboration with Giovan Battista Barberini, whom he had probably met in Mantua.50 In the years between 1682 and 1689, he was again working for Duke Ferdinando Carlo Gonzaga, for whom he carried out commissions in Bologna, including some rather delicate ones, through the mediation of the comedians Ferdinando Porri and Arlecchino, and for which he was paid, in March and May 1682, two hundred six Roman scudi for ‘money spent by him by our order’.51 Bianchi was still active in Palazzo Canossa in 1669–70, in collaboration with Giovanni Battista Caccioli. Andrea Seghizzi certainly stayed on for some time in Mantua to prepare with Geffels the solemn funeral of Carlo II, held in Santa Barbara in January 1666. Then he painted ‘three large rooms and an oratory’ in Bozzolo, the residence of the local branch of the Gonzaga.52 His ‘benservito’ from the widowed duchess ‘for the scenes and paintings in Marmirolo’ is dated 26 May 1667, but already in February he had written from Mantua to Novellara, offering to decorate a room in the castle.53 From a payment note we learn that, along with Geffels, the new supervisor of the works, and the artists, a number of workers and artisans employed in previous years on Van den Dijck’s team continued to work in Marmirolo. This group included Antonio Prestinari, Andrea Maini, carpenters, masons, plasterers paid by the day (stuccatori a giornata), and temporary residents in the place, as stated by usage notes found, along with the description of the environments, in the inventory of the assets of Carlo II. In 1665, at the time of the duke’s unexpected death, the work was still intense. ‘Gio. Giacomo architetto’ (that is, Monti) was mentioned in the inventory.54 He was living in a wing of the new quarters, along with stonecutters, painters, sculptors, engravers, carpenters, and many other artisans. During the reign of Ferdinando Carlo, the Bolognese count Prospero Filippo Castelli, who had gone to Mantua to escape from justice from 1672 to 1675, provided an interesting account, writing that, ‘there are two rooms painted by Canuti […] marvelously beautiful’, but that the duke did not care for them.55 49 Malvasia, 1841 [1678], II, 364; Bologna, Biblioteca Comunale, MS B.123–32, fol. 430r. Bolognini Amorini, 1841–43, II, 345–49. ASMn, Mandati, b. 55, register 107, fols. 133r, 135r. 50 Spiriti, 2005. 51 ASMn, AG, b. 3172, fol. 464r and fol. 459r. 52 L’Occaso, 2010, 135. 53 In any case, at the end of 1667 he had returned from Bologna, where he was busy decorating the Palazzo Grassi in the early months of the following year. 54 Piccinelli, 2010, 296. 55 Bologna, Biblioteca Universitaria, MS 770, XXXVI, p. 75.

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Duke Carlo II also chose Bolognese artists when he commissioned the renovation of the residences of Maderno, on Lake Garda, and of the Palazzo Te. This renovation generally respected the original architectural and decorative identity of the Villa del Te, designed by Giulio Romano, but new elements were added to complete the garden, including statues, fountains, hydraulic machines, and imposing scenographies for the outside areas, renovating them and bringing them in line with the fashion of the time.56 Between 1650 and 1652, Nicolò Sebregondi, the prefect of the ducal work sites, designed and supervised the construction of the exedra, the fruit houses (or naranzara), and the connecting sections east and west of the original building. The exedra shifted the eastern border of the garden, extending the internal perspective and placing in relief the two specular pavilions called the Appartamento del Giardino Segreto and the Casa del Giardiniere (Fig. 5.2). In 1665, the inventory lists four marble pedestals with four statues on the central axis of the perspective of the garden, shortly before the exedra.57 In autumn 1652, sixty vases ordered from Bologna began to arrive in Mantua. These were intended to house the fruit trees of the vast fruit house that was completed in the summer of the following year, distinguished by its large windows on the southern wall.58 The ducal correspondence with Bologna attests that, along with the terracotta vases, drawings of Roman fountains, which served as models for the decorations being done in the logge and open spaces in the Palazzo Te, also arrived in Mantua.59 Gabriele Brunelli and his ‘fellow sculptor’ Francesco Agnesini were invited to decorate the garden with fountains, sculptures, and ornaments, as attested in a letter by Baldassarre Magni from Bologna, dated 10 October 1653: Coming this way is Signor Francesco the sculptor to set up the bas-reliefs made for Your Highness for your Palazzo del Te, as well as Signor Gabriello his companion, also a sculptor and from Bologna. Both wish to honor Your Illustrious Signoria, and for this purpose I have written the present letter so that they may place it in your hands, as they have promised me to do. If you need anything, do favor them, because they are virtuous persons who deserve it, as you shall see from their works, and they are also my friends.60

56 On the gardens of Palazzo Te and the seventeenth-century renovation, see most recently Bazzotti, 2018a and 2018b. 57 Piccinelli, 2010, 306. 58 ASMn, AG, b. 1175, fol. 252r, Bologna, 13 November 1652, from Baldassarre Magni to his brother Paolo Magni; ASMn, AG, b. 1175, fol. 273r, Bologna, 17 May 1653, from Paolo Moscardini; ASMn, AG, b. 2795, Mantua, 12 June 1653, from Carlo Belelli. 59 ASMn, AG, b. 1175, fol. 252r, Bologna, 13 November 1652, from Baldassarre Magni to his brother Paolo Magni. 60 ASMn, AG, b. 1175, fol. 294r, Lenzi, 1985, 171, n. 4; Belluzzi, 1998, 419.

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Fig. 5.2. Nicolò Sebregondi, exedra and orangerie, Mantua, Palazzo Te, 1651.

The sculptors made fourteen colossal allegorical figures and six bas-reliefs in terracotta of ‘exquisite beauty’ for the niches of the Loggia di Davide (Plate 5). In February 1654, they also signed an agreement for a sumptuous fountain, which, however was never built.61 The agreement contains a drawing depicting a segment of the fountain, 2 meters high, which seems to have been conceived as a polygonal structure, with a balustrade and pilasters surmounted by small fountains. There is a basin decorated with pods and two masks, and on the vertical support there are openings that spray water. The execution was entrusted, in the contract, to the stonecutter Stefano Tomezzoli, who also made his workshop in Verona available for making the figures commissioned from the sculptors Agnesini and Brunelli.62 The contract also stipulates the quantity of materials, dimensions, and costs of the work: sixteen figures and four colossal herms just under 3 meters, four 1.36-meter-high putti, a 2-meter coat of arms, and two eagles just above 1 meter; all in white Incaffi stone. Tomezzoli was also willing to provide supplementary materials such as stalactites and grotesque stone ornamentations at 12 ducati per wagonload. We do not know the relationship between this large fountain and the project elaborated by that Sebregondi, described in 1651, of a large, two-story pavilion connected to the exedra, of which all that remains is a partial drawing and a detailed list of the materials. The structure is connected to the exedra and has two stories: the basement is occupied by ‘the places of 61 ASMn, Magistrato Camerale Antico, B.III, 1628–1771, 4 February 1654: ‘Convenzione fra la Camera e Francesco Agnesini e Gabriele Brunelli per la fabbrica di una fontana sul The’, in Belluzzi, 1998, 74, n. 164, and 419. 62 Brunelli was the master of Domenico Tomezzoli, brother of Stefano: see Guzzo, 1990–91, 273–75.

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the fountains’, while the ample logge, a hall and four small octagonal chambers are found on the upper floor.63 After the gardens of Palazzo Te, Agnesini, Brunelli, and Tomezzoli made statues, fountains, and hydraulic and architectural structures to adorn the imposing and scenographic open spaces of the residence of Maderno, which extended from the lake to the slopes of the overlooking hill, with terraced gardens, grots, lemon-houses, avi­ aries, fish ponds, and fountains. The organization and working mode for Maderno was the same employed for the Palazzo Te. In February 1660, Marc’Antonio Sagramoso wrote to the duke from Verona to inform him that Brunelli and Agnesini were making some statues for Maderno, begging him not to order Brunelli to come to Mantua, but to let him continue working in the workshop in Verona: In conformity with the very benign orders of Your Excellent Highness, I have communicated in good form to Signor Gabriele Brunelli your desire that he immediately finish the statue that he has to do. I have received his promise that it will be finished for the next Easter of Resurrection, although it will be very difficult if he is limited to this time, because it has not been rough-hewed yet. But he prays that I ask you to be satisfied with his working here, and not force him to go to Maderno. There are many jobs that he has begun here, for which he has received advances. I have refused to promise him to transmit his prayer to Your Highness if I do not first see the statue finished within the prescribed time, to pressure him to work more quickly, which is what I have been able to do already in executing my duties.64

Brunelli received permission to continue working in Verona, but Agnesini’s presence is attested in Maderno in mid-April. There he was making ‘the Venus and the sea horse and others in the right time’, after having finished, in the April of the previous year, ‘the basin with the shrimps and the dolphins’.65 The commission for the stairway with the balustrade and the statues for Palazzo Nuovo in Maderno is dated 11 January 1658 (Fig. 5.3). The duke stipulated an agreement in six points with Agnesini and the stonecutter Stefano Tomezzoli. The work consisted of designing and executing ‘all the balustrades, bases and tops and pedestals that fit between the said balustrades and also the double pedestals that go in the corners in San Vigilio stone or an equally resistant stone’, to be done by the end of August.66 They were required to follow the 63 ASMn, AG, b. 3168, fols. 154r–155r: ‘Notta dei diversi marmori et altri materiali che al presente fano bisogno per la nova fabricha ordinata dal serenissimo signor duca nostro padrone nelli Giardini del Te’ (‘Note of the different marbles and other materials that are presently needed for the new building ordered by the serene duke our patron in the Giardini del Te’). In Belluzzi, 1998, 60–61. 64 ASMn, AG, b. 1572, Verona, 8 February 1660, from Marco Antonio Sagramoso to the duke. 65 ASMn, AG, b. 1572, Maderno, 14 April 1660, from Ludovico Armella to the duke. 66 ASMn, AG, Mandati, b. 54, register 106, fols. 30v–31v, transcribed in Piccinelli, 2010, 93.

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Fig. 5.3. Gonzaga Villa in Maderno, drawing, Mantua, ASMn, AG, b. 3168.

instructions, dimensions, orders given them by Daniel van den Dijck, the supervisor of the work site, who was to prepare the drawings and outlines of everything. The materials were to be entirely paid by the duke. Their payment was to be 30 lire per ‘braccio’, to be measured when the works were finished and positioned. As usual, the payment was to be made in three installments, one-third at the beginning of the work, and the rest in monthly payments. A few years later, Brunelli also worked in Mantua for a member of a local noble family that belonged to the circle of the court. This patron was named Orazio Canossa, ‘magister cubicoli’ and private advisor of the Gonzaga. In this case, Tomezzoli’s

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Fig. 5.4. Gabriele Brunelli, staircase with statues, Mantua, Palazzo Canossa, 1665–68.

place was taken by another stonecutter, Matteo Pedrali, who had already been part of the team working in Maderno. Pedrali made his workshop in Piazza Canossa available and declared that he was willing to provide the ‘model and the right measures’ as well as ‘the tops, the bases, the pilasters and the balustrades’ for the making of the stairway to the palace.67 For the materials and work, Pedrali was paid 600 scudi.68 On 20 September 1667, the secretary of the Marchese Canossa, Francesco Gallantini, confirmed that ‘the stairway is begun, the statue of Hercules has been already sculpted very well, nor could one have a better appearance’ (Fig. 5.4).69 In the summer of 67 All documents on the work of Brunelli and Pedrali in Palazzo Canossa are transcribed or cited in Vezzani, 1998. 68 ASMn, AN, Notaio Giovanni Stefani, 1672–75, invoice of 3 July 1673, mentioned in Meroni, 1976, 86–100; Bazzotti, 1985, 86. 69 Vezzani, 1998, 62.

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the following year, the stairway was almost finished and the workers were getting ready to construct the portal of the palace, for which they were preparing the preliminary drawings. In June 1668, Brunelli went ‘to the stone quarry to find all those that were necessary to finish the putti’70. Work on these had already begun the previous year, when advances and final payments were registered for a number of them. When finished, there were nineteen statues for the stairway including twelve putti, two dogs, and five life-size statues in full relief depicting Hercules, Mars, Neptune, and Pluto. In December 1667, Brunelli received 9 Spanish doppie ‘as final payment for five stone putti made to be placed on the stairway’. In March 1668, another 6 Spanish doppie were given ‘to the sculptor that makes the stone putti for the stairway […] and if he were to give some other putti, he is to receive another 6 doppie, and so on until he has finished his work’.71 The Veronese architect Giovan Battista Bianchi was called to help Brunelli, who had too much work, with designing the portal. On 14 August 1668, Bianchi confirmed that he was available to come to Mantua and work on the palace: From Signor Gabrielle I received the very courteous [greetings] from Your Highness, and along with that I was informed of your desire in relation to the design of the front door to your palace. He also showed me a drawing, which seemed to me a little thick, and I am not sure whether the site allows it. It would be necessary for me to be at the site to see if there is any way in which I could make a drawing that would make this work more slender and at the same time magnificent. To serve you I will try to be in Mantua as soon as possible.72

It has been hypothesized that Bianchi may have also been the designer of the monumental and scenographic stairway.73 From a stylistic perspective, it would be interesting to carry out further studies on the putti from Marmirolo that were placed in the Palazzo Ducale in 1780, above the tympanum in front of the facade of the church of Santa Barbara (Fig. 5.5), along with those on the stairway of Palazzo Canossa.

Giovan Battista Caccioli and Baldassarre Bianchi for the Canossa In the second half of the seventeenth century in Mantua, Bolognese artists were also active outside of the ducal family, working for the palaces and collections of local aristocrats who wished to emulate their leaders in following the new cultural and artistic trends. One artist whose activity in Mantua in the palace of the Canossa 70 ASMn, AG, b. 2803, in Vezzani, 1998, 63. 71 Vezzani, 1998, 61. 72 ASMn, AG, b. 2803, in Vezzani, 1998, 63. 73 Ibid.

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Fig. 5.5. Gabriele Brunelli, putto statue from the Villa in Marmirolo, Mantua, Palazzo Ducale, 1662.

family is well documented is Giovan Battista Caccioli. Between 1668 and 1669, this Bolognese artist, who was active in Turin as well as in Bologna, was invited to take charge of the decoration of Palazzo Canossa, which had been interrupted. In his correspondence with the Marchese Orazio Canossa, Caccioli writes that he is in Bologna, finding paintings for the Marchese’s collection, and he sends a list of the important works that are on sale. Among them is a painting by Guido Reni of The Almsgiving of San Rocco. Caccioli promised to send a print of this picture, and in fact the promised print was attached to the succeeding letter of 20 March 1669.74 In the course of the following month, the painter repeated that for the moment it was impossible for him to come to Mantua, due to the illness of his mother and an imminent move to 74 ASMn, AG, b. 1176, fol. 179r, in Bazzotti, 1985, 91, doc. 4.

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another home, and that ‘he was very sorry for this’. In July 1670, he delegated his colleague Baldassarre Bianchi, who had also worked for a long time in Palazzo Canossa, to receive his payment in Caccioli’s place. As indicated in the invoices attached to his inventory, upon the death of Orazio Canossa, Caccioli was still owed 692 lire and 16 soldi, ‘as final payment for his commission to create paintings for the palace’.75 As attested by eighteenth-century sources, the two Bolognese artists decorated the ceiling of the stairway, a hall, and three rooms. Of these works, today only the central fresco of the stairway and the ceiling of a chamber on the corner of modern-day piazza Canossa and via Fernelli remain. The quadratura at the top of the stairway is a depiction of the Fall of the Giants, playfully echoing a theme that had been used by Giulio Romano for the Palazzo Te. In contrast, on the vault of the pavilion in the corner room, painting does not play the dominant role. The partitions, decorations, and stuccoes in low and high relief, are integrated with the sober pictorial compositions. The stucco decorations have been tentatively ascribed to Giovanni Battista Barberini, based on style. Barberini’s presence is confirmed in Mantua during 1674 in Palazzo Valenti Gonzaga, in the Chiesa della SS. Trinità, in Palazzo Sordi, and in the Chiesa di San Martino. In the chronology of the activity of Barberini, a native of Valle d’Intelvi, there is a documentary gap between 1669, when he left Vienna, and 1674. Barberini may therefore have collaborated with the group of the Bolognese Caccioli, Bianchi, and Brunelli and with Pedrali, from Brescia, who were also active in Palazzo Canossa. Returning to Caccioli, in Mantua the painter also made the banner (gonfalone) for Santa Maria del Melone (lost), the altarpiece for the chapel of Carlo in Sant’Andrea (still in situ), a painting of Christ, San Biagio, and San Carlo Borromeo in San Francesco di Paola (lost), and the decoration in the chapel of San Carlo in the Palazzo della Ragione (alias Tribunale del Supremo Consiglio di Giustizia), for which we have the receipts signed by the painter in the ledger (‘Libro delle entrate and delle uscite’).76 The latter attests that Caccioli’s activity was concentrated during the second half of 1674. Therefore the fresco of the chapel’s vault must have been one of Caccioli’s last works (he died in 1675). A note attached to the documentation confirms that on 28 June 1674, Caccioli received 10 doppie from Giacomo Maffei, administrator of the Cappella di San Carlo, ‘for the work that I have to make in the said chapel to paint the face of her according to the drawing shown by the said illustrious Senate and the frame below with flowers below or decoration’.77 The note further declares that, when the work was finished, he was to have another 30 doppie, including the cost of colors, as is confirmed by the final payment signed by the painter on 22 December 1674. The fresco of the vault is more sober, intimate, and imbued with spiritual tension compared to the grandiloquent theatricality of the Palazzo Canossa. In the center, 75 ASMn, AN, Notaio Giovanni Stefani, 1672–75, invoice of 3 July 1673, mentioned in Meroni, 1976, 86–100. 76 ASMn, Senato di Giustizia, Carteggio, b. 35, in L’Occaso, 2010, 128. 77 ASMn, Senato di Giustizia, Carteggio, b. 35, fols. 12r–13r.

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we see the dove of the Holy Spirit, surrounded by two concentric circles of cherubins and winged putti holding hands. An intense gilded light spreads out from the apex of the composition, embracing all the elements of the decoration and creating a luminous illusory space in which the Four Doctors of the Church stand out, surrounded by backlit putti. In the intrados of the windows, inside polygonal medallions, there are images of God the Father and numerous winged putti holding liturgical instruments and Eucharistic symbols (Plate 6).

From the Late Seventeenth-Century Court to the Collection of Guidi di Bagno In 1665, notwithstanding the death of Carlo II and the rise to power of Ferdinando Carlo Gonzaga Nevers, the flow of Bolognese artists and their works to Mantua continued unabated. Many artists who had worked for the father continued to work for the son, and others were added. The correspondence with Bologna mentions Pietro Donzelli, who, in November 1688, visited the home of Angelo Angelelli to ‘copy a few paintings by Cignani’.78 Pietro was probably the son of Marcantonio Donzelli, who had been a student of Giovanni Andrea Sirani in Bologna and whose presence is recorded in Mantua during the 1670s.79 Pietro, who had trained in the workshop of Cignani, received in January 1686 a passport from the duke, which allowed him to move easily from one city to the other. Another Bolognese painter, Tommaso Gazzini, is mentioned by Bolognese sources, which record his presence at the Gonzaga court in 1671. There he made ‘paintings with flying animals and of other types, and with fruit’, and he remained for almost twenty years.80 This is confirmed by the appearance of his name in a ducal mandate of 1690, in which three young daughters who sing are also mentioned. In a certification of 1682, the duke cited as his ‘present painter’ the Bolognese Giulio Coralli, saying that he liked ‘his works’.81 We also know of the activity in Mantua of Giovan Battista Bolognini and his nephew Giacomo.82 From 1684, Sante Vandi also began working in Mantua for the duke as a portrait painter. He is depicted in a medallion (Florence, private collection), which identifies him as the painter of the duke of Mantua. Vandi’s nephew Carlo frescoed the vault of the Camera di Aurora in Palazzo di Bagno, signing himself ‘Carolus Vandi Bononiensis pinxit 1748’ (Fig. 5.6).83

78 ASMn, AG, b. 1176, fol. 475r, Bologna, 17 November 1688, from Angelo Maria Angelelli. 79 L’Occaso, 2010, 120. 80 Crespi, 1980 [1769], 29. 81 ASMn, AG, Mandati, b. 58, register 110, fol. 9v. See Arfelli, 1957, 227. 82 Zanotti, 1739, II, 28. On Giacomo, see Mazza, 1990. 83 Bazzotti and Ferrari, 2003, 87–89.

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Fig. 5.6. Carlo Vandi, Aurora, ceiling fresco, Mantua, Palazzo di Bagno, 1748.

In 1664, the Guidi di Bagno of the Mantuan line replaced the extinct line of Romagna. The substantial inheritance they received and the rise in the status of the family led to a decision to expand the family palace, the public symbol of their illustrious lineage. They received from the Gonzaga also the title of ‘commissario generale della cavalleria dello stato’ (Commissioner-General of state calvalry), and the governorship of the city of Casale, and in the early eighteenth century they were able to exhibit in their palace a collection full of works by Emilian and especially Bolognese artists.84 In the inventory listing the assets of Gian Francesco Guidi di Bagno in 1713, are included ‘a large painting with the image of Saint Jerome which comes from Guercino’; ‘an oval painting on canvas with the image of the Blessed Virgin with an engraved gilded frame’ by Andrea Donducci, called il Mastelletta; ‘Two ovals paintings on canvas with two heads of Philosophers that come from Guido with gilded frames’; ‘A half-figure painting representing Saint Sebastian, work of the esteemed Guido Reni’; a large painting with the image of ‘Santa Catterina dalla Ruota by Flaminio Torri’; and ‘a painting on canvas with the image of Our Lord with an Angel, painted by Taruffi, with a gilded frame’.85 Another notable family was the Cavriani, who commissioned the expansion of their majestic family palace from the Bolognese architect Alfonso Torreggiani around the middle of the eighteenth century.86 To conclude this very 84 Bazzotti and Ferrari, 2003. 85 ASMn, AN, Notaio Francesco Tabiani, b. 8931, invoice of 4 May 1713. 86 See Ferrari, 2012.

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rich survey of the Bolognese presence in Mantua in the seventeenth century, we must mention at least in passing the works of Bolognese artists in the churches of San Maurizio and Sant’Orsola, which served as centers for the propagation of the Bolognese style in Mantua, and the important contributions by theatrical artists and architects who were held in high esteem by the Gonzaga: from the Bolognese scenographer Giacomo Feriani to the brothers Ferdinando and Francesco Galli Bibiena, whose work continued until the second decade of the eighteenth century. The documents add new evidence to our understanding of Bolognese contributions to the visual culture of the Gonzaga Nevers court, achieved through decades of work that involved dozens of contributors, from celebrated and innovative painters and sculptors to craftsmen, builders, and goldsmiths. Together these Bolognese visitors left a distinctive mark on the visual character of the Mantua of the Gonzaga Nevers.

About the author Roberta Piccinelli is Curator of Civic Museums in Mantua. She has published three books that draw on her interest in patronage and art collecting, including a study of the Gonzaga Nevers Gallery in Mantua.

6. Bolognese Painters in the Private Collections of Romagna The Albicini Marchis Collection in Forlì Barbara Ghelfi

Abstract Barbara Ghelfi’s chapter, based on extensive archival research on art patronage and collecting in Romagna, explores the collection of the noble Albicini family, who owned valuable, high-quality objects that were atypical for small cities. Ghelfi’s examination of extensive correspondence between the family and the artists they employed during the seventeenth century enables her to provide valuable insights into the reputations, working methods, and prices of such eminent Bolognese school painters as Francesco Albani, Guido Cagnacci, Carlo Cignani, Domenico Maria Canuti, and Lorenzo Pasinelli. Her contribution demonstrates the popularity of Bolognese artists well beyond the city of Bologna itself. Keywords: Albani, Cagnacci, Cignani, Canuti, Albicini

The recent publication of Collezionismo d’arte in Romagna in età moderna, a collection of essays on private collecting in Romagna between the seventeenth and nineteenth century, has focused attention on a complex and varied phenomenon that deserves to be further explored.1 A renewed interest in art collections in the area of Imola, Faenza, Forlì, and Ravenna, sparked by a series of documentary studies on public and private archives that brought to light inventories, letters, and lists of art objects, allows scholars to study previously unexplored areas, identify the peculiarities of private collections, and ultimately arrive at new and original interpretations. Beginning with the most important cases, the goal has been to reconstruct the characteristics of individual collections, the ways they were formed, the spaces in which they were displayed, and the circumstances of their dispersal. Scholars have demonstrated the existence of important collections from the early years of the seventeenth century, especially in Forlì, enabling us to map a rich and widespread taste for art objects that particularly favored Bolognese artists.2 In the 1 Ghelfi and Orsi, 2018. 2 Giudici, 1991. Bohn, B. and R. Morselli (eds.), Reframing Seventeenth-Century Bolognese Art: Archival Discoveries, Amsterdam University Press, 2019 doi: 10.5117/9789462986336_ch06

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present essay, I examine in particular the case of the Albicini family, who held the title of marquis and were the owners, in the words of Joseph Jérôme de Lalande – who visited Forlì at the very end of the eighteenth century – of ‘a superbly furnished apartment’ (‘un appartement meublé superbement’) with works of great quality and value that set them apart from those typically found in small towns.3 The Albicini’s desire to improve the image of their family, after the important position gained with the title of marquis, which Ranuccio Farnese gave to the family in 1653, also took the form of a constant investment in artworks. Beginning in the 1620s, the Marquis Giuseppe Albicini began acquiring what was to become the core of the collection, initiating a series of projects aimed at transforming the family palace in Forlì into a splendid showplace unequaled in all of Romagna. Adorned with wall decorations, a very fine picture gallery, and painted furniture, the palace was to serve as a luxury residence for distinguished guests such as the viceroy of Naples, Queen Christina of Sweden, and a considerable number of cardinals and governors.4 In the private archive of the family, there is rich seventeenth- to eighteenth-century documentation on the relations between the family and painters, especially those of the Bolognese school; it includes letters, bills of sale, and various inventories of the painting collection, compiled beginning in the early eighteenth century. These documents provide crucial information on the acquisition of the collection, its development, the evaluation of various items, and the changes in attributions. The existence of such rich and diversified archival documentation makes the case of the Albicini particularly interesting. In addition, a great number of paintings are mentioned in the inventories and in the payment receipts, and many of them can be identified; indeed, numerous works are still in the rooms of what was once the main apartment of Palazzo Albicini in Forlì, which is now the seat of the Association Circolo della Scranna.5 This prestigious collection was mentioned for the first time by Francesco Scannelli in his Microcosmo della pittura, published in 1657; then, a century later, by Francesco Algarotti who, writing on 10 July 1761 to Pierre-Jean Mariette about his trip to Romagna, mentions the Albicini collection as one of the main art galleries in the area. These references were followed in 1777 by the testimony of the Bolognese writer Marcello Oretti.6 The first important modern study on the Albicini collection and on their collecting and commissioning practices was published in 1991 by Corinna Giudici, who based her work on archival documentation. Other important studies on the 3 De Lalande, 1790, 354: ‘une Aurore de Cignani et un appartement meublé superbement. Les sculptures, les broderies, les étoffes y sont d’une richesse qu’on ne trouve point dans les petites villes’ (‘an Aurora by Cignani and a superbly furnished apartment. The sculptures, the embroidery, the fabrics there are of a richness which one does not find in small towns’). 4 Giudici, 1991. 5 Gori, 2003. 6 Scannelli, 1657, 369; Bottari and Ticozzi, 1822, 488–97, Oretti, Pitture della città di Forlì (partly transcribed in Piraccini, 1974).

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collection have been published since then by Giordano Viroli, Mariacristina Gori, and Giulia Palloni.7 The extensive surviving correspondence – largely known to scholars, but the majority published here for the first time – which details the numerous negotiations between the family and the artists during the seventeenth century, offers valuable information on the reputations, working methods, and pricing systems of numerous painters from Bologna or the Bolognese school, including Francesco Albani (1578–1660), Lucio Massari (1569–1633), Guido Cagnacci (1601–1663), Carlo Cignani (1628–1719), Cesare Pronti (1626–1708), Domenico Maria Canuti (1625–1684), and Lorenzo Pasinelli (1629–1700). A large part of the correspondence deals with the decoration of the Albicini chapel, dedicated to Saint Joseph in the Dominican church of San Giacomo.8 To negotiate with the painters, Marquis Giuseppe Albicini turned to the Capuchin friar Antonio da Parma and to the Jesuit Vincenzo Maria Bargellini, his sons’ tutor. Bargellini was charged with finding painters in Bologna. On 25 March 1626, Bargellini wrote to the Marquis: ‘I diligently looked into the painters who are presently painting here [in Bologna] with some fame and satisfaction, and setting aside Guido Reni and Gessi […] the names I am hearing are of a certain Francesco Albani, Lucio Massari, a Cavedoni and a Bertusi, all painters with some years of experience and held to be good at their art’.9 From these words, one gathers that Bargellini was not particularly familiar with Bolognese artists, and, at least in this initial phase, he relied on other people to identify potential candidates. A few days later, Bargellini reported that he had eliminated Francesco Albani from the list, because his prices were as high as Reni’s, but his work was of inferior quality. Moreover, Albani was accomplished mainly in the execution of figurines and small pictures. Bargellini also excluded Giovanni Battista Bertusi (1577–1644), because his reputation was inferior, and he decided instead to approach Giacomo Cavedoni (1577–1660) and Lucio Massari. Cavedoni, he wrote, was considered the better of the two, but he was rather expensive. His first request was for 40 scudi (about 30 ducatoni), plus the canvas and stretcher; while Massari asked for a bit less.10 A week later Bargellini went to visit Cavedoni with the intention of ordering the main picture for the chapel. Its size, he wrote, would be larger than Gessi’s Death of Saint Joseph (Fig. 6.1), a comment confirming that the latter painting was already in the Albicini collection. Bargellini’s letter is invaluable, since it enables us to date Gessi’s painting before 1626, whereas it has traditionally 7 Giudici, 1991, 198–208; Viroli, 1992, 298; 1995; Gori, 2003; Palloni, 2008, 81–85. 8 Foschi and Viroli, 1991, 131–45. 9 AAFo, b. 18, fasc. 4, 37: ‘mi sono informato diligentemente de pittori che qui al presente dipingono con qualche fama e soddisfatione e lasciando da parte il S. Guido Reni e il Gessi […] mi vengono nominati un Messer Francesco Albani, Messer Lucio Massari un tal Cavedoni e un tal Bertusi, tutti pittori di qualche lungo esercizio e reputati buoni nella sua arte’. 10 AAFo, b. 18, fasc. 4, 37, fol. 2. See Appendix, Doc. 1.

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Fig. 6.1. Giovanni Francesco Gessi, Death of Saint Joseph, private collection, before 1626.

been dated later by art historians, around 1630–33.11 Returning to the negotiations with Cavedoni, some time later the painter unexpectedly doubled the asking price to 100 ducatoni besides the canvas stretcher, to which he added the ultramarine blue. Bargellini observed that at that moment Cavedoni had three paintings almost finished in his studio, among them a Baptism of Christ which cost a good 160 ducatoni and contained two full-length figures and three or four half-figures. As Cavedoni’s prices were too high, Bargellini proposed to Albicini to fall back on a young pupil of Guido Reni: Vincenzo Pisani (Vincenzo Spisanelli, 1595–1662). He added that the young artist was painting a Death of Saint Joseph for Count Caprara, a subject he used several times. Spisanelli’s work has not received much attention from art historians, and the above chronological reference is particularly useful, given the scarcity of available information on him. Bargellini also gave his personal opinion on the subjects of the pictures: he advised Albicini to choose the Marriage and the Death of Saint Joseph, because these were the most significant episodes in the saint’s life, as opposed to the Flight into Egypt or Joseph’s Dream.12 11 Palloni, in Benati and Paolucci, 2008, 206–07, no. 39. 12 AAFo, b. 18, fasc. 4, 37, fol. 3. See Appendix, Doc. 2.

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Fig. 6.2. Francesco Albani, Heavenly and Earthly Trinity with Saints Thomas Aquinas and Philip Neri, before San Domenico, Forlì, now Codogno (Lodi), chapel of the Hospital of Codogno, 1626–28.

Despite the artist’s high prices and chronic delays in delivering his works, the Marquis Albicini commissioned from Albani the Heavenly and Earthly Trinity with Saints Thomas Aquinas and Philip Neri, now in the chapel of the Hospital of Codogno (Fig. 6.2).13 Albani, wrote another agent of the marquis, the Capuchin father Antonio of Parma, ‘asks for a year and a half” to finish his works, ‘but I am told he will not deliver them even in three.’14 For the two paintings on the side altars, Albicini chose Massari instead. The contracts with the artists were signed in June 1626. On 13 June, Massari agreed to 100 scudi as a down payment for The Marriage of the Virgin (a work for which all traces have been lost 13 Giudici, in Zeri, 1991, 134–38. 14 AAFo, b. 18, fasc. 4.

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Fig. 6.3. Lucio Massari, The Death of Saint Joseph, ex-Forlì, San Domenico, now Milan, church of San Marco, 1626–27.

since 1821) and for The Death of Saint Joseph (Fig. 6.3). He promised to complete them in eighteen months, and would supply the canvases, stretchers, and ultramarine blue himself. The contract was witnessed by the Bolognese painter Filippo Brizio.15 Two days later, Francesco Albani also signed a contract that provided for 60 ducatoni (about 81 scudi) as a down payment for the altarpiece. Albani promised in the contract that the picture would be entirely in his own hand and delivered within eighteen months. As was the custom in Bologna, the stretcher, canvas, and ultramarine blue were to be supplied to the painter (their total cost was around 40 scudi).16 Overall, Albani’s final price was about twice that of Massari’s. On 19 August 1626, Bargellini went to check on the paintings: Massari had begun the Marriage, for which he had to do thirteen figures, some angel heads, and other decorations. Although the work was still only sketched out, Bargellini was enthusiastic. Albani, on the other hand, had only primed the canvas and, Bargellini complained, 15 AAFo, b. 18, fasc. 3. See Appendix, Doc. 3. 16 AAFo, b. 18, fasc. 4. See Appendix, Doc. 4.

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‘until there are leaves on the trees or grapes on the vines, I have little hope of forcing him to work, he wanders around the countryside beyond what is reasonable, and this distracts him and absorbs a large amount of his time’.17 The passage indicates Albani’s passion for the rural landscape, a passion of the artist that was confirmed by Carlo Cesare Malvasia in his Felsina pittrice.18 A month later, Massari had finished outlining the Marriage on the canvas and was already working on the Death. To Bargellini’s astonishment, Albani had even set to work and drawn all the figures. Bargellini felt that it was important not to hurry him.19 On 21 July 1627, only a year after signing the contract, Massari had already finished his paintings. Bargellini showed them to some painters, who expressed their enthusiasm. One of them said: ‘The Marriage is considerably fine, full of figures made with great design and skill. The Death is not as full of figures and I don’t like it very much, but others praise it more highly than the Marriage’. Bargellini sent the pictures to Forlì on a cart instead of hand-carried as the painter had requested. The Albicini archive contains five autograph letters from Albani.20 On 3 November 1627, when Massari’s pictures had already reached their destination, Albani reassured Albicini that the Trinity was quite far along, but before finishing it he had to complete other paintings for Cardinal Maurizio of Savoy, who would soon arrive in Bologna. Albicini’s request to add the figure of the Blessed Marcolino to the painting was met by firm opposition from the painter and from Bargellini: it was not a good thing to have two Dominicans in the same picture (that is, Marcolino and Filippo Neri), and ‘the figures are distributed in such a way that adding one would throw everything off, besides there is no room’.21 Finally, on 3 May 1628, a year after Massari had delivered his two canvases, Albani wrote that the Trinity was finished at last. Both Massari and Albani had promised to paint two small pictures in addition to the altarpieces: Massari a Mary Magdalen and Albani a Flight into Egypt on copper. From the correspondence, we learn that neither Bargellini nor Albicini liked the Mary Magdalen, which is now lost. As for the Flight into Egypt, Albani himself was not satisfied and suggested that in the future, other figures could be added, so that the painting could reach a commercial value of 100 ducatoni. It appears that this was a normal practice for the artist, who for other patrons had reworked already-delivered paintings for the purpose of increasing their value. A Flight into Egypt by Albani is mentioned in the 1704 inventory of Andrea Albicini’s possessions.22 There is a problem with the identification of this work, however: the correspondence between Albicini and Albani clearly shows that the first painting 17 AAFo, b. 18, fasc. 4, 37, fol. 7. See Appendix, Doc. 5. 18 Malvasia, 1841, II, 193. 19 AAFo, b. 18, fasc. 4, 37, fol. 8. See Appendix, Doc. 6. 20 AAFo, b. 18, fasc. 4, Bologna, 3 November 1627–7 June 1628. 21 AAFo, b. 18, fasc. 4. 22 AAFo, b. 73, fasc. 1, fol. 1.

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Fig. 6.4. Francesco Albani, Flight into Egypt, private collection, c.1640–50.

was on copper, whereas the painting in the 1704 inventory, which most likely corresponds to the one presently in a private collection (Fig. 6.4), was on canvas. Giordano Viroli speculates that at some point Albani must have delivered the painting on canvas to replace the one on copper, which had not fully satisfied the Marquis, due to a scarcity of figures. It is unclear, however, why this painting too has only the main figures and a large empty space on the left.23 It is possible that Albicini, as the grand duke of Tuscany Ferdinand II Medici would do about ten years later with another of Albani’s paintings, had decided to acquire another version of the same painting. The layout of the Albicini chapel in the church of San Giacomo was recorded in an unpublished 1714 survey, carried out in anticipation of the building’s renovation.24 On the altar next to Albani’s Trinity was a Saint Catherine in Ecstasy and Temptation of Saint Rosalia (Pinacoteca di Brera, in permanent storage at the Arcivescovado of Milan).25 The author of these two works, who is not recorded in the archives, 23 Viroli, 1996, 23, no. 13. 24 There is also a drawing by Filippo Cignani that shows the position of the works in the chapel, Foschi and Viroli, 1991, 131–35. 25 Giudici, in Zeri, 1991, 138–39.

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belonged to the painter’s entourage, and they were certainly painted, based on style, between 1630 and 1650. Massari’s paintings on canvas were hung on the side wall. The decoration of the chapel was completed with frescoes and other portable works, among which there was an oval half-figure portrait of Marquis Giuseppe Albicini, founder of the chapel (now in a private collection).26 One should note that Giuseppe Albicini also commissioned a painting from a Bolognese painter for another family altar, located in the church of Gesù e Maria, also known as the church of Fornò, later of San Francesco, opposite Albicini’s palace. The painting is the Saint John the Baptist Preaching by Domenico Ambrogi, called Menghino del Brizio. It was taken away from Forlì in the early nineteenth century and belongs today to the parish of Cassano d’Adda and is in storage at the Brera.27 From the payment receipts signed by Menghino in the Albicini archive, we know that the artist was paid 350 lire, and the picture was made between 1649 and 1650. Giuseppe Albicini also commissioned two paintings for his collection from Guido Cagnacci, a painter from Romagna who was trained in Bologna: The Virgin of the Rose (Plate 7)28 and Saint Andrew (Fig. 6.5).29 In a letter dated 4 September 1647, Cagnacci urged Albicini to send him a canvas, so that he could paint the picture. He must have been referring to The Virgin of the Rose, since he adds: ‘as the weather is nice, the child can be undressed now, but when the cold weather comes he cannot be undressed because babies are fragile and suffer greatly’. A month and a half later, on 22 October, the painter wrote that the Saint Andrew would soon be finished; he asked to be paid in the currency of Florence because it was easier to exchange than the currency of Bologna.30 Incidentally, there are two other original paintings by Cagnacci in the Albicini collection: a Head of Saint Bernardino and a Head of a Blind Boy.31 As Giulia Palloni has clarified, there must have been five original paintings by Cagnacci in the Albicini collection, in addition to four copies after the artist, among the latter the ‘full-length page with sword, copy of Cagnacci’ (‘Paggio con la spada figura intera copia di Cagnacci’), which in the documents is estimated at no less than 18 scudi, a large sum considering that it was not an original. In the following years, even the Marquis’ son, through an efficient network of agents, turned to Bolognese painters for prestigious commissions, to make his residence even more splendid. Andrea Albicini began by commissioning from Carlo Cignani first the Martyrdom of Saint Andrew (private collection), recorded in the inventories of the picture gallery, and then the Dawn for the ceiling of his grand salon (Circolo della Scranna, 26 AAFo, b. 27, fasc. 2, fol. 25. See Appendix, Doc. 10. For the portrait, see Foschi and Viroli, 1991, 144–45. 27 Viroli, in Zeri, 1991, 229–30. 28 Viroli, in Benati and Paolucci, 2008, 248–49, no. 57. 29 Palloni, in Benati and Paolucci, 2008, 250–51, no. 58. 30 AAFo, b. 18, fasc. 4. 31 Viroli, in Benati and Paolucci, 2008, 236–37, no. 51.

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Fig. 6.5. Guido Cagnacci, Saint Andrew, Cesena, Galleria dei Dipinti Antichi della Cassa di Risparmio di Cesena, 1647.

Plate 8), a commission that elevated the prestige of the family to its pinnacle, making the room one of the places most frequently mentioned in the guides and art literature of Forlì, so much so that Cignani himself often went to see it. For the Dawn, painted between 1672 and 1674, we have only the payment receipts signed by Cignani: on 14 November 1672, Cignani received from Marquis Andrea 30 scudi as a down payment for the painting. The final payment of an additional 30 scudi was made on 13 October 1674.32 Considered by modern scholars to be one of the most beautiful figurative compositions of the seventeenth century in Italy, the Dawn is cited by Francesco Algarotti also in the abovementioned letter to Mariette: Algarotti thought it superior even to the works of Guido Reni ‘for the brightness of the colors and the beauty of the form and […] for the science of being truly painted 32 AAFo, b. 18, fasc. 1.

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from the bottom up’ (‘per la lucidità delle tinte e per la bellezza della forma e […] per la scienza dell’essere veramente dipinta di sotto in su’). The work was reproduced in a pen drawing by Felice Giani and a 1714 engraving by Francesco Meloni.33 As for The Martyrdom of Saint Andrew, Andrea exchanged letters with the painter in December 1669: Cignani apologized for not having finished the painting on time and promised to make all possible efforts to send it together with a small sketch by the feast day of Saint Andrew.34 This sketch, now lost, is described in the 1704 inventory of the Albicini collection as located in the fifth and last room of the second apartment. In the Albicini archive there are also four letters by the painter Cesare Pronti, two of which refer to the decoration of the vault surrounding the Dawn.35 In an undated letter, Pronti excuses himself for being unable to execute the decoration: a large decoration would be necessary, he writes, and his health prevented him from working more than seven or eight days, while such a work would require no less than two or three months.36 In the letter dated 16 June 1677, the painter mentions the difficulty of meeting the demands of the Marquis, due to previous commitments to which he has had to add two other paintings, one for the ‘Libraria’ of the Augustinians in Rome and the second for Siena, commissioned by the General Father of the Order, who had ordered him to give these works priority over all the rest. Therefore, he added, he was sorry to say he would not be available for quite a long time.37 The decoration surrounding Cignani’s Dawn, refused by Pronti, was done only many years later, by the Bolognese quadratura painter Angelo Zaccarini (1710–1780), according to Marcello Oretti’s Pitture della città di Forlì.38 Again, in 1677, using as his intermediary Count Costanzo Orsi of Forlì, who was residing in Bologna, Marquis Andrea commissioned Domenico Maria Canuti to paint an oval for a ceiling with the figure of Abundance (Fig. 6.6), of the same size as Cignani’s Dawn.39 In a letter of 31 July, Orsi reassured Albicini that in Bologna Canuti was considered greater than Angelo Michele Colonna: in this case too, as for Albani, Orsi tried to engage the services of the painter with the best reputation in Bologna.40 Canuti’s first request was for 25 doppie. Canuti had Orsi report to the Marquis that he would paint the work only after finishing the frescoes in the library of San Michele in Bosco. Albicini must have decided to wait, since a letter from Orsi, written 33 Buscaroli Fabbri, 1991, 143–44, no. 29. 34 AAFo, b. 18, fasc. 1. Buscaroli Fabbri, 1991, 131, no. 20. 35 AAFo, b. 18, fasc. 2. For Cesare Pronti see U. Foschi, 1997, and Gori, 2003, 44–45, 53–54, 81–83. 36 AAFo, b. 18 fasc. 2, undated. See Appendix, Doc. 7. 37 AAFo, b. 18, fasc. 2, letter dated 16 July 1677 from Ravenna: ‘oltre gl’impegni che havevo, mi sono accresciuti altri doi Quadri, uno per la Libraria nostra di Roma, et l’altro per quella di Siena, commessioni dal Padre Generale sua patria, con ordine di doverli anteporre ad ogni altra cosa’ (in addition to the assignments I had, I must do two other paintings, one for our library in Rome, the other for the our library in Siena, commissioned by Father General with orders to prioritize them before anything else’). 38 Oretti, Pitture della città di Forlì, B.165/II; Gori, 2003, 30, 32, 71–73. 39 Viroli, 1995, 195–204; Gori, 2003, 33, 41–42. 40 AAFo, b. 18, fasc. 1.

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Fig. 6.6. Domenico Maria Canuti, Abundance, Forlì, Palazzo Albicini, 1677–78.

in September of that same year, informed him that Canuti would complete the painting for 15 doppie but that Albicini would have to supply the canvas and stretcher (as he had done for Albani). Canuti would paint a picture ‘da Cavaliere’ (fitting for a nobleman), Orsi wrote, worth 30 doppie even though he was only asking for 15.41 On 11 September, Orsi informed Albicini that he had to indicate the dimensions of the painting and whether it should be an oval or square, so that the frame could be ordered.42 The painter had not asked for any advance payment and had said it could wait for the winter (since at that moment he was still busy in San Michele in B ­ osco).43 41 AAFo, b. 18, fasc. 1. See Appendix, Doc. 8. 42 AAFo, b. 18, fasc. 1, 11 September 1677. 43 AAFo, b. 18, fasc. 1. See Appendix, Doc. 9.

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On 8 October 1677, a receipt for 22-1/2 scudi was prepared, a sum that Andrea Albicini had to give Canuti: but the latter did not accept the money because he was still busy in San Michele in Bosco.44 In a letter of 14 May 1678, Orsi said that he had talked with Canuti, who was working on the Abundance. Canuti had told him that it was impor­ tant that he do all the work himself: ‘To obtain an accomplished work one should not hurry, furthermore he [Canuti] told me that he wishes your Noble Grace to be very well-served by him and therefore wishes to add the finishing touches to the work himself, therefore it if takes longer it will only be more beautiful’;45 on 23 July, Orsi added that this kind of work should not be done in a hurry: ‘These works should not be done in a hurry, even more so when one is serving masters such as your Noble Grace, so the painter tells me’.46 The following year, another name begins to be mentioned in the correspondence: Lorenzo Pasinelli, from whom Albicini had commissioned a painting with the figure of Fame. In June 1679, Orsi wrote that he had given Pasinelli some money and that the painter was at work. Fame was specified as the subject of the painting in a letter dated 21 June. The painter, having received a down payment of 4 doppie, promised that he would finish the work by the end of the winter.47 In the ceiling of the second room of the first apartment on the Borgo, an oval with Fame was inserted: it is my belief, however, that, contrary to Mariacristina Gori’s suggestion, this is not the painting commissioned from Lorenzo Pasinelli, for which he was paid in June 1679. The reason is that the inventory of the Albicini collection of 1791 describes a painting in the antechamber next to the salon as a ‘lateral painting [per il traverso] of Fame by Pasinelli, full figure in the nude; carved and gilded, valued at ten scudi.48 This passage suggests that the 1679 work was a horizontally oriented, rectangular painting and not an oval. The oval picturing Fame now on the ceiling of one of the rooms of the Circolo della Scranna may more likely be the one described in the same inventory as located in the first apartment of the Borgo: ‘Oval on the ceiling. Fame wreathed with laurel, and other, full figures in the nude, estimated at 1 scudo’, which as one can see is valued much lower and not attributed to Pasinelli. Costanzo Orsi appears to have been a very reliable intermediary in the family’s dealings with Bolognese painters. In August 1682, he wrote the Marquis Albicini about a painting on canvas, with an unspecified subject, which the Bolognese painter Emilio Taruffi (1633–1696) was to paint for 14 dobble. The painter would need, Orsi 44 AAFo, b. 18, fasc. 1, 8 October 1677. 45 AAFo, b. 18, fasc. 1: ‘per havere un’opera ben compita non ci vuole fretta, e di più m’ha detto, che vuole che VS. Ill.ma resti benissimo servita dalla sua persona e perciò vuole perfetionare tutto il lavoro di sua mano, perciò se porter più in longo sarà tanto più bella’. 46 AAFo, b. 18, fasc. 1, letter dated 23 July 1678: ‘questi lavori non sono da farsi in fretta tanto più quando si tratta di servire padroni come VS. Ill.ma, tanto mi dice il detto pittore’. 47 AAFo, b. 18, fasc. 1, 10 June 1679; 21 June 1679. On Pasinelli’s painting, see also the letter from Girolamo Sala dated 14 June 1679, b. 18, fasc. 2. 48 AAFo, ‘Siegue la stima, e descrizione de Quadri fatta dal Sig.e Giuseppe Versari Pittore’, b. 72, fasc. 1.

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writes, the canvas and the ultramarine blue. In addition, he will only need the drawing (disegno) and the desired figure, and in six months the Marquis would receive the work.49 As we have seen, in choosing the rich and diversified Bolognese market to meet his requirements, the Marchese Albicini made use of his loyal servant Vincenzo Bargellini, who presented him with an unpublished and interesting selection of the best artists active in town, noting their worth and price list. Having excluded Guercino as too expensive and the unobtainable Reni, the two stars of the arts in Bologna, Albicini seemed initially satisfied with Reni’s best student, Francesco Gessi. However, after a careful evaluation in which he excluded Francesco Albani (because he specialized in small figures and paintings and was too expensive), Bargellini recommended Giacomo Cavedoni and Lucio Massari, who were considered comparable to Gessi but characterized by a better quality/price ratio. These testimonies clearly evidence the existence of an ample array of choices: the great variety of the Bolognese painting market, while characterized by the artists’ awareness of the market value of art, seems also well-diversified in terms of prices and reputations (Bargellini describes Cavedoni as ‘a painter of tolerable reputation and price’50). In the end, although differently advised, Albicini chose for his altarpiece the painter of greater experience, Francesco Albani, in spite of his high prices, comparable to those of Reni, and his chronic delays in delivering works. In conclusion, the ceilings of the grand salons in Palazzo Albicini are a cycle of allegorical figures that, given the importance of the painters involved and the quality of their work, deserve to be studied in depth from an iconographic and stylistic standpoint, a study that has yet to be carried out. The correspondence, contracts, inventories, and payment receipts presented here, dealing with both public and private collections, are a direct and valuable testimony to the great passion of the Albicini family for the Bolognese paintings of their time.

Appendix – Documents Doc. 1 AAFo, b. 18, fasc. 4, 37, fol. 2r. M.to Ill.re Sig.r mio Oss.mo. Per la mia dell’ordinario passato scrissi a VS. de’ pittori che al presente si trovano qui, atti a servirla di quei quadri che desidera, e dico di più esservi il Gessi che per errore scrissi allhora trovarsi in Roma: di quattro pittori che nominai, ho escluso l’Albano, 49 AAFo, b. 18, fasc. 2. 50 AAFo, b. 18, fasc. 4, 37.

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perché ne prezzi è alto non meno che’l Reni, e di valore non gli cede, se bene in diversa sorte di pittura, che la sua professione è di figurine e quadretti piccoli; ho parimenti escluso il Bertussi come tra nominati il manco stimato. E son stato a parola con M.r Giacomo Cavedoni, e M.r Lutio Massari, tutti due buoni pittori, e creduti esser uguali al Gessi, et il secondo sicuramente migliore, e certo l’opere sue son belle, ma è salato di prezzo. Il Cavedoni m’ha addimandato quaranta scudi, e tela e telaro. Il Massari m’ha addimandato ottanta ducatoni: son prime dimande, e per me credo caleranno qualche decina o poco manco e forse più: non ho voluto offerire, ne stringerli all’ultime dimande, perché loro nol vogliono mentre non c’è l’ultima risolutione del farglieli fare. Se il Massari parerà a VS troppo caro com’è, la consigliarei facesse far tutti due i quadri al Cavedoni, da che non habbiam altro pittor di stima e di prezzo tollerabile; a costui oppongono, che nelle pitture non sia uguale, alcune ne fa buone, altre ordinarie; al che si procuraria dar rimedio con essergli adosso, e raccomandargli e fargli raccomandare l’opera: e quando togliesse a farli tutti due per sessanta scudi con dargli tela e telaro, non saria mal speso il denaro, facendogli egli di quella perfettione che ne ho visti alcuni de suoi e ve ne sono per le Chiese di Bologna. Vs. mi farà gratia risolvere a suo gusto e circa i pittori nominati, quali lei vuole, e del denaro quanto la si sente di spendere, e commandarmi a punto, quanto devo servirla […] Bologna 28 Marzo 1626 […] Vincenzo Maria Bargellini. Doc. 2 AAFo, b. 18, fasc. 4, 37, fol. 3r. M.to Ill.re S. e P.rone mio Osse.mo […] Son tornato da M.r Giacomo Cavedoni per ordinargli un de due quadri; la prima volta che li parlai finsi la grandezza del quadro per il doppio del transito di S. Gioseffo ch’ha VS. del Gessi, essendo che VS. nella sua prima me n’havea fatta mentione, dicendo ch’i quadri sariano stati più grandi di detto transito: hora ho dato al pittore le misure mandatemi, ha visto ben bene il fatto suo, e sono in altezza e longhezza due de gran quadri che s’usino di fare; ond’ha disdetto il prezzo dell’altra volta, e dice non potrebbe far per manco di cento ducatoni con dargli tela telaro e oltramarino se VS. ne vuole; l’ho voluto tirare alli ottanta e poi cento scudi, e non s’è arreso, si che l’ho lasciato irresoluto, con dirgli che scriverò a VS., accio m’ordini quel che la vuol si faccia, e quanto si spenda: mi son informato di quel che fanno gl’altri, e la verità e ch’al presente egli ha tre quadri per le mani, e quasi finiti, d’uno ch’è il Battesimo di N.S. gli danno 160 ducati et è molto minore di quelli che VS. addimanda, et ha due figure sole intiere, e tre o quattro busti, delli altri due quadri che son minori quasi per metà di questo gli danno dell’uno 90 dell’altro 100 ducati. Ne quadri di VS. n’entrano da cinque o sei figure tutte intiere, voglio

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dir che questi prattici considerando il valor del pittore, e la qualità de quadri stimano che la dimanda fatta da lui non sia essorbitante, e so che M.r Lutio addimandirà e starà saldo in molto più; m’affaticarò per ridurlo a ducati 100 e se non potrò almeno ai cento e dieci: però non ho voluto ne voglio far cosa alcuna in tanto che non ho avvisato VS. di quanto passa, a che lei m’ordini minutamente tutto quello in che devo servirla. E in tanto che vien l’ordine di VS. andrò a parlare ad un altro pittore (ch’hoggi non ho havuta fortuna di trovar in casa) il quale mi è stato messo per le mani, è giovane, è allievo di Guido Reni e da lui stimato, si chiama M.r Vincenzo Pisani, e dicono ch’apunto adesso fa un transito di S. Gioseffo per il Quaranta Caprara. Gli parlarò e m’informarò bene se è cosa buona e caso me ne possa fidare, gli daremo a lui il quadro che volevamo dare a M.r Lutio Massari, se pur a questo VS. risolvesse far fare l’Ancona, che se VS. accordarà al Guercino da Cento, il che non credo per quel prezzo che lei vorria ne li appresso d’un pezzo, allhora potremo dar al Pisani qual vorrà VS. de dui quadri, o quel del Cavedone, o quel di M.r Lutio, mentre egli ci faccia miglior mercato di questi due; e tanto dico sol per discorrere, e rappresentar partito a VS., che com’ho detto non conosco ancor abbastanza il valor del pittore, ne ho vista alcuna delle sue opere questo credo saper certo, ch’è men buono del Cavedoni e molto meno del Massari. Ho addimandato al Cavedoni quando ci può promettere il Quadro finito, e m’ha detto per Ognissanti, ch’è a dire in sette mesi. Quanto al contenuto de Quadri, a me pare VS. faccia buona elletione, cioè del Sposalitio e Transito di S. Gioseffo, perché sono le principali e più notevoli attioni della vita del Santo, più che la Fuga in Egitto o il Sogno, o la Trinità terrena e celeste, e di questa mando inclusa l’immagine o altra che sia attion dell’istesso; io non partirei dalli detti e quando VS. havrà risoluto che si faccino fare li si mandaranno prima ischizzi in carta, a vedere se piacciano, e se lei n’havrà qualche bel dissegno di suo gusto ce lo mandarà qua […] Bologna 4 aprile 1626 […] Vincenzo Maria Barzellini. Doc. 3 AAFo, b. 18, fasc. 3. A di 13 giugno 1626 in Bologna, Io Lucio Massari ho ricevuto dal Sig.r Ioseffe Albicini gentilhuomo forlivese, et per lui dal Molto R.do Padre Vincenzo Maria Bargelini scudi cento da lir quattro per ciaschedun scudo di moneta di Bologna et questi per caparra, et in nome di caparra di duoi quadri di pittura da farsi, et dipingere per mano del sud.o Massari et convenuti d’accordo in scudi quattro cento cioè scudi ducento per ciaschedun quadro, pingendovi in uno il Sposalitio di S. Joseffe con quello della Madona, et nel’altro il Transito di S. Joseffe, quali quadri si doverano porre in una Capella del sud.o Sig. Joseffe Albicini; prometendo in oltre il sud.o Massari quelli compire fornire, et in efetto questi haver compiti et forniti fra tempo, et termine di mesi deciotto cioè un anno e mezo,

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mettendovi per compimento di detti quadri tele telari, et azurro fino da oltramare a spese di d.o Massari, et per fede et osservanza delle pred.e cose la presente sara sotto scritta dalle parti anno di mese sud.o. Io Lucio Massari affermo et prometto quanto nella presente si contiene. Io Filippo Brizii fui presente quanto di sopra. Io Gio. Batt.a Donini fui presente quanto di sopra. Doc. 4 AAFo, b. 18, fasc. 4. A di 15 di giugno 1626 in Bologna, Io Francesco Albani ho ricevuto dal Sig.r Joseppe Albicini Gentilhomo forlivense et per lui dal Molto R.do Pre Vincenzo Maria Bargelini ducatoni sessanta da lir cinque l’uno per ciaschedun ducatone di moneta di Bologna, et questi per caparra di una tavola d’altare per metterla nella sua Cappella in Forlì, entrovi dipinta una Trinità Celeste e Terrena e di più in detta tavola dui altri SS.ti l’uno S. Tomaso d’Aquino e nell’altro S. Filippo Neri da farsi da me cioè di mia mano propria dentro il termine di un anno e mezo cioè mesi diciotto intendendosi fornita e compita e dandovi conforme all’accordo esso Sig.r Gioseffo tela telaro e azurro oltramarino et in fede e osservanza delle predette cose ho scritta e sottoscritta la presente di mia propria mano il di sudetto anno e mese dico Lire 300. Io Francesco Albano affermo e prometto quanto di sopra si contiene. Io Giulio Borghese fui presente a quanto di sopra. Io Gio. Pietro Martino fui presente quanto di sopra. Adi 4 di genaro 1627 Io sottoscritto e sudetto ho riceputo lire trecentoquattro di bolognini per mano del sudetto P. D. Vincenzo Maria Barzilini e questi a nome del Sig.r Giuseppe Albicini a conto della tavola sudetta. Io Francesco Albani affermo quanto di sopra. Adi 2 di giugno 1628 Io Francesco Albano ho ricevuto lire trecento sei dal Sig.r Gioseffo Albicini per mano del Pre Vincenzo Maria Barzellini dico lire 306. E più ho ricevuto l’istesso giorno di sopra lire seicentoventi di q.ni da Mag.ci Manfredi di Forlì et per essi dal Sig.r Biagio Fantetti dico lire 620. Io Francesco Albani affermo quanto di sopra. Doc. 5 AAFo, b. 18, fasc. 4, 37, fol. 7r. M.to Ill.re S.r e Prone mio oss.mo. Questa è per far riverenza a VS. e darle qualche segno del desiderio e memoria che tengo di servirla. L’altr’hieri fui a veder i quadri, e trovai M.r Lutio attorno al quadro del Sposalitio in termine, che posso dirle, l’haverà mezzo fatto; vi fa dentro tredici

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figure, oltre alcune teste d’angioletti, et altri ornamenti, e in questo numero di figure fa più dell’obbligo, che a dieci l’obbligassimo, spero anco che in dipingerle con qualche singolare eccellenza ne darà soddisfattione, non si può dar giuditio fermo dell’opera sino a tanto che non è finita, ma per quel che ho visto d’abbozzamento e prima pennelleggiatura ne posso congieturare a VS. buona riuscita. Io non mancherò più spesso che posso riveder il lavoriero, e aiutarlo quanto so. L’Albano oltra l’imprimitura non ha fatta cosa più altra; e sino che continuano le foglie su’gl’alberi o almanco l’uva su le viti, ho debole speranza di ridurlo a lavorare, è vago oltremodo della villa, e questa lo svia e li rubba del tempo in quantità; non ostante questo son sicuro che può servir VS. nel termine promesso e bene, e non dubito lo farà, perché e huomo di parola […] Bologna 19 agosto 1626 […] Vincenzo Maria Barzellini. Doc. 6 AAFo, b. 18, fasc. 4, 37, fol. 8r. M.to Ill.re S. e Prone mio oss.mo. Son stato in villa da 15 giorni in circa, e tornato mi è stato a cuore visitar subito i quadri di VS.; vi fui hieri mattina, e trovai l’Albano haver fatto tanto di lavoriero, che me ne meravigliai e non aspettavo mai tanto: ha compartite e dissegnate le figure tutte sul telaro, e v’abbozzato il Padre Eterno con una gloria d’Angioli e nuvole, il Christo, la Madonna, e la testa di S. Filippo, il restante l’andrà abbozzando, ma non bisogna fargli fretta. Da quel ch’ho visto abbozzato, parmi di credere e quasi esser sicuro che sarem serviti, e VS. n’havrà honore. Fui anco da M.r Lucio; il quadro del Sposalitio lo viddi del tutto abbozzato, e quel del transito ha abbozzate le tre figure principali il Salvatore la Madonna e S. Gioseffo: dissi a M.r Lucio liberamente quel che VS. mi scriveva, e di che costi VS. viene ammonita; cioè che l’haver dati dui quadri ad un pittore, ci mette a risico ch’ uno riesca molto inferiore all’altro; e gli raccomandai grandemente il guardarsi da simili errori: egli hebbe caro l’avviso, e mi disse e m’assicurò ch’haveria ben fatto in modo, che la dottrina e osservation di costoro saria in lui riuscita falsa: M.r Lucio è huom dabene e di sua parola, e ci potiam promettere, non strapazzarà l’opra e porrà egual diligenza in l’un e l’altro quadro. Io fui di parere, come VS havrà potuto raccogliere dalli misi da principio, che i quadri si dessero a due pittori, si per la raggion che VS. scrisse, si perché la capella saria riuscita di maggior curiosità e concorso: ma parvi altrimenti al P. Guardiano, e lui e VS. giudicarono non v’esservi pittor pari d’un pezzo a M.r Lucio qui in Bologna a cui dar l’altro quadro […] Bologna 19 settembre 1626 […] Vincenzo Maria Barzellini.

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Doc. 7 AAFo, b. 18, fasc. 2, undated. Ill.mo Sig.re Prone Col.mo. Uno di questi giorni discorrendo io con alcune persone da Forlì, queste mi descrissero minutissimamente la bellissima sala che VS. Ill.ma sta hora fabricando non solo più larga, ma più alta ancora assai della vecchia per quanto essi mi dissero; dove che considerando io tal sito così grande, dico assolutissimamente che attorno all’ovato dell’Aurora vi ci vuole un ornamento molto grande altrimenti sarebbe getato il tutto, et tale ornamento a me che son pigro e tardissimo nell’operare non portarebbe meno di due e forse anche tre mesi di tempo, et per tanto tempo bisogna che io preghi come humilissimamente faccio VS. Ill.ma a dispensarmene, perché assolutissimamente non posso per causa di certe indispositioni così fatte che io patisco; ella mi richiese per due giornate, et io mi sforzarò anche per sette o otto, ma più non posso, et mi creda che in questo breve tempo io non posso fare cosa a proposito. Ho voluto prima avisare di questo VS. Il.ma acciò se poi si converà far buttare a terra il lavoro che havevo fatto, non dia la colpa a me, come in effetto la colpa sarà sempre da tutti butata adosso a me, che del resto per li giorni sudetti io verrò più che volentieri, et se VS. Ill.ma mi comandarà cose da servirla in Ravenna vedrà quanto lo farò di cuore, ma fuori della mia cammera se sapesse li patimenti che faccio per le indisposizioni sudette, so che mi haverebbe per più che abondantemente scusato […] f. Cesare Pronti Agost.no. Doc. 8 AAFo, b. 18, fasc. 1. Ill.mo Sig.r e Prone Col.mo. Per servire VS. Ill.ma ho parlato con il Sig.r Canuti Pittore, quale dice che farà il suo Quadro per 15 doppie, ma che la tela, e telaro di detto quadro bisogna che lei lo facci comprare a sue spese, ed io mi sono informato d’altri Pittori, quali mi dicono che così si costuma. Io starò attendendo i comandi di VS. Ill.ma e se mi darà ordine che io facci comprarle la tela e telaro la servirò con ogni prontezza. Il medesimo pittore dice, che farà un quadro, di tutta bellezza da Cavaliere par suo, e che valerà 30 doppie benchè lui lo facci per 15 […] Bologna 8 settembre 1677 […] Costanzo Orsi.

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Doc. 9 AAFo, b. 18, fasc. 1. Ill.mo Sig.r e Prone Col.mo. Ho dato le misure, mandatemi da VS. Ill.ma al Sig.r Canuti il quale dice, che non vuol denaro fino, che non darà principio al quadro, che per adesso non puol principiarlo, ma quest’inverno lo farà, perciò non occorre che VS. Ill.ma si incomodi a mandarmi il detto danaro. Vorrebbe anco sapere il Sig.r Canuti da che parte riceve il lume, la stanza dove ha da stare la Pittura per potere regolarsi meglio nell’ombre, e fare una cosa di tuta bellezza […] Bologna 2 ottobre 1677 […] Costanzo Orsi. Doc. 10 AAFo, b. 27, fasc. 2, fol. 25r. Nel Nome di Dio Amen Adi 20 Febb.ro 1714 Perizia fatta da noi infrascritti di tutte le pitture esistenti nella nobile e ricca cappella e suo prospetto dell’Ill.ma Casa Albicini, eretta dalla Chiara memoria dell’Ill.mo Sig.r Marchese Giuseppe segnore nella Chiesa delli M.M.R.R. P.P. di S. Domenico di Forlì, tanto ordinarie, che mediocri, et insigni e prima. La tavola dell’Altare di mano del Famosissimo Sig.r Francesco Albani, con figure grandi al naturale, rapresentanti il Padre Eterno, Gesù Bambino, la Santissima Vergine, e S. Giuseppe, S. Tomaso d’Aquino, S. Filippo Neri, lo Spirito Santo in forma di Colomba con Angeli in Gloria, Giovani, e Puttini, adoranti il Mistero in numero di quatordeci in tutto, et in valore di scudi mille e cinquecento romani scudi 1500. Un Quadro di mano del suddetto Sig.r Albani posto dalla parte destra dell’Altare, che figura Nostro Signore apparso a S. Catarina con numero sette figure piccole, e varij serafini di valore di scudi cento cinquanta scudi 150. Un altro Quadro compagno di mano del medemo posto dalla parte sinistra della Tavola, o Altare sudetto, in cui si figura S. Rosalia con sette figure piccole di valore scudi cento cinquanta scudi 150. Un Quadro Grande per traverso situato nella muraglia laterale di detta cappella a destra dell’Altare, rappresentante li Sponsali della SS: Vergine, e S. Giuseppe con figure grandi al naturale numero tredeci, et in oltre la Gloria de Serafini con lo Spirito Santo di mano del celebre Sig.r Lucio scudi 1700.

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Un altro Quadro compagno di mano del sudetto Sig.r Massari, situato nella muraglia laterale a sinistra incontro del predetto con numero quatordeci figure grandi al naturale, rappresentante il Transito di S. Giuseppe con l’assistenza della S. Vergine, e di Giesù Nostro Signore, di valore scudi trecento scudi 300. Un Ovato posto nel pilastro interiore, che regge il muro vivo dell’Arco della cappella, ove viene espressa una S.S. Vergine ben divota in mezza figura col Bambino in braccio di mano ordinaria, e di valore scudi scudi 6. Un altr’ovato posto nel Pilastro dirimpetto alla predetto S.S. Vergine espresso in rame il Ritratto del sudetto Sig.r Marchese Giuseppe Seniore, che si dice fondatore di detta Cappella in mezza figura con le mani congionte in atto d’adorare la sudeta S.S. Vergine, preso bene al naturale di valore scudi dieciotto scudi 18. La fascia tutta delli pilastri esteriori dipinta a grottesco con figurine e rabeschi, pitture ordinarie di valore di scudi dieci scudi 10. Nel volto sopra il cornicione della cappella vi sono quattro spazi ottangolari per l’alto, ne quali si vedono espressi li quattro Evangelisti, uno de quali è andato quasi affatto a male, di buona mano in valore scudi sessanta scudi 60. [totale] scudi 2394. In mezzo a detti Evangelisti dall’una e l’altra parte del volto vi sono frapposti due quadri grandi, ottangolari per traverso che vengono in simetria per linea sopra alli deu quadri grandi sudetti posti nelle muraglie laterali ove vi sono espressi due viaggi della S.S. Vergine, e S. Giuseppe con quattro figure grandi al naturale per ciascheduno di valore di scudi 100 cinquanta l’uno scudi 150. Nella sommità del volto vi è un Quadro d’otto faccie o bugne per il lungo, ove è espresso S. Giuseppe Assunto con cinque figure della grandezza de suddetti viaggi, e valor di scudi 100 scudi 100. Al di fuori di detta Cappella sopra l’arco del prospetto in alto v’è un Angelo e S. Giuseppe in grande che rappresenta il Mistero Noli timere di mano ordinaria e valore scudi venti scudi 20. Somma scudi 2564. Dalla qual somma si detrae scudi sessanta che si richiederebbero di spesa per far resarcire tutti li dipinti ch’hanno patito scudi 60. Resta scudi 2504. Tralasciando però molte altre Pitture in chiari scuri per essere di mano ordinaria.

About the author Barbara Ghefi is Professor of Art History at the University of Bologna. She has published books on Guercino and art patronage in seicento Ferrara.

7. Bolognese Paintings in Seventeenth-Century Medici Collections Reconsidered (1600–75) Elena Fumagalli

Abstract Elena Fumagalli’s chapter utilizes new documentary discoveries to examine the substantial presence of Bolognese paintings in the Medici collections, also considering the long-standing relationships between various Bolognese artists and this eminent family of collectors throughout the seventeenth century. Focusing on the Medici’s ongoing struggles to acquire paintings by the Carracci, Lanfranco, Reni, Albani, and Guercino, Fumagalli provides a vivid picture of both the Medici’s taste for Bolognese paintings and the competition for such works during the seventeenth century. Keywords: Florence, Carracci, Medici, Reni, Albani, Guercino

In seventeenth-century Florence, there was considerable interest in contemporary easel paintings and mural decorations specifically from Bologna and generally from the entire Emilian region. The interest of the Medici in Bolognese painting surpassed their attention to works from Naples, Genoa, or Lombardy and contributed to creating the nucleus of their significant collection of Bolognese pictures. As recent studies have shown, the quadratura painters Angelo Michele Colonna and Agostino Mitelli had a continuing relationship with the court of the Medici grand duke and his entourage, a relation that, in the case of Colonna, lasted for thirty years.1 The two painters made their Florentine debut in 1634, together with Francesco Albani, decorating a room in the Medicean Villa di Mezzomonte owned by Prince Giovancarlo de’ Medici (Plate 9), competing against a team of Florentine artists composed of Bartolomeo Neri, Baccio del Bianco, and Giovanni da San Giovanni. The Bolognese proved superior in the execution of the architectural frame and were also assigned the task of decorating the three main rooms in the summer apartment of the Grand Duke Ferdinando II in Palazzo Pitti (1637–41). The first of these rooms had already begun to be decorated by Giovanni da San Giovanni, but work had stopped following his death in December 1636. With these initial successes, Bolognese 1 Matteucci, 1994; Raggi, 1996; Matteucci, 1997; Spinelli, 2004; Bastogi, 2006; Fumagalli, 2007; Spinelli, 2011a. Bohn, B. and R. Morselli (eds.), Reframing Seventeenth-Century Bolognese Art: Archival Discoveries, Amsterdam University Press, 2019 doi: 10.5117/9789462986336_ch07

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quadratura began to make a name for itself in Florence, giving rise to a lively local school. Colonna and Mitelli collaborated on many residences in the city and in the surrounding area, not only for various members of the Medici family (Ferdinando II and his brothers Giovancarlo and Mattias), but also for that of the Niccolini, who were closely connected to the Medici grand ducal dynasty. In 1975 an important exhibition at the Galleria degli Uffizi shed considerable light on Bolognese easel paintings, offering an extensive survey of seventeenth-century Emilian paintings in the state museums of Florence, reconstructing for the first time the history of their presence in Medici collections. The curator of the exhibition, Evelina Borea, noted at the time that the Medici acquisitions of paintings demonstrated ‘a significant discontinuity in the quality of choices, a certain insecurity in critical judgment and above all a tendency to purchase small-size works’.2 While these observations remain valid today, progress in the study of the Medici’s collecting practices allows us to explore the question further, from various perspectives. The Medici’s interest in Emilian painting manifested early on, beginning in the 1620s under Cosimo II, and continuing unabated. Among the Italian schools of the seventeenth century, the Bolognese school was the one most appreciated by contemporaries. Among the many testimonies of the time, it will suffice to cite that of Cardinal Luigi Capponi, Archbishop of Ravenna, who in a letter to Cardinal Carlo de’ Medici dated 2 September 1635, wrote: ‘all the Bolognese in painting have reached a position that no one, either among the ancients or the modern, has ever achieved.’3 The Medici’s interest in Bolognese school paintings continued unabated through the seventeenth century, although works were primarily acquired on the market rather than through direct commissions. It is particularly interesting that no altarpieces were ever commissioned from Emilian painters in Florence, in contrast to other Tuscan cities, where there were many commissions from religious orders or local figures who had come into contact with the artists. Specifically, there are altarpieces by Alessandro Tiarini (active in the Florentine workshop of Domenico Passignano between 1599 and 1606) in Pisa and in the province of Lucca and Pistoia; by Lucio Massari (who was living in Florence in 1612) at the Certosa of Galluzzo; by Guercino and Guido Reni in Siena and Lucca; and by Lanfranco in Cortona and Pistoia. In Florence, the only documented instance of such a commission was from the prelate Ottavio Corsini, but his intention of requesting paintings from Guido Reni and Guercino in 1639, to adorn the family chapel in the church of Santa Maria del Carmine, Florence, was ultimately unsuccessful.4 Direct relations between the Medici and Bolognese painters primarily involved Guido Reni, Francesco Albani, and Guercino. The young Leopoldo de’ Medici visited Reni’s workshop in 1634, Giovancarlo visited Albani’s in 1635, and the future Grand 2 Borea, 1975, xiv. 3 ASFi, MP 5263, fol. 245r. 4 Spinelli, 2011b.

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Duke Cosimo III visited that of Guercino in 1664 (and possibly also Mattias de’ Medici around 1651). There were also a number of Bolognese artists who spent varying amounts of time in Florence and had relationships with the Medici family, such as Cesare and Benedetto Gennari, the nephews of Guercino, as well as the already-mentioned Albani, Colonna, and Mitelli.5 Although the use of quadratura in large-scale decorations in Florence was certainly a result of Bolognese influence, in other respects seventeenth-century Florentine painting does not appear to have been particularly influenced by the Bolognese school. Bolognese paintings, however, were in considerable demand among Florentine collectors. The success of those works and their widespread presence on the art market led to the circulation of many copies; this helps to explain the uncertainty expressed on more than one occasion by the correspondents of the Medici in Bolog­na when they proposed paintings for purchase. Among the most active of these correspondents were the Marchese Ferdinando Cospi (1605–1686), Count Annibale Ranuzzi (1625–1697) his brother-in-law, the convent Minorite Bonaventura Bisi (1612–1662), and his nephew Giuseppe Maria Casarenghi, who was also a friar.6 For intermediaries, too, family relations were important prerequisites in acquiring one’s position. The career of Ferdinando Cospi is exemplary in this regard. His father had served the Medici, and he had been educated at the court of Cosimo II. When he returned to Bologna, he maintained close ties with all members of the Medici family. In addition to finding Bolognese works on the market and in private collections, intermediaries also played an essential role in promoting certain painters among the Medici. For example, as we shall see, Ferdinando Cospi was an enthusiastic supporter of the Gennari, Guercino’s nephews. In 1668, after the death of Agostino Mitelli, Cospi also tried to present Mitelli’s son, Giuseppe Maria, to Cosimo III, but notwithstanding Cospi’s lavish praise, the grand duke showed no interest in engaging Giuseppe Maria’s services.7 In general, Bolognese works in seventeenth-century Medici collections portray only one or two figures, often limited to heads or three-quarter-length figures, whereas large-scale paintings with numerous figures are lacking. Also noteworthy is the fact that there were many more negotiations than actual purchases. This was probably a consequence of the high prices in the Bolognese market, which were lamented by all of the Medici’s correspondents. I would now like to focus more specifically on works by the Carracci, Giovanni Lanfranco, Guido Reni, Francesco Albani, and Guercino from the beginning of the 1600s to 1675, when Leopoldo de’ Medici, one of the greatest collectors of the dynasty, 5 See below. For Guercino, see Fumagalli, forthcoming. 6 Potito, 1975; Carapelli, 1982, 1984, 1987, 1988; Fileti Mazza, 1998. 7 Barocchi and Gaeta Bertelà, 2011, I, 75–77 and n. 163. Already in 1663, Mattias de’ Medici had introduced the young Mitelli to his brother Leopoldo, who wished to see his collection of drawings (Barocchi and Gaeta Bertelà, 2007, II, 759).

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died. We might note in passing that no paintings by Domenichino ever entered the collections of the Medici family in the seventeenth century – with the exception of the so-called Self-Portrait now in the Uffizi, which was acquired in unknown circumstances8 – although in the course of the seventeenth century, significant offers were made for his drawings and cartoons.9 Indeed, the painter is barely mentioned in the Medici documents. Evidently, having spent most of his career in Rome and Naples, he was considered ‘less Bolognese’ than other painters.

The Carracci Given the number of painters who worked in the Carracci’s academy, finding works that were certainly by the hand of Ludovico, Annibale, and Agostino on the Bolognese market was a daunting task. The difficulty of finding original paintings by the Carracci is attested repeatedly in the correspondence between the Medici court and its intermediaries in Bologna. Letters discuss numerous works on the market, but there are few instances of successful purchases, other attempts failing due to the low quality of the works, the owners’ unwillingness to sell, or the excessive cost.10 As already noted by Evelina Borea, although many works are attributed to the Carracci in the Medici inventories, the attributions can be confirmed in only a few cases. It is also difficult to ascertain the connections between the paintings ascribed to the Carracci in the letters of the intermediaries with those actually purchased and described in the Medici inventories, because these works were often listed under the names of other artists. It will suffice here to mention the case of the Portrait of a Man with a Monkey (Florence, Gallerie degli Uffizi), mentioned in the inventory of the belongings of Cardinal Carlo de’ Medici in 1666 as a work by Titian instead of Annibale Carracci, to whom it is now almost unanimously attributed.11 In 1620, Cosimo II purchased on the art market for the considerable sum of 200 ducatoni a painting by Annibale Carracci with highly erotic overtones, representing Venus and a Satyr with two Cupids (Fig. 7.1). We know this from a receipt published by Gualandi,12 to which it is now possible to add an unpublished accompanying letter to Grand Duke Cosimo II, which clarifies the circumstances of the acquisition.13 The writer is Gasparo Mola, a goldsmith and medalist, then in the service of the Medici court. Mola writes that his brother-in-law, the goldsmith Michelangelo Spiga, had 8 Borea, 1975, 124, no. 93. Now identified with the Portrait of Virginio Cesarini: Whitfield, 2001, 160, 164. 9 See the correspondence with Rome in Fileti Mazza, 1998. 10 See, for example, the letters sent by Annibale Ranuzzi and Giuseppe Maria Casarenghi to Leopoldo de’ Medici, 2 August 1670 and 26 April 1672, in Filetti Mazza, 1993, I, 36; II, 879, doc. no. xx. 11 Daniele Benati, in Benati and Riccòmini, 2006, 226, no. IV.23. 12 Gualandi, 1840–45, IV, 129. 13 ASFi, MP 1395, fol. 4r.

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Fig. 7.1. Annibale Carracci, Venus and Satyr with two Cupids, Florence, Gallerie degli Uffizi, Galleria delle Statue e delle Pitture, c.1589–90.

advanced the price of the painting, to which the cost of the frame and transportation had to be added, for a total of 216 Florentine scudi. The purchase had been made in Bologna, after the intermediary had ascertained the originality of the work and declared it suited to the decor of the Medici collection (which is rather surprising, given the depiction of Venus’s naked rear).14 While in general, during the first decades of the seventeenth century, we have few written testimonies attesting to attempts to find paintings by the Carracci, such efforts increased towards mid-century, mostly due to the interest of Leopoldo de’ Medici. In the fall of 1649, on Leopoldo’s behalf, Ferdinando Cospi had identified ‘all the paintings by the Carracci on sale and at reasonable prices’,15 and was waiting in Bologna for the arrival of Vincenzo Mannozzi – a painter in the service of various members of the Medici family, who used him as a consultant, when purchasing artworks, to confirm the quality of the paintings.16 Cospi sent a long list to Leopoldo that is more of interest for the names of the collectors than for the paintings, since the latter are often mentioned generically without specifying the subjects.17 Cospi 14 Ibid.: ‘having clarified that the work is utterly original and of the most beautiful and proper manner ever adopted by that painter, and judged not to be lascivious so as to be unsuited for the Gallery of the Princes’ (‘chiaritosi che l’opera sia originalissima e poi della più bella e bona maniera che quell pittore facesse mai, e giudicata non essere in modo lasciva che per Galleria de Principi non possa comportarsi’). 15 Barocchi and Gaeta Bertelà, 2007, I, 151, n. 528 (letters of 16 and 21 October 1649). 16 Fumagalli, 2013, 28, 31–32, esp. 37, n. 25. 17 ASFi, CA XVI, fols. 303r/v–304r: Fileti Mazza, 1993, I, 34–35.

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wrote again to Leopoldo in July 1653, saying that he would buy time, as suggested, and in the meantime would go about ‘seeing and noting those [paintings] that sellers possessed’.18 Another of Leopoldo’s agents, the painter and friar Bonaventura Bisi, who corresponded with Leopoldo between 1652 and 1659, was also seeking paintings by the Carracci. In the summer of 1653, he reported on a Madonna and Child with Saint Francis by Ludovico Carracci, saying that it was particularly beautiful, but very expensive, because the proprietor, Cesare Grati, a well-known collector, had no need to sell it; the friar was disappointed that the deal could not be finalized, because he considered the painting worthy of Leopoldo’s collection.19 Though unidentified until now, from the description there is little doubt that the painting is the well-known Vision of Saint Francis now in the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam. A few months later, Bisi wrote about a Saint Francis also by Ludovico and a Saint Jerome by Agostino Carracci in the Isolani collection, noting that they lacked the prerequisites he was seeking, namely ‘exquisite beauty and modest price’.20 In 1658, Bisi proposed another painting by Ludovico, a Noli me tangere ‘of good size’, ‘good, well-preserved’, but Leopoldo does not seem to have been interested in this painting.21 Another proposal arrived in July 1658: on this occasion, Bisi proposed sending Leopoldo a Saint Mary Magdalen by Annibale. In the letter, Bisi lamented the scarcity of Annibale’s paintings in Bolog­ na, which had been ‘all taken by past papal legates’.22 We have no confirmation that the Magdalen ever arrived in Florence. It is certainly not listed in the inventories of Leopoldo’s paintings. According to Fileti Mazza, forty-five works are mentioned in connection with Annibale Carracci in the correspondence between Leopoldo and his agents in Bologna, most of them portraits and genre paintings; Ludovico Carracci is mentioned as the author of more than thirty works, mostly depicting sacred subjects.23 Also of interest is the failed attempt to acquire a Flagellation by Ludovico (now in Douai, Musée de la Chartreuse), at the time in the home of the Cavalier Castelli.24 In October 1653, Cospi and Bisi proposed this work to Leopoldo: the first noted its ‘beauty’, the second the ‘high price’ asked by the owners (1,000 ducatoni), while admitting that ‘if [Leopoldo] were to see [the painting] he would want it anyway’.25 On this occasion, Bisi expressed his hope of finding a ‘nice painting by Carracci’ for the Medici collection, knowing that Leopoldo was interested in a history painting of some importance, and not a portrait or a genre painting. In the inventory of Palaz­ zo Pitti of 1663–64, a Rebecca at the Well is attributed to Annibale; modern critics 18 ASFi, CA XVI, fol. 309r. 19 Fileti Mazza, 1993, I, 459–60; Barocchi and Gaeta Bertelà, 2007, I, 191–92 and n. 640. 20 Barocchi and Gaeta Bertelà, 2007, I, 193, n. 643. 21 Letter of 14 June 1658: Potito, 1975, 98. 22 Barocchi and Gaeta Bertelà, 2007, I, 227, n. 773. 23 Fileti Mazza, 1993, I, 39–41. 24 Borea, 1975, xix; Brogi, 2001, 119. 25 Potito, 1975, 47–48; Borea, 1975, xix. On the painting, see Gail Feigenbaum’s entry in Emiliani, 1993, 15–16.

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attribute it instead to Ludovico, but I have been unable to find any information on how it arrived in the Medici collections.26 The correspondence with Leopoldo often mentions portraits by the Carracci and small portraits (ritrattini) on parchment and other supports, of which Leopoldo de’ Medici was an assiduous collector.27 In the inventory of his belongings written after his death (1675), among the twenty paintings attributed to the Carracci, half are portraits and self-portraits of members of the Carracci; the remainder are religious works.

Giovanni Lanfranco The early purchase of a painting by Lanfranco depicting Ruggiero helping Angelica down from the Hippogriff (Fig. 7.2), sent from Rome to Grand Duke Cosimo II in 1618, exemplifies the Medici’s interest, and that of Florentine collectors in general throughout the seventeenth century, in subjects from the writings of Ariosto and Tasso.28 In 1633, Cardinal Carlo de’ Medici received a Finding of Moses (Florence, Gallerie degli Uffizi, storage), which was placed, along with other paintings, in his Casino di San Marco.29 The painting, signed ‘LANFRANCVS’, is a workshop production of which various versions are known today, and the original is now considered to be the version in the Herzog Anton Ulrich Museum, Braunschweig. This commission was most likely prompted by the desire to compare the paintings of the Bolognese school with those of the Florentine painters. This motive is suggested by the fact that, in the same year, Carlo de’ Medici paid Francesco Curradi for a painting representing Erminia among the Shepherds; the same thing happened in 1635 for a painting by Guido Reni (Bradamante and Fiordispina) and another by Cesare Dandini (Rinaldo prevents the Suicide of Armida).30 This does not seem like a casual coincidence. Rather, it is indicative of a deliberate policy, initiated during the seventeenth century, of comparing different schools of painting. We should also note that the paintings by the two Bolognese artists are not by their own hands, but workshop productions, at least in part, suggesting that the artists may not have been particularly interested in providing the Medici cardinal with entirely autograph works. Lanfranco’s name resurfaces in the correspondence of the 1670s between Leopoldo de’ Medici and Paolo Falconieri, a nobleman residing in Rome. In 1671, Falconieri reported the possibility of purchasing a painting picturing Saint Anthony and Saint 26 Barocchi and Gaeta Bertelà, 2005, II, 982, and Borea, 1975, 43, no. 31. 27 See especially the correspondence with Giuseppe Maria Casarenghi, a nephew of Bisi and himself a specialist in miniatures (Carapelli, 1982, 91–92, n. 2). For a first survey of the collection of little portraits see Meloni Trkulja, 1976. 28 Fumagalli, 2003. In 1652, it was in the Villa of Lappeggi: ASFi, MM 333/1, fol. 25r. 29 Fumagalli, 2003. 30 Florence, Gallerie degli Uffizi, storage; Fumagalli, 2001, 2011.

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Fig. 7.2. Giovanni Lanfranco, Ruggiero helping Angelica down from the Hippogriff, Urbino, Galleria Nazionale delle Marche, 1618.

Paul the Hermit, ‘half-figures by Lanfranco, by whom I think Your Highness has nothing’.31 In 1674, he wrote again to Leopoldo concerning the possible sale of the cycle of paintings by Lanfranco in the basilica of Saint Paul Outside the Walls, in Rome, which Ciro Ferri had assessed at 4,400 scudi: the Medici judged the price excessive, and no deal was made.32 In the inventories of Leopoldo’s paintings in 1663–65 and of 1675, only one work is attributed to Lanfranco, a Penitent Magdalen contemplating a Skull. Erich Schleier did not believe that this painting corresponded to the one of the same subject now in Munich (Fig. 7.3), due to the different dimensions, but he took these from Borea’s 1975 catalogue, in which these are erroneously transcribed. In fact, the dimensions indicated in the 1675 inventory correspond exactly to the measurements of the painting in 31 Fileti Mazza, 1998, 100; Barocchi and Gaeta Bertelà, 2011, I, 157–58. 32 ASFi, CA XIX, fol. 617r: Borea, 1975, 170; Fileti Mazza, 1998, 446.

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Fig. 7.3. Giovanni Lanfranco, Penitent Magdalen contemplating a Skull, Munich, Bayerische Staatsgemäldesamm­ lungen, Alte Pinakothek, c.1620–21.

Munich.33 No information has been found indicating when the painting entered Leopoldo’s collection. I wonder if the painting could be the same one listed, starting from 1652, in the inventories of Mattias de’ Medici, notwithstanding the vague description of the latter’s subject (‘a woman and a night view’), given that it too was attributed in 1652 to Lanfranco, and its proportions are very similar to those of the Magdalen.34

Guido Reni Guido Reni’s paintings were highly sought-after and very expensive throughout Europe during the seventeenth century, so the Medici encountered considerable competition with other collectors for his works. In 1618, Grand Duke Cosimo II was seeking a painting by Guido,35 probably prompted by a desire to expand his collection of Emilian paintings, as indicated also by the acquisitions of works by Lanfranco, Guercino, and Annibale Carracci, documented before 1620.36 In a 1623 list of objects found in Palazzo Pitti, a ‘head of Saint Peter’ by Reni’s hand and another attributed to him are both mentioned, and these were probably acquired by Cosimo II.37 In 1619 33 Erich Schleier (in Schleier, 2001, 214–15, no. 54) speaks of 2-1/2 ‘braccia’ by 2-1/4 ‘braccia’, but the dimensions reported in the 1675 inventory (ASFi, GM 826, fol. 61r) are 1-1/2 ‘braccio’ by 2-1/4, which corresponds to the 87.7 × 140 cm of the painting in Munich. 34 ASFi, MM 333/1, fol. 33r; GM 703, fol. 26r; MP 5869A, fol. 27r. It is always necessary to consider whether or not the inventory’s author calculated the frame. 35 Letter from Giulio Mancini to his brother Deifebo, 17 August 1618: Barocchi and Gaeta Bertelà, 2002, I, 165. 36 See above. 37 Barocchi and Gaeta Bertelà, 2005, I, 257.

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his brother, Cardinal Carlo de’ Medici, wrote to his sister Caterina Medici Gonzaga in Mantua, asking whether she would lend him a painting by Reni in order to have it copied.38 The cardinal was particularly interested in two of the four famous Labors of Hercules (Paris, Louvre), painted for Ferdinando Gonzaga, certainly also due to the subject, since Hercules was traditionally associated with the city of Florence as a model of moral and political virtue. The first direct commission from Reni from Carlo de’ Medici must have occurred a few years later, since we know that in 1629 the cardinal had to ask the Archbishop of Bologna, Ludovico Ludovisi, to urge Reni to send two paintings on which we unfortunately have no other information.39 Based on the considerable available correspondence, Reni was evidently often late in delivering commissioned paintings. Between 1633 and 1634, Carlo de’ Medici had to exhort him again to deliver a work: in this case, it was certainly the painting Bradamante and Fiordispina (Florence, Gallerie degli Uffizi, storage), part of an important cycle of works representing subjects taken from Ovid, Ariosto, and Tasso, intended to adorn the Florence residence of the cardinal.40 In June 1633, Alessandro Bentivoglio wrote to the cardinal that to obtain the painting it would be expedient to donate to the painter a golden necklace, ‘since he [Reni] says he sets no price on paintings, from what I understand’.41 Carlo de’ Medici also declared himself interested in readily available works by ‘any young pupil of Guido’.42 In this case, then, he appears to have been attracted to the style of Reni’s school, more than to any particular subject. Again, in 1643, the cardinal asked Vitale de’ Buoi ‘if in Bologna there was a head by Guido Reni’ and at what price.43 In June 1634, while the Medici cardinal was experiencing difficulty in obtaining the above works, his nephew Leopoldo, who was to become one of the greatest collectors of the family, visited Reni’s workshop along with Cardinal Giulio Sacchetti, returning to Bologna again in the fall 1639.44 Leopoldo’s acquaintance with the painter may have benefited all the members of the grand duke’s family who were interested in Reni’s works: besides the one for his uncle Carlo, two other paintings arrived in Florence in the late 1630s: a Sibyl for Giovancarlo de’ Medici (usually identified with the one previously in the Denis Mahon collection, now London, National Gallery), mentioned in 1637 as in the Medicean Villa di Mezzomonte,45 and, in February 1640, a Cleopatra for Leopoldo himself (Florence, Galleria Palatina).46 38 Fumagalli, 1994, 240–41. 39 Crinò, 1963. Later correspondence also indicates that he had asked for at least one painting by the artist when Roberto Ubaldini was papal legate in Bologna (1623–27). 40 Fumagalli, 1994,2004. 41 ASFi, MP 5209, fol. 551v, 21 June 1633. In fact, it seems that the painter wanted 100 scudi for each figure, since he was paid 200 scudi. 42 ASFi, MP 5269B, 22 April 1634. 43 Fumagalli, 1994, 242. 44 Barocchi and Gaeta Bertelà, 2007, I, 128–29, 133–34. 45 Mascalchi, 1984. 46 Fileti Mazza, 1993, I, 28, 96; II, 766–67; Barocchi and Gaeta Bertelà, 2007, I, 134–35, n. 477.

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In May 1642, a few months before Reni’s death, Mattias de’ Medici, brother of Leopoldo and Giovancarlo, received from the Marchese Ferdinando Cospi a head of Hercules, accompanied by lavish praise.47 The painting, cited in 1652 and 1669 in the inventories of the Villa di Lappeggi, Mattias’s residence (along with a ‘portrait of a child with two serpents in his hand’ also attributed to Reni), has been identified with the round painting now in Greenville, South Carolina, at the Bob Jones University Museum and Gallery.48 The painter was presented by Cospi, on behalf of the client, with ‘a silver box with inside a beautiful golden necklace of unusual appearance’, worth 140 scudi; 49 the artist was personally thanked in writing.50 Exploiting Reni’s fame and the demand for his paintings, Cospi managed to position himself as an indispensable intermediary for the acquisition of his works. Upon Reni’s death, he offered Ferdinando II de’ Medici, through Prince Leopoldo, a Presentation in the Temple, ‘a painting full of figures […] uncompleted’, initially commissioned by the archduke of Tirol, which he had secured for himself.51 We do not know which work Cospi was referring to. In any case, the grand duke did not express any interest. In 1647, the inventory of the Casino di via della Scala, the Florence residence of Giovancarlo de’ Medici, lists three paintings by Guido Reni52: a Madonna ‘with our Lord in her arms sleeping’, of problematic identification, a Hercules and the Hydra recently recovered (Fig. 7.4)53 – a large-scale work, probably painted on commission, given the traditional ‘Medicean’ subject – and the Mahon Sibyl. In the same year Leopoldo de’ Medici was called as a witness concerning a Saint Sebastian by Reni, which he had been given, and which was at the center of a dispute over the price between the parties of the previous sale.54 The first list of Leopoldo’s paintings (1663–67) includes eight works attributed to Reni, and the same works are basically confirmed by the inventory of Leopoldo’s belongings made after his death (1675):55 besides the already mentioned Cleopatra, in the state museums in Florence, there are a Head of Saint Joseph, a Head of an Old Woman, and Charity with three children.56 We do not know what happened to another Cleopatra – from the description, probably a copy of the type now in Hampton Court,57 of a Lucrezia – also 47 Crinò, 1963. 48 Barocchi and Gaeta Bertelà, 2007, I, 161, n. 558; II, 916. 49 Barocchi and Gaeta Bertelà, 2007, I, 135–36, n. 477, with an incorrect reference to the Cleopatra owned by Leopoldo de’ Medici. 50 Gaye, 1839–40, III, 546–47 (see Crinò, 1963, for the note). The letter by Guido of 30 June 1642 is connected by critics to the work done for Leopoldo. But it certainly refers to Mattias, considering that two years had gone by. 51 Crinò, 1976. 52 ASFi, P 4279, fols. 40r, 41r; Barocchi and Gaeta Bertelà, 2007, I, 415, 417–18. 53 Chiarini, 2001; Padovani, 2009. 54 Barocchi and Gaeta Bertelà, 2007, I, 151–52, n. 529; see also 2011, I, 451. 55 The only thing that is missing is a head of an Augustinian friar, found in the list of 1663–67. 56 Chiarini and Padovani, 2003, II, 325–26, 328, nos. 526, 528, 531. 57 Pepper, 1988, 266–67, no. 111. Possibly the Cleopatra by Reni donated in 1631 by Cardinal Lorenzo Magalotti to Maria Maddalena d’Austria, wife of Cosimo II (Crinò, 1963).

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Fig. 7.4. Guido Reni, Hercules and the Hydra, Florence, Gallerie degli Uffizi, Galleria delle Statue e delle Pitture, c.1636–37.

one of the many replicas of a type cited for the first time in the Patrizi inventory of 1624,58 and of a Putto lying down with a Little Bird, whose identification with a painting possibly by Giovanni Andrea Sirani in a private French collection was recently discussed by Alessandro Brogi.59 Leopoldo must have considered too expensive the Samson in the Zambeccari collection reported by the usual Cospi in 1664. Returning to the subject in 1670, Cospi noted that, ‘as for paintings on sale here [in Bologna] there is always something, but the prices are absurd’.60 58 Pepper, 1988, app. I, no. 22. 59 Brogi, 2001. 60 ASFi, CA XII, fols. 74r (29 July 1664), 255–56 (2 August 1670): Borea, 1975, 132.

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As one can see from the above survey, the preferences of the Medici collectors focused mainly on heads or individual figures by Reni. There are also other works of the same type that are cited only by name in documents from the second half of the seventeenth century; these are not always identifiable and are of unknown origin. In one of the ground-floor rooms of the grand duke’s apartment in Palazzo Pitti, two paintings are recorded in 1663, representing a half-length portrait of Saint John and a Saint Catherine Martyr (the first of uncertain attribution to Reni), but these have not been identified. We also have no information on the acquisition of David with the Head of Goliath (Florence, Gallerie degli Uffizi) cited in the inventory of Carlo de’ Medici in 1666. The fact that it was a copy of a work that is now known in more than one version brings us back to the issue already discussed, the acquisition of workshop replicas of paintings by the great Bolognese masters.

Francesco Albani Francesco Albani is the only one of the great Bolognese painters of the seventeenth century who moved to Florence, although this move failed to make him a favorite among the members of the Medici family. His name appears for the first time in August 1626, in a letter addressed to Cardinal Carlo de’ Medici by Alessandro Bentivoglio,61 who approached Albani through an intermediary, so as to remain incognito and avoid raising the prices of an already ‘very expensive’ painter. At stake were eight paintings representing the history of Adonis, four of which were almost finished, commissioned by the Duke of Mantua Ferdinando Gonzaga but evidently, according to the painter, available to other collectors (the duke died two months later). Albani was asking for 200 scudi for each painting, in addition to a payment for expensive blue pigment. He explained that the story of Adonis could be best outlined in twelve paintings, but that four could do. And indeed, four are the paintings (now in the Louvre, Paris) owned by Giovancarlo de’ Medici cited in the 1637 inventory of the Medicean Villa di Mezzomonte, and later in the Casino di via della Scala in Florence.62 These paintings were first mentioned by Francesco Scannelli,63 who however failed to identify the cycle owned by the Medici with the one commissioned by Gonzaga. It was Carlo Cesare Malvasia who wrote that Albani arrived in Florence in 1633 to ‘retouch and finish the four little paintings of Venus’ made for the duke of Mantua but sold to Giovancarlo de’ Medici.64 It remains to be clarified, however, why the 61 ASFi, MP 5194, fol. 207r. Barocchi and Gaeta Bertelà, 2005, I, 42, n. 159. 62 ASFi, P 4279, fol. 2r, fol. 39v: Puglisi, 1999, 156–57, no. 71. 63 Scannelli, 1657, 365: ‘he also painted similar subjects [to the ones made for the Savoia and Borghese] for the Serenissimi de’ Medici’ (‘dipinse pure somiglianti soggetti per i Serenissimi de’ Medici’). 64 Malvasia, 1841 [1678], II, 177. In the Medici archives, documents related to Giovancarlo always describe these paintings as the Four Elements.

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paintings mentioned to Carlo de’ Medici in 1626 eventually came into the possession of his nephew Giovancarlo: perhaps they were donated by Carlo to Giovancarlo. In any case, it was Giovancarlo who in 1634 invited Albani to Florence, entrusting him with the decoration of the ceiling of a room in the Medicean Villa di Mezzomonte (where in the meantime, the four paintings with the story of Venus and Adonis had been placed). Here, between June and September,65 the Bolognese artist painted Jupiter and Ganymede inside a quadratura framework by Angelo Michele Colonna and Agostino Mitelli (Plate 9). Malvasia seems well-informed on the situation. He describes precisely the subject in the ceiling of Mezzomonte and states that Albani was sponsored by the Marchese Filippo Niccolini, a tutor of Giovancarlo de’ Medici, and that, as a token of gratitude, the painter should donate to him ‘the very same Joseph tempted by the Adulteress, that was already found among the paintings of the grand duke’.66 The biographer is obviously referring to a second version of this work, on which we have no information. Also interesting is the statement that in 1635, Giovancarlo de’ Medici met Albani in his workshop in Bologna, asking him for some new decorations. But in response, the painter began rambling, and Giovancarlo gave up, probably realizing that the rumors in Florence about Albani’s unreliability must have been true. This report may be well founded, since in 1635 Giovancarlo went on a tour to see theatrical plays, accompanied by his uncle Lorenzo, visiting Bologna, Modena, Parma, and Venice.67 Contemporary sources confirm that Albani was expected to work along with Colonna and Mitelli, both in the ground floor apartment of Grand Duke Ferdinando II in Palazzo Pitti and in Mattias de’ Medici’s Villa di Lappeggi, but on both occasions the painter refused.68 Notwithstanding these difficulties, members of the Medici family continued to seek Albani’s work. Giovancarlo himself appears to have had in 1647, in his Casino di via della Scala, besides the four paintings with the story of Venus and Adonis, a small painting on copper, the Liberation of Saint Peter from Prison.69 Only in a list of paintings on sale in 1663, immediately after his death, is the tondo format of the work specified,70 which allows us to identify it with certainty as the one that passed into Leopoldo’s collection and is now in the Galleria Palatina.71 One should note, however, that in the Uffizi there is an identical panel painting with a rectangular format, mentioned in the early eighteenth century as in the collection of the Grand Prince Ferdinando de’ Medici.72 Two versions of the same subject are found also in the case of Albani’s Rape of Europa, one on canvas (Fig. 7.5) and a smaller one on copper 65 Poggi, 1910; Raggi, 1996, 441; Spinelli, 2011a, 19–23. 66 Malvasia, 1841 [1678], II, 177. 67 Villani, 2009, 70. 68 Leoncini, 1984, 315–16. 69 ASFi, P 4279, fol. 46v. 70 ASFi, Carte Strozziane, 1st ser., fol. 11v. 71 ASFi, GM 826, fol. 91v. See also Chiarini and Padovani, 2003, II, 25, no. 14 (as Albani workshop). 72 Borea, 1975, 108–9, no. 81; Puglisi, 1999, 139.

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Fig. 7.5. Francesco Albani, Rape of Europa, Florence, Gallerie degli Uffizi, storage, c.1638–39.

(both Florence, Gallerie degli Uffizi, storage).73 As far as we know,74 in the fall of 1639, Leopoldo de’ Medici had visited Bologna and had made arrangements with Ferdinando Cospi. On 1 November, Cospi wrote to him that, as agreed, he intended to commission from Albani a painting of the grand duke, that is, of Ferdinando II. In fact, the work, representing Europa, was not purchased directly from the painter but from some unidentified gentlemen (‘cavalieri’), possibly the Oddi of Perugia, who were mentioned by Cospi in another letter.75 It is difficult therefore to understand why Albani declared himself unhappy with the transaction, saying that he would have expected to receive from the grand duke twice the amount paid (100 piastre) by the gentlemen. From the correspondence between the Medici court and Cospi, we learn that the painting had been in Albani’s workshop for a long time, and several copies of it had been made. Of these, one in small format is mentioned as having been sent to the grand duke in Tuscany (probably the version on copper in the Uffizi).76 The 73 Borea, 1975, 102–4, nos. 75–76; Puglisi, 1999, 170–71. 74 Fileti Mazza, 1993, I, 96–97. 75 ASFi, CA XVI, fol. 300r/v (17 January 1640): Fileti Mazza, 1993, II, 857. 76 Cospi also owned a painting of the same subject (Legati, 1677, 515).

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canvas commissioned from Albani may have been the Europa listed in the inventory of Palazzo Pitti in 1663 with no mention of the author.77 In 1649, Ulisse Bentivoglio wrote to Cardinal Carlo de’ Medici that he had tried to find ‘some paintings by Albani done in a not too modern manner’, but had found nothing.78 Vittoria della Rovere, too, showed an interest in Albani.79 In 1659, his secretary Alessandro de’ Cerchi asked Cospi to find two works ‘by Guercino or Albano’, specifying the dimensions precisely. Both sacred and secular subjects were acceptable to the grand duchess, so long as the stories were ‘merry as well as proper’. Cospi recommended two ‘drafts’ Albani had in his workshop, although their dimensions differed from those recommended (the frames would compensate), representing respectively a Rest on the Flight into Egypt and two Custodian Angels, mentioning more than once the delight of the aged artist in being given the opportunity to work once again for a member of the Medici family. It was promised that in each painting about ten ‘small figures’ would be present. This observation in Cospi’s correspondence may be indicative of one of the attractions of Albani’s work, which usually had landscapes in the background. The price was also negotiated by Cospi and settled initially at the sizeable sum of 300 scudi for both paintings, later lowered to 200. The description of the Rest confirms its identification with the one now in the storage of the Gallerie degli Uffizi,80 whereas all trace has been lost of the Custodian Angels. After the delivery, Cospi lamented the fact that the latter work had been painted when the painter was already old, whereas the previous one had begun to be painted earlier on and was of better quality. In Albani’s case, the Medici’s preference for small-scale works with religious subjects is confirmed by other instances. In the list of paintings belonging to Leopoldo de’ Medici (1663–67) there is a Virgin washing clothes with Saint Joseph, whose attribution was corrected in a later inventory of the early eighteenth century in favor of Lucio Massari.81 Among the works left by Vittoria della Rovere upon her death (1692) is a Holy Family with Two Angels, now in Palazzo Pitti.82

Guercino The relationship between Guercino and the Medici began early in the artist’s career. In a letter dated 7 December 1617, Antonio Mirandola, protector of the young artist, wrote to the Marchese Enzo Bentivoglio that Guercino was unable to offer him his 77 Barocchi and Gaeta Bertelà, 2005, II, 940. The dimensions are identical. 78 ASFi, MP 5229, fol. 267r, 24 April 1649. 79 Gualandi, 1844–56, II, 202–28. 80 Inv. 1890, no. 1341. 81 Biblioteca Riccardiana di Firenze, MS 2443, fol. 12r (1663–67): Borea, 1975, 85–87, no. 65. 82 Borea, 1975, 107, no. 79.

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services on a regular basis, due to his numerous previous commitments to various clients, including the grand duke of Tuscany.83 The latter reference has been associated with the Apollo and Marsyas now in the Galleria Palatina in Florence (mentioned for the first time in an inventory of 1638), which Carlo Cesare Malvasia, in his Life of Guercino, dates to 1618.84 Since no documents have been found referring to a commission from Cosimo II to Guercino, it is possible that the painting arrived in the grand duke’s collection through the mediation of Cardinal Carlo de’ Medici, who was in Ferrara in the spring of 1617, or through one of the many agents of the Medici in the area, starting with Bentivoglio himself.85 It was in the 1640s and 1650s that most of Guercino’s works as well as those of his relatives, the Gennari, entered the collections of the most important members of the Medici family. The paintings were mostly heads and half-length figures, which were very popular among private collectors. In this regard, it is useful to distinguish between paintings that arrived as gifts and those that were directly commissioned. Many of the gifts involved Giovancarlo de’ Medici, to whom in 1639 the papal legate, Ciriaco Rocci, sent a Magdalen and a head of Saint Paul by Barbieri. Both works are documented in the Libro dei conti (Account book) and by Malvasia,86 but their later whereabouts are difficult to ascertain because of the dispersal of Giovancarlo’s collection after his death. Guercino’s Saint Sebastian (Florence, Galleria Palatina) was also a gift, offered to Giovancarlo in 1653 through the Florentine Cardinal Francesco Maria Machiavelli, then bishop of Ferrara. The idea of donating a painting by Guercino to the Cardinal de’ Medici came from the abbot of the convent of Santa Maria degli Angeli in Florence. The abbot asked a friar to secure the painting, and the friar had asked for Machiavelli’s help. The only direct commission from Giovancarlo was for Guercino’s Rape of Helen in 1645, one of the rare cases, among the Medici, in which the commission concerned an ‘istoria’ and not an individual figure. Work on the painting – which was probably never finished – was followed in Bologna by Giovanni Alfonso Puccinelli (1606–1658), an important member of the Canonici Regolari order, of which he had just become General. He had commissioned two altarpieces from Guercino for the church of Santa Maria Forisportam in Lucca.87 In September 1645,88 Puccinelli wrote to Cardinal Giovancarlo that the painting would cost more than what had been agreed upon, because the subject called for a sizeable number of full figures. Furthermore, the 83 Bagni, 1984, 6–7. 84 Malvasia, 1841 [1678], II, 259. 85 Fumagalli, forthcoming. 86 Ghelfi, 1997, 96–97, nos. 195 and 198; Malvasia, 1841 [1678], II, 264. A ‘Maddalena nel deserto’ (‘Magdalen in the desert’) by Guercino is described in the inventory of the Casino of via della Scala in 1647 (ASFi, P 4279, fol. 40r). 87 Malagutti, 2015. 88 Barocchi and Gaeta Bertelà, 2007, I, 39.

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Fig. 7.6. Guercino, Hercules, Cerreto Guidi, Museo Storico della Caccia e del Territorio, 1645.

painter intended to set it at night and Puccinelli, doubting that this ‘caprice’ would suit the client, had put the work on hold. It seems likely that work was never resumed. The 1640s were an intense period in the relationship between Guercino and the Medici. In 1645, Cardinal Carlo asked the artist for a half-length figure of Hercules (Fig. 7.6), while his brother Lorenzo asked for an Atlas (Florence, Museo Bardini) in 1646 and an Endymion (whose identification remains uncertain) in 1647.89 In all of these cases, the works were half-length paintings of single figures, which, in line with Guercino’s ‘fixed prices’, cost around 70 scudi each. Mattias de’ Medici, too, acquired a Madonna from Guercino in 1647.90 Furthermore, according to Malvasia, in 1651, Mattias visited the workshop of the painter and, having been struck by a Cumaean Sibyl, managed to acquire it, although it had been 89 De Benedictis, 2012; Fumagalli, forthcoming. 90 ASFi, MP 5448, fol. 398r: Barocchi and Gaeta Bertelà, 2007, I, 157.

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painted for another collector.91 The painting, formerly in the collection of Sir Denis Mahon and now in the National Gallery in London, is one of the most sophisticated examples of Guercino’s late style. It is also significant, on the other hand, that already in sixteenth-century inventories of the Villa di Lappeggi, the author’s name was lost. 92 For this reason, scholars have not previously identified it.93 The work was soon lost and did not remain part of the Medici patrimony for long. Beginning in the 1640s, the Medici’s collections began to be enriched with paintings by members of the Gennari family, who were relatives of Guercino and very active in his workshop. They too were supported by Ferdinando Cospi. Cospi first introduced Bartolomeo and Ercole Gennari, commissioning from them in 1648, on behalf of Carlo de’ Medici, two heads to be made ‘in competition […] with the assistance of their master [Guercino], even though they too are masters, being men of 40 years of age’.94 In the same letter, Cospi praised the quality of their work: ‘It seems to me they work extremely well’. Before the end of 1652, Giovancarlo de’ Medici received a Samian Sibyl (Fig. 7.7), copied from an original by Guercino now in the collection of the Fondazione Cassa di Risparmio di Bologna.95 According to the Medici’s correspondent Callisto Puccinelli (certainly a relative of Giovanni Alfonso Puccinelli, noted above), the painting was made by Bartolomeo Gennari, while Guercino had touched up the flesh tones.96 Later, starting in the 1660s, Cospi sponsored Benedetto and Cesare Gennari, sons of Bartolomeo. In 1660, Benedetto Gennari painted for Carlo de’ Medici a David with the Head of Goliath (Florence, Galleria Palatina), copied from Guercino’s original (Tokyo, National Museum of Western Art, c.1650), and the cardinal declared himself very happy with the result.97 Evidently, the growing demand for Guercino’s works encouraged the production of replicas in his workshop, to which the master gave the last touch while the intermediaries guaranteed the quality of the final product. It was probably Cospi who organized Benedetto and Cesare Gennari’s trip to Florence in 1663, when they were introduced to Leopoldo de’ Medici.98 Knowing what a great collector Leopoldo was, Cospi was probably hoping that the two painters would establish a stable relationship with him. The shipment of a work accompanied by a letter from Cesare Gennari in 1674 suggests that they must indeed have tried to do so. 99 However, the name of 91 Malvasia, 1841 [1678], II, 378: Barocchi and Gaeta Bertelà, 2007, I, 158, n. 544. 92 ASFi, MM 333/1, fol. 17r (1652); ASFi, GM 703, fol. 64v (1659); ASFi, GM 779ter, fol 38r (1669). 93 Finaldi and Kitson, 1997, 110, no. 48. 94 ASFi, MP 5229, fol. 83r, 15 August 1648: Fumagalli, 2001, 254; Barocchi and Gaeta Bertelà, 2005, I, 148, n. 547. 95 Salerno, 1983; Denis Mahon, in Mahon, 1991, 354, no. 136. 96 ASFi, MP 5333, fols. 3r–4r. Partially transcribed by Barocchi and Gaeta Bertelà, 2007, I, 71, n. 235, without comment about the paintings. Salerno, 1988, 356. Turner, 2017, 688, no. 400.I, considers the painting autograph. Fumagalli, forthcoming. 97 Fumagalli, 2001, 254; forthcoming; Turner, 2017, 668. 98 Barocchi and Gaeta Bertelà, 2007, II, 764. 99 Barocchi and Gaeta Bertelà, 2011, I, 155–56, n. 356.

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Fig. 7.7. Bartolomeo Gennari, Samian Sybil, Florence, Gallerie degli Uffizi, storage, 1652.

Gennari does not appear in the inventories of the Medici, confirming that all the production of Guercino’s workshop went under the name of the master. In the first list of Leopoldo’s paintings (1663–67), five paintings by Guercino are cited: the self-portrait, which arrived in Florence in 1664 accompanied by a letter from Guercino himself,100 a Madonna and Child (Florence, Galleria Palatina) a Saint Paul, a half-length Saint Jacob, and a Putto with a Skull donated by Bonaventura Bisi. To these, in the inventory of 1675, a Saint Peter with a key in his left hand was added, painted ‘by Guercino in his second manner’ (Florence, Gallerie degli Uffizi, storage)101 and a Young Saint John, all traces of which have been lost.

100 Borea, 1975, 195, no. 142. 101 Barocchi and Gaeta Bertelà, 2011, I, 188, n. 135.

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In conclusion, we can say that until 1675, despite their strong interest in Bolognese painting, few masterpieces by the major Emilian painters entered the Medici collections. Although there were many negotiations by their agents in Bologna, these transactions often failed, due to the excessive cost of the works, to their quality not being up to the standards of the Medici’s collections, or to the difficulty of ascertaining the paintings’ originality. Most Bolognese works were obtained on the market or as gifts rather than through direct commissions. Preference was usually given to single figures, whose format varied between the ‘head’ and the ‘three quarters’, probably because these were the types of pictures best suited to the market.

About the author Elena Fumagalli is Professor of Art History at the University of Modena and Reggio Emilia. She has published widely, particularly on Florentine seventeenth-century art, most recently co-authoring, with Raffaella Morselli, The Court Artist in Seventeenth-Century Italy.

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Index Abecedario pittorico: 21 Accademia Clementina: 18 and Albani’s letters: 31 founder of: 30 honorary members of: 17, 19 Accademia del Disegno: 18 account ledgers: 25 Albani’s: 33, 42 Barbieri’s: 155 Caccioli’s: 113 Franceschini’s: 25 Guercino’s: 20, 24–25, 99 Aggiunta: 15 Agnesini, Francesco: 101, 104, 106–08 Madonna and Child: 104 Mincio: 104 Triton: 104 Aimondi, Piero: 97 Albani, Domenico: 42n48 Albani, Francesco: 17 Albicini collection: 119, 121–24, 130 death of: 49–50 drawings by: 38 family of: 42n48 Florence: 151–52 Gonzaga collection: 99 ledger of: 33, 42 in Mantua: 96 Medici collections: 140–41, 151–54 portrait of: 35, 36 receipts by: 41 Albani, Francesco, letters of (persons) Algardi: 36 Bonini: 26, 32, 36–37, 40–49 Canuti: 26, 36–37, 39–40 Caravaggio: 39 Carracci, Annibale: 32, 37, 39, 44–47, 49 Cignani: 43, 48 Cortona: 40 Domenichino: 32, 39 Lanfranco: 32, 39 Lomellini: 43–44 Malvasia: 26–35, 39, 42, 44, 46n61, 49 Preti: 39 Raphael: 37–39, 45 Rosa: 47–48 Sacchi: 35–36, 40, 44 Taruffi: 36, 48 Zanotti: 30–31 Albani, Francesco, letters of (subjects) camels: 37 classicism: 33, 44 Flight into Egypt: 37 Life of Saint Andrew: 39, 40 Logge, Stanze: 37–38 memory: 37 naturalists: 39–40

old age: 46–49 painting, oval: 47–48 palm trunks: 37, 40 processions: 49 Saint Margaret: 44 teaching: 42 Albani, Francesco, works by Custodian Angels: 154 Expulsion of Aeneas from Troy: 42, 43 Flight into Egypt: 123–24 Jupiter and Ganymede: 152 Liberation of Saint Peter: 152 Magdalen: 45 Noli me tangere: 34 Rape of Europa: 152–53 Rest on the Flight into Egypt: 154 Self-Portrait: 43 Trinity: 121, 124 Albicini, Andrea: 123, 125–27, 129 Albicini, Giuseppe: 118–19, 125, 133 Albicini collection: 26, 118–19 chapel: 119 contracts: 121–23 correspondence on: 26, 118–23, 125, 127–29 inventories: 118, 123–24, 127, 129 prices, costs: 119–22, 123, 125–30 receipts: 118, 125, 126, 129 Albicini collections, artists involved with Albani: 119, 121–24, 130 Ambrogi: 125 Cagnacci: 26, 119, 125 Canuti: 119, 127–29, 135–36 Cavedoni: 119–20, 130–32 Cignani: 118n3, 119, 125–27 Gessi: 119–20, 130–31 Massari: 119, 121–23, 125, 130–32, 137 Pasinelli: 119, 129 Pronti: 119, 127, 135 Spisanelli (Pisani): 120 Taruffi: 129–30 Zaccarini: 127 Aldrovandi books of: 97 diagrams: 26, 51n1 Aldrovandi, Filippo Maria: 68 Aldrovandi, Pompeo: 54n9 Algardi, Alessandro: 19, 36, 40, 45, 96, 104 Algarotti, Francesco: 118, 126 Ambrogi, Domenico: 125 Saint John the Baptist Preaching: 125 Angelelli, Angelo: 114 Annibale Carracci see Carracci, Annibale Antonio, Giacomo: 54n9 Antonio da Parma: 119, 121 Appartamento del Giardino Segreto: 106–07 appartamento nobile: 53

174  Archiginnasio: 15n6, 17, 19, 24, 25, 29n1, 34n17, 46n62, 47n63 Arfelli, Adriana: 15 and the Felsina pittrice: 23–24 Ariosto, Ludovico: 145, 148 Arlecchino: 105 Armella, Ludovico: 108n65 art history see historiography, trends in Asiani, Ludovico: 102–03 Bagno, Guidi di: 115 Bamboccianti: 35 baptismal records: 16–17 Barberini, Antonio: 36, 44, 105, 113, 155 Barbieri, Giovan Francesco: 98n17, 99n19 Barbieri-Gennari archive: 20 Bargellini, Vincenzo Maria: 119–20, 122–23, 130 Barocci, Federico: 60, 64 Bassano di Sutri: 35, 45n58 Bassi, Gaspare: 68 Bellori, Giovanni Pietro: 32, 33, 34, 36, 44, 48 Bentivoglio, Alessandro: 148, 151 Bentivoglio, Enzo: 154–55 Bentivoglio, Ulisse: 154 Bertoldo, Bertoldino, e Cacasenno: 57 Bertolotti, Antonino: 21–22 Bertusi (Bertusio), Giovanni Battista: 20, 119 Berzaghi, Renato: 96 Bettini, Domenico: 54 Bianchi, Baldassarre Gonzaga collection: 101, 104–05 Palazzo Canossa: 113 Bianchi, Giovan Battista: 111 Bianchi, Lucrezia: 79n16, 91 Bianco, Baccio del: 139 Bibiena, Ferdinando: 55–56, 116 Bibiena, Francesco: 116 biographies by Crespi: 18 by Giordani: 22 by Malvasia: 16–17, 74, 76, 155 by Oretti: 19–20 by Zanotti: 18 Bisi, Bonaventura: 141, 144, 158 Boehn, Max von: 23 Bologna perlustrata: 14–15 Bolognini, Anna: 79 Bolognini, Giacomo: 98 Bolognini, Giovanni (Giovan) Battista Bacchus and Ariadne on Naxos: 98 Death of Adonis: 97 Gonzaga collection: 97–98, 114 Massacre of the Innocents: 98 Sibyl: 97–98 and Sirani’s paintings: 79 Bolognini-Amorini, Antonio: 22, 105 Bombasi, Gabriele: 44, 45 Bonaccorsi, Bartolomeo: 97 Bonesi, Pellegrino: 96 Bonfait, Olivier: 25, 67n39, 75

REFR AMING SEVENTEENTH- CENTURY BOLOGNESE ART

Bonini, Girolamo and Albani: 26, 32, 36–37, 40–49 portrait of Albani by: 43 Borboni, Matteo: 79 Borea, Evelina: 34, 140, 142 Boschi, Valerio: 79 Bottari, Giovanni Gaetano: 18 and Albani’s letters: 31 Bozzolo: 105 Brizio, Filippo: 60, 92, 122 Brizio, Francesco Fantuzzi collection: 64 in Mantua: 96 Musicians: 60, 64 Brogi, Alessandro: 150 Brunelli, Gabriele Gonzaga collection: 106–09, 110, 112 Palazzo Canossa: 109–13 Brusasorci: 60, 61, 63 Buffagnotti, Carlo Antonio: 55, 57 Buoi, Vitale de’: 148 Caccioli, Giovanni Battista: 105, 112–14 Christ, San Biagio: 113 ledger of: 113 Cagnacci, Guido: 26, 119, 125 Head of a Blind Boy: 125 Head of Saint Bernardino: 125 Saint Andrew: 125–26 Virgin of the Rose: 125 calendars Bologna perlustrata: 14 Calvaert, Denys: 60, 64 Calvi, Alessandro: 20, 21 Calza, Antonio: 55 Campana, Giacinto: 34 God the Father: 34 Campori, Giuseppe: 21–22 Canossa, Orazio: 109–10, 112–13 Canti-Balabrò paintings: 100 Cantofoli, Ginevra: 27, 79n16, 85–93 attributions: 85–89 in inventories: 87 Malvasia on: 79n16 Cantofoli, Ginevra, works by Allegory of Vanity: 89–90 Immaculate Conception: 85–87, 89 Last Supper: 86 Saint Thomas of Villanova: 85–87, 89 Sant’Apollonia: 87 Self-Portrait as the Allegory of Painting: 87–88 Canuti, Domenico Maria and Albani: 26, 36–37, 39–40 Albicini collection: 119, 127–29, 135–36 Fantuzzi collection: 60, 63, 64 Gonzaga collection: 101–02, 103–05 and Scarfaglia: 80, 82 Canuti, Domenico Maria, works by Abundance: 127–29 Jacob’s Ladder: 60, 64

175

Index

Capponi, Luigi: 140 Caprara, Lodovico Montefani: 17 Caravaggio: 34, 39, 44 Carlo, Giuseppe: 68 Carracci, Agostino: 37, 144 Fantuzzi collection: 60, 66, 67 Carracci, Annibale: 23, 26, 39 and Albani: 32, 37, 39, 44–47, 49 and dal Po: 45–46 Gonzaga collection: 97 Medici collections: 142–44, 147 Carracci, Annibale, works by Diana and Endymion: 46, 47 Portrait of a Man with a Monkey: 142 Rebecca at the Well: 144–45 Saint Margaret: 44 Saint Mary Magdalen: 144 Venus and a Satyr: 142–43 Carracci, Ludovico: 23, 49 Fantuzzi collection: 60, 64 Medici collections: 144–45 Carracci, Ludovico, works by Child Sleeping on a Cross: 60, 64 Flagellation: 144 Madonna: 60, 64 Noli me tangere: 144 Vision of Saint Francis: 144 Carrati, Baldassare Antonio Maria: 17, 80n18, 92n47 Casa del Giardiniere: 106–07 Casarenghi, Giuseppe Maria: 141, 142n10, 145n27 Casino di via della Scala: 149, 151–52 Cassano d’Adda: 125 Castelli, Orsina: 67 catalogues see inventories Cavazzoni, Francesco: 14n1, 16 Cavedoni, Giacomo Albicini collection: 119–20, 130–32 Baptism of Christ: 120 Fantuzzi collection: 55, 60, 63 pricing: 120 Cavriani family: 115 Cerchi, Alessandro de’: 154 Certosa: 15, 18, 18–19, 103, 140 Ceschi, Orazio: 87 Christina of Sweden, Queen: 118 church records see baptismal records; death records Cignani, Carlo: 26, 91, 114 and Albani: 43, 48 Albicini collection: 118n3, 119, 125–27 Fantuzzi collection: 59, 60, 64–65 Cignani, Carlo, works by Dawn: 125–27 Joseph and Potiphar’s Wife: 60, 64–65 Martyrdom of Saint Andrew: 125, 127 Cignani, Filippo: 124n24 Cignani, Pompeo: 30n2 classicism: 33, 44 collecting documents: 20–22 see also Fantuzzi collection collecting women’s art: 74, 77–78 interest, disproportionate: 74

Sirani, effect of, on: 76–77, 79, 92–93 social status of collectors: 78 see also women artists collections: 78–82, 84 Florence: 141, 143, 147 see also Albicini collection; Fantuzzi collection; Gonzaga Nevers collection; Grimaldi collection; Medici collections Colonna, Angelo Michele: 19, 34, 127 Medici collections: 139–41, 152 Colonna, Girolamo: 44 contracts Albicini collection: 121–23 Gonzaga collection: 100–101, 107–08 Coralli, Giulio: 114 Cordini, Francesco: 47 Coriolani, Bartolomeo: 92n47 Coriolani, Teresa: 79, 91, 92n47 correspondences see Albani, Francesco, letters of (persons); letters Corsini, Ottavio: 140 Cortona, Pietro da: 32, 40, 44, 140 Cospi, Ferdinando: 141, 143–44, 149–50, 153–54, 157 Crespi, Giuseppe Maria: 15, 18 Crespi, Luigi: 15, 18, 20–21, 74, 79 and Albani’s letters: 31 on the Marmirolo Villa: 104 reception of: 18–19 on women artists: 80, 85, 91, 92n47 Croce, Giulio Cesare: 57 Cropper, Elizabeth: 16, 24 Curradi, Francesco: 145 dal Po, Pietro: 45–46 dal Sole, Giovan Gioseffo: 19 Fantuzzi collection: 54n12, 59, 60, 63 Holy Family: 60, 63 Dandini, Cesare: 145 Davia, Virgilio: 48 death records: 17 and Oretti: 20 Descrizione delle Pitture: 84–85 diagrams see Fantuzzi collection Dinarelli, Giuliano: 60, 64 Discourse on Sacred and Profane Images: 55 Domenichino: 23, 45n59, 96 Albani’s letters: 32, 33, 39 in Mantua: 96 Medici collections: 142 Self-Portrait: 142 Stories of Saint Andrew: 39, 40 Donducci, Andrea: 115 Donzelli, Marcantonio: 114 Donzelli, Pietro: 114 Emilian art: 95, 115, 139–40 Emiliani, Andrea: 23 Enggass, Catherine: 24 Enggass, Robert: 24 exedra: 106–07

176  Fabri, Vincenza: 79n16, 85n32, 91 Falconieri, Paolo: 145 Fantuzzi, Francesco: 52, 55 Fantuzzi, Giovanni: 14, 53, 54–56, 59, 61–62, 66, 68, 69 Fantuzzi, Giovanni (grandson): 69–70 Fantuzzi, Scipione: 53n6, 67 Fantuzzi collection: 26, 51–52, 69–70 comparisons: 68 diagrams: 51, 53, 56–58, 60–64 drawings, display of: 68 framing costs: 59, 60–61 frescoes: 54, 55 identification of: 65 inventories: 54, 55–56, 60–62, 67–69 prices, costs: 52, 53, 54, 60–61, 66 quadratura: 54, 55 receipts: 52, 54, 59, 60–63, 66–67 religious subjects: 55, 59, 60–62, 65 valuations: 51–52, 60–61, 67–68 Fantuzzi collection, artists: 60–61 Brizio: 64 Canuti: 60, 63, 64 Carracci, Agostino: 60, 66, 67 Carracci, Ludovico: 60, 64 Cavedoni: 55, 60, 63 Cignani: 59, 60, 64–65 dal Sole: 54n12, 59, 60, 63 Fontana: 56, 60, 63, 65 Franceschini: 56–57 Garofalo: 59, 63 Gennari: 56, 60, 64 Gessi: 55, 60, 63 Guercino: 55, 60, 64 Palma: 60, 63–64, 67 Parmigianino: 61, 63–64 Pasinelli: 61, 63–67 Reni: 55, 60–61, 63–65, 70 Samacchini: 55, 61, 63 Sirani, Elisabetta: 55, 61–63, 66, 67, 69, 70 Sirani, Giovanni Andrea: 60, 62, 63 Torri: 61, 62n24, 63 Fantuzzi family: 52–53 Farnese, Odoardo: 39 Farnese, Palazzo see Palazzo Farnese Farnese, Ranuccio: 44, 118 Farnese chapel: 39 Felsina pittrice: 15–16, 25, 29, 31, 52, 123 additions to: 24 Crespi, third volume by: 18–19, 20 English edition of: 24 Giordani, edited by: 22–23 notes on: 21 on Scarfaglia: 80 on Sirani: 76, 86 Feriani, Giacomo: 116 Ferraiuoli, Nuncio: 54, 55 Ferri, Ciro: 146 Florence: 18, 30, 40, 98, 114, 125, 139–45, 148–53, 155–58 Accademia del Disegno: 18 collectors: 141, 143, 147 Fontana, Domenico Maria: 92

REFR AMING SEVENTEENTH- CENTURY BOLOGNESE ART

Fontana, Lavinia: 27, 74, 75n5, 93 Fantuzzi collection: 56, 60, 63, 65 in inventories: 77–79, 84–85 Portrait of a Lady with a Dog: 60, 63, 65 Fontana, Veronica: 79n16, 85n34, 92 Forni, Carlo: 80 fountains: 102, 104, 106–08 frames, gilt: 49, 52, 69 costs: 59, 66 Franceschini, Marcantonio: 15 account ledger: 25 Fantuzzi collection: 56–57 Sleeping Cupid: 56 Franchi, Veronica: 79n16 Francia, Francesco: 55 frescoes Aurora: 115 Caccioli: 113–14 Crucifixion of Saint Andrew: 41 Diana and Endymion: 47 Fantuzzi collection: 54, 55 God the Father: 34 Gonzaga collection: 103 Marmirolo Villa: 95, 101–04 Palazzo Ducale: 96 Saint Cecilia: 39 Stories of Saint Andrew: 39, 40 Ulysses: 42 Friedländer, Walter: 23 fruit houses: 106 furnishings: 66–67 Gabburri, Maria Nicolò: 30 Gallantini, Francesco: 110 Galleria degli Specchi: 96 Galleria degli Uffizi: 140 Galli, Maria Oriana: 15, 79n16, 91 Gambarini, Giuseppe: 54 Garbieri, Lorenzo: 96 Garofalo: 59 Madonna and Saint Roch: 60, 63 Gatti, Antonio: 96 Gazzini, Tommaso: 114 Geffels, Frans: 104 Gennari, Bartolomeo: 157 Samian Sibyl: 157–58 Gennari, Benedetto: 24, 141, 157 David with the Head of Goliath: 157 Gennari, Cesare: 54n9 Fantuzzi collection: 56, 60, 64 Madonna and Child: 60, 64 Medici collections: 141, 157 Gennari, Ercole: 99, 157 Gessi, Giovan Francesco Albicini collection: 119–20, 130–31 Death of Saint Joseph: 119–20 Fantuzzi collection: 55, 60, 63 in Mantua: 96 Ghirardacci, Cherubino: 14 Ghisilieri, Ettore: 36 Giani, Felice: 127 Giordani, Gaetano: 22–23

177

Index

Giudici, Corinna: 118 Giustiniani, Benedetto: 35 Gonzaga, Ferdinando Carlo: 96, 97, 104–05, 114, 148, 151 Gonzaga Nevers, Carlo I: 96 Gonzaga Nevers, Carlo II: 96–106 Gonzaga Nevers collection: 27, 96–97 contracts: 100–101, 107–08 exedra: 106–07 fountains: 102, 104, 106–08 fruit houses: 106 inventories: 97–98, 105–06 Loggia di Davide: 107 Maderno: 106, 108–09 Palazzo Te: 106–07 prices, costs: 97–101, 103, 107, 109–10 quadratura: 101 receipts: 113 sculptures: 106–8 Villa Marmirolo: 95, 101–05, 112 Gonzaga Nevers collection, artists involved with Agnesini: 101, 104, 106–08 Albani: 99 Bianchi: 101, 104–05 Bolognini: 97–98, 114 Brunelli: 106–09, 110, 112 Canuti: 101–02, 103–05 Carracci, Annibale: 97 Coralli: 114 Donzelli: 114 Gazzini: 114 Guercino: 98–99 Magni: 99–100, 106 Monti: 96, 101, 104–05 Pasinelli: 101–02 Reni: 97–98, 112, 126, 130–32 Santi: 98–99, 101, 103 Sebregond: 106–07 Seghizzi: 96, 101, 103, 105 Sirani, Giovanni Andrea: 99–100 Tomezzoli: 107–09 Vandi, Carlo: 114–15 Vandi, Sante: 114 Villa: 101, 103–04 Gonzaga Nevers family: 95–96 Gori, Mariacristina: 119, 129 Grati, Cesare: 144 Gratti, Giovanni Battista: 54 Grimaldi collection: 80–81 Grottaferrata: 39 Gualandi, Michelangelo: 21–22, 142 Guastalla, Anna Isabella di: 97 Guercino: 19, 21, 23, 32, 49 Albicini collection: 130, 132 clients of: 25 di Bagno inventory: 115 Fantuzzi collection: 55, 60, 64 Gonzaga collection: 98–99 ledger of: 20, 24–25, 99 Medici collections: 140–41, 147, 154–58 Guercino, works by Apollo and Marsyas: 155 Atlas: 156

Cumaean Sibyl: 156–57 Endymion: 156 Flagellation: 60, 64 Hercules: 156 Lot and his Daughters: 98–99 Madonna: 156 Madonna and Child: 158 Mary Magdalenen: 64 Putto with a Skull: 158 Rape of Helen: 155 Saint Jacob: 158 Saint Paul: 158 Saint Peter: 158 Saint Sebastian: 155 Samson and Delilah: 98–99 Tancred and Erminia: 98–99 Young Saint John: 158 Guida spirituale, La: 14 guidebooks Bologna perlustrata: 14 Guidicini, Guiseppe: 22 Hercolani, Filippo: 20–21, 24 Herrera chapel: 35 historiography, trends in collecting, history of: 25–26 documents, emphasis on: 23–25 intermediaries: 141 Bargellini: 119–20, 122–23, 130 Bentivoglio: 148, 151 Bisi: 141, 144, 158 Bonaccorsi: 97 Cospi: 141, 143–44, 149–50, 153–54, 157 Geffels: 104 Magni: 99–100, 106 Mannozzi: 143 Orsi: 127–30, 135–36 Ranuzzi: 141, 142n10 Van den Dijck: 102–04, 109 inventories: 22, 25–27, 67–69 Albicini collection: 118, 123–24, 127, 129 Cantofoli in: 87 di Bagno: 115 Fantuzzi collection: 51–54, 55–56, 60–62, 67–69 Fontana in: 77–79, 84–85 Gonzaga collection: 97–98, 105–06 Medici collections: 27, 142, 144–47, 149, 151, 154–58 Scarfaglia in: 80–84 Sirani in: 77–79 women artists in: 73–82, 87 inventories, legal: 25 invoices: 110, 113, 115n85 Julius II, Pope: 52 L’Occaso, Stefano: 96 lacquerware: 66 Ladislaw IV, King of Poland: 34 Lamo, Pietro: 14 Lanfranco, Giovanni: 45n59, 140

178  and Albani: 32, 39 Finding of Moses: 145 Medici collections: 141, 145–47 Penitent Magdalen: 146–47 Ruggiero helping Angelica: 145–46 Lauteri, Camilla: 15, 79n16, 90–91, 92n47 ledgers see account ledgers Lenzi, Deanna: 96 letters Albicini collection: 26, 118–23, 125, 127–29 Canossa family: 112 culture of writing: 31 Gonzaga collection: 96–106, 108, 114 Gualandi’s raccolta: 21 Medici collections: 27, 140–49, 151–54, 157 owned by Hercolani: 21 owned by Malvasia: 16–17, 31–33 see also Albani, Francesco, letters of (persons) Life of Albani: 32–33 Life of Domenichino: 39 Life of Guercino: 20, 155 Loggia di Davide: 107 Lomellini, Girolamo: 43 Longhi, Roberto: 23 Ludovisi, Ludovico: 148 Macchi, Florio: 96 Macchiavelli, Alessandro: 85 Machiavelli, Francesco Maria: 155 Maffei, Giocomo: 32, 113 Magni, Baldassare: 99–100, 106 Mahon, Denis: 24, 44, 148, 157 Maini, Andrea: 105 Malaguzzi Valeri, Francesco: 23 Malvasia, Carlo Cesare: 15–20 and Albani’s letters: 26–35, 39, 42, 44, 46n61, 49 biographies by: 16–17, 74, 76, 155 Gonzaga collection: 96, 99, 105, 123 Medici collections: 151–52, 155–56 Pitture di Bologna, Le: 16, 52 scholars on: 16 Scritti originali: 16, 23–24 on women artists: 74, 76–80, 85–86, 89–91, 93 see also Felsina pittrice mandates: 105, 108, 114, 131, 135 Mannini, Angelo Michele: 54 Mannozzi, Vincenzo: 143 Mantua: 27, 95–116, 148 Manzolini, Anna Morandi: 74n2 Marani, Ercolano: 95 Maratti, Carlo: 32, 33, 44 Marcantonio, Filippo di: 21 Marescotti, Giovanni Luigi: 69 Mariette, Pierre-Jean: 118, 126 Marzocchi, Lea: 23, 24 Masini, Antonio di Paolo: 14–16 Aggiunta: 15 Bologna perlustrata: 14–15 on women artists: 15, 20, 27, 74, 75n6, 79–81, 83, 85, 89–92 Massari, Lucio: 45, 96, 154 Albicini collection: 119, 121–23, 125, 130–32, 137

REFR AMING SEVENTEENTH- CENTURY BOLOGNESE ART

Certosa: 140 Death of Saint Joseph: 122–23 Marriage of the Virgin: 121–23 Mary Magdalenen: 123 Virgin washing clothes with Saint Joseph: 154 Matteucci, Anna Maria: 96 Mazza, Fileti: 144 Medici, Anna de’: 100 Medici, Carlo de’: 140, 142, 145, 148, 151–52, 154–57 Medici, Cosimo II de’: 140, 142, 145, 147, 155 Medici, Cosimo III de’: 141 Medici, Ferdinando II de’: 139–40, 149, 152–53 Medici, Giovancarlo de’: 139–40, 148–49, 151–52, 155, 157 Medici, Leopoldo de’: 140–50, 152–54, 157–58 Medici, Mattias de’: 140, 141, 147, 149, 152, 156 Medici collections: 139–40 inventories: 27, 142, 144–47, 149, 151, 154–58 letters on: 27, 140–49, 151–54, 157 prices, costs: 142–44, 146, 149–51, 153–56, 159 quadratura: 139–41 receipts: 142 small-size works, emphasis on: 140, 145 Medici collections, artists involved with Albani: 140–41, 151–54 Carracci, Annibale: 142–44, 147 Carracci, Ludovico: 144–45 Colonna: 139–41, 152 Domenichino: 142 Gennari: 141, 157–58 Guercino: 140–41, 147, 154–58 Lanfranco: 141, 145–47 Mitelli: 139–41, 152 Reni: 140–41, 145, 147–51 Meloni, Francesco: 127 Memoirie originali italiane: 21 memoirs: 16, 21 Michelangelo: 97 Microcosmo della pittura: 32–33, 118 Milani, Aureliano: 54 Mirandola, Antonio: 154 mirrors: 66, 69 Mitelli, Agostino: 27, 34 Medici collections: 139–41, 152 Mitelli, Giovanni: 31–32 Mitelli, Giuseppe Maria: 102 Modena: 22, 65, 104, 152 Mola, Gasparo: 142 Mola, Pier Francesco: 43–45, 60, 63 Momenti di pittura bolognese: 23 Mongardi, Caterina: 79n16, 92 Mongardi, Lodovico: 92 Monti, Gian Giacomo: 96, 101, 104–05 Tribuna di San Petronio: 105 Monticelli, Angelo Michele: 54, 55 Morazzone: 60, 61 Moscardini, Paolo: 98–99, 106n58 Muratori, Teresa: 79n16, 85n32, 91, 92n47 Neri, Bartolomeo: 139 Neri, Filippo: 123, 133, 136 Neri, Marcolino: 123

179

Index

Niccolini family: 140, 152 Notizie: 19–20, 84, 87 Nuova raccolta di lettere antiche: 21 Oretti, Marcello: 15, 18–22, 26, 105 on the Albicini collection: 118, 127 on the Fantuzzi collection: 70 on women artists: 70, 74, 79–81, 83–85, 87–88, 91, 92n47 Orlandi, Pellegrino Antonio: 21, 85 Orlandi, Stefano: 54 Orsi, Costanzo: 127–30, 135–36 Ovid: 148 Palazzo Canossa: 105, 109–13 Palazzo della Ragione: 113 Palazzo di Bagno: 114–15 Palazzo Farnese: 44, 45 Palazzo Fava: 42–43 Palazzo Giustiniani: 35 Palazzo Pitti: 139, 144, 147, 151–52, 154 Palazzo Sacchetti: 41, 45 Palazzo Te: 101, 106–08, 113 Palazzo Verospi: 35 Paleotti, Gabriele: 55 Pallavicini, Lazzaro: 81–82 Palloni, Giulia: 119, 125 Palma Giovane Baptism of John the Baptist: 60, 64 Fantuzzi collection: 60, 63–64, 67 Venus: 60, 63 Paltronieri, Pietro: 54 Panzacchia, Elena Maria: 79, 79n16, 85n32, 91, 92n47 Paolo, Giovanni: 70 Parma: 18, 44, 70, 152 Parmigianino: 61, 63–64 Holy Family with Saints: 61, 63–64 Pasinelli, Lorenzo: 18, 54n9, 54n11 Albicini collection: 119, 129 Fantuzzi collection: 61, 63–67 Gonzaga collection: 101–2 Pasinelli, Lorenzo, works by Assumption: 60, 63 Cupid Disarmed by Nymphs: 65 Fame: 129 Joseph and Potiphar’s Wife: 63, 65, 66, 67 Marriage of Perseus: 101 Pallas Athena with Nymphs: 67 Saint Lucy: 60, 63 Satyrs: 60, 64, 67 Sleeping Cupid: 60, 63, 65, 66, 67 Pedrali, Matteo: 109–10, 113 Pepoli, Taddeo: 36 Pericolo, Lorenzo: 16, 24 Perina, Chiara: 95 Perini, Giovanna: 23 on Malvasia: 16, 31 Perini Folesani, Giovanna: 19, 22 Pigozzi, Marinella: 96 Piò, Domenico: 18 Pisani, Vincenzo see Spisanelli (Pisani), Vincenzo

Pitture che si ammirano, Le: 84, 85n32 Pitture di Bologna, Le: 16, 52 Porri, Ferdinando: 105 Prestinari, Antonio: 105 Preti, Mattia: 39 Albani on: 39 Crucifixion of Saint Andrew: 39, 41 prices, costs Albicini collection: 119–22, 123, 125–30 Fantuzzi collection: 52, 53, 54, 60–61, 66 Gonzaga Nevers collection: 97–101, 103, 107, 109–10 Medici collections: 142–44, 146, 149–51, 153–56, 159 processions: 49 Pronti, Cesare: 26, 119, 127, 135 Puccinelli, Callisto: 157 Puccinelli, Giovanni Alfonso: 155–57 Puglisi, Catherine R.: 39, 44 Pulini, Massimo: 86n37, 88 quadratura Emilian school: 95 Fantuzzi collection: 54, 55 Gonzaga collection: 101 Medici collections: 139–41 Palazzo Canossa: 113 Raccolta di cataloghi ed inventari inediti: 22 Ranuzzi, Annibale: 141, 142n10 Ranuzzi-Cospi, Ferdinando Vincenzo: 78 Raphael: 39, 44 and dal Po: 45, 46n61, 55 Stanze: 37 Vatican Logge: 37, 38 Ratta family: 68 receipts Albani: 41 Albicini collection: 118, 125, 126, 129 Caccioli: 113 Fantuzzi collection: 52, 54, 59, 60–63, 66–67 Gonzaga collection: 113 Medici collections: 142 Reggio Emilia: 44–45 Regi, Domenico: 30n1, 32n13, 34 Reni, Guido: 19–20, 22–23, 32, 34, 45, 49, 119–20, 140 di Bagno inventory: 115 Fantuzzi collection: 55, 60–61, 63–65, 70 Gonzaga collection: 97–98, 112, 126, 130–32 in Mantua: 95–96 Medici collections: 140–41, 145, 147–51 Reni, Guido, works by Almsgiving of San Rocco: 112 Bradamante and Fiordispina: 145, 148 Charity: 149 Cleopatra: 148–49 David with the Head of Goliath: 151 Head of an Old Woman: 149 Head of Saint Joseph: 149 Hercules and the Hydra: 149–50 Labors of Hercules: 96, 148 Lucrezia: 149–50

180  Madonna (Fantuzzi): 60, 63, 65 Madonna (Medici): 149 Presentation in the Temple: 149 Putto lying down: 150 Rape of Cassandra: 96 Saint Catherine Martyr: 151 Saint John: 151 Saint Sebastian: 97, 149 Samson: 150 Sibyl: 148–49 Venus with Cupid and Doves: 96 Ricciardi: 47–48 Riccomini, Eugenio: 96 Rinaldi, Cesare: 31 Rocci, Ciriaco: 155 Roli, Renato: 96 Romano, Giulio: 45n58, 103, 106, 113 Rosa, Salvatore: 32, 46n62, 47–48 Rospigliosi, Giovanni Battista: 82, 85n32 Rossi, Properzia de’: 74n2, 85n32 Rovere, Vittoria della: 154 Sacchetti, Giulio: 40–41, 45, 148 Sacchi, Andrea and Albani: 35–36, 40, 44 Portrait of Francesco Albani: 35 Sagramoso, Marc’Antonio: 108 Samacchini, Orazio: 55, 61, 63 Madonna and Child: 63 Sampieri, Enrico: 98 Sampieri family: 49 San Carlo: 113 San Domenico house: 26, 53–57, 60, 65, 69–70 furnishings: 66–67 San Francesco: 113, 125 San Giacomo: 53, 119, 124 San Giacomo degli Spagnoli: 35 San Giocomo Maggiore: 85 San Giovanni: 53 San Giovanni, Giovanni da: 139 San Girolamo della Certosa: 15, 18, 19 San Lorenzo: 85 San Luigi dei Francesi: 39 San Maurizio: 116 San Michele: 128–29 San Petronio: 53, 105 San Pietro Maggiore: 30 San Procolo: 53, 54n7, 85, 86n38, 87n38 Santa Barbara: 30, 105, 111 Santa Caterina de’ Funari: 44 Santacroce, Antonio: 34 Santacroce, Marcello: 44 Santa Maria degli Angeli: 155 Santa Maria dei Servi: 34 Santa Maria del Carmine: 140 Santa Maria del Melone: 113 Santa Maria Forisportam: 155 Sant’Andrea della Valle: 40, 113 Sant’Andrea delle Fratte: 49 Santi, Domenico: 98–99, 101, 103 Sant’Orsola: 116 Scannelli, Francesco: 32–33, 118, 151

REFR AMING SEVENTEENTH- CENTURY BOLOGNESE ART

Scarfaglia, Carlo Forni: 81 Scarfaglia, Lucrezia: 15, 27, 79n16, 80–85, 90, 93 attributions: 82–84 Holy Family with the Young Saint John the Baptist: 83–84 Portrait of Elisabetta Agucchi Fioravanti: 82–83 Self-Portrait painting the Madonna of Saint Luke: 80–82 Sconzani, Ippolito: 54 Scritti originali: 16, 23–24 Sebregondi, Nicolò: 106–07 Seghizzi, Andrea: 96, 101, 103, 105 Sementi, Gian Giacomo: 96 silks: 66 Sirani, Anna Maria: 79, 83, 85n34, 89–90 Sirani, Barbara: 79, 85n32, n34, 89–90 Sirani, Elisabetta: 17, 25–27, 47n65, 76–80, 82–93 as a catalyst: 76–77, 79, 92–93 copies of: 77 Crespi on: 18–19 Fantuzzi collection: 55, 61–63, 66, 67, 69, 70 in inventories: 77–79 Malvasia on: 16n9, 27, 74, 76–77, 79, 85–86 Oretti on: 84–85 successors of: 79–80, 85–86, 89–93 Sirani, Elisabetta, works by Anna Maria Ranuzzi as Charity: 83 Baptism: 19 Beato Marco Fantuzzi: 55, 69, 70 Holy Family: 60, 63, 66, 67, 87n40 Self-Portrait: 82 Sirani, Giovanni Andrea: 17, 32, 114, 150 Fantuzzi collection: 60, 62, 63 Gonzaga collection: 99–100 Saint Mary Magdalen: 99–100 Supper in the House of the Pharisee: 15 Spada, Giovan Battista: 23, 44 Spear, Richard: 25 Spiga, Michelangelo: 142 Spisanelli (Pisani), Vincenzo: 120 Death of Saint Joseph: 120 Storia dell’Accademia Clementina: 18, 21 Strada Maggiore: 49 studies (room): 57, 59 Summerscale, Anne: 16, 24 surveys: 124 Symonds, Richard: 38 Taruffi, Emilio and Albani: 36, 48 Albicini collection: 129–30 di Bagno inventory: 115 Tasso, Torquato: 145, 148 Tiarini, Alessandro: 23, 61, 64, 96, 140 Tietze, Hans: 23 Tintoretto: 37, 40n41 Tomezzoli, Stefano: 107–09 Torreggiani, Alfonso: 115 Torri, Flaminio: 36, 56, 115 Fantuzzi collection: 61, 62n24, 63 John the Baptist: 61, 63 Tribuna di San Petronio: 105 Triva, Antonio: 20

181

Index

Triva, Flaminia: 20 University of Bologna: 13 Valesio, Giovan Battista: 96 valuations Fantuzzi collection: 51–52, 60–61, 67–68 Gonzaga Nevers collection: 97–101, 103, 107, 109–10 Van den Dijck, Daniel: 102–04, 109 Vandi, Carlo: 114–15 Vandi, Sante: 114 Vannotti, Carlo: 19 Vasini, Clarice Fortunata Pellegrina: 74n2 Venice: 18, 32, 37, 40, 42, 66, 152 Veronese: 37, 39 Veronese, Brusasorci: 61 Veronese, Paolo: 39n40 Verospi, Girolamo: 44 Villa, Francesco: 101, 103–04 Villa di Lappeggi: 145n28, 149, 152, 157 Villa di Mezzomonte: 139, 148, 151–52 Villa Favorita: 99n24 Villa La Querzola: 32

Villa Marmirolo: 95, 97, 101–05, 112 Viroli, Giordano: 119, 124 Voss, Hermann: 23 women artists: 26–27, 73–74 in Crespi’s work: 80, 85, 91, 92n47 drawings by: 78 in Giordani’s work: 22 in inventories: 75–82, 87 in Malvasia’s work: 74, 76–80, 85–86, 89–91, 93 in Masini’s work: 15, 20, 27, 74, 75n6, 79–81, 83, 85, 89–92 numbers of: 73 in Oretti’s work: 20, 80 specializations: 73–74 unrecorded: 83–84, 87, 89, 93 see also collecting women’s art Zaccarini, Angelo: 127 Zanchini Zambeccari, Angelica Tereas: 67n37, 78 Zanotti, Giampietro (Giovanni Pietro): 18, 21–22, 30–31, 101 Zoppia chapel: 34 Zucchini, Guido: 25