Lorenzo Lippi

Commissioned by Vincenzo Porcellini, probably in 1632 and certainly completed by 24 January 1633, for the Oratory of the Compagnia di San Paolo di Notte, Florence;
Anonymous sale, Florence, Sotheby's, 28 November 1988, lot 871 (as by Matteo Rosselli and the subject erroneously described as Peter baptising the centurion Cornelius);
With Colnaghi, London.

G. Pagliarulo, "Dipinti fiorentini del Seicento per la Compagnia di San Paolo di Notte", in Paragone, vol. XL, no. 471, May 1989, pp. 59-62, and pp. 69-70, footnotes 31-46, reproduced plate 57;
C. D'Afflitto, Lorenzo Lippi, Florence 2002, pp. 185-86, cat. no. 18, reproduced;
F. Baldassari, La Pittura del Seicento a Firenze, Indice degli artisti e delle loro opere, Turin 2009, p. 450;
G. Cantelli, Repertorio della Pittura Fiorentina del Seicento, Pontedera 2009, p. 123.

"The following condition report has been provided by Henry Gentle, an independent restorer who is not an employee of Sotheby's. The original canvas has been lined and the paint is stable but raised. There is a consolidated and restored jagged tear, 25cm in length, up the right leg of the standing figure to the left of the composition. Significant restoration can be detected to the flesh tones, sleeve, breastplate and leg of St. Paul, the neck and arm of the standing figure on the left, the anointer’s head and to the foreground. Other small losses scattered across the surface are also visible, including up the right hand edge through the architecture and into the sky. Many areas of paint are in good condition with the texture and impasto well preserved and the colours strong. The remains of an older varnish can be detected under u-v light but this does not impair the tonality. Refreshing the overall varnish would saturate the surface and highlight the richness of the colours. Offered in a carved gilt frame with minor loss."
"This lot is offered for sale subject to Sotheby's Conditions of Business, which are available on request and printed in Sotheby's sale catalogues. The independent reports contained in this document are provided for prospective bidders' information only and without warranty by Sotheby's or the Seller."

Although given to Lorenzo Lippi's master Matteo Rosselli when it first appeared at auction in 1988, the painting's attribution to Lippi was first proposed by Giovanni Pagliarulo and was subsequently confirmed by Chiara D'Afflitto in her monograph on the artist. Pagliarulo was the first to publish The Baptism of Saint Paul as having belonged to a cycle of nine monumental paintings, only four of which have been identified to date. The paintings were commissioned in 1632 by a selection of eminent confratelli of the Compagnia di San Paolo di Notte, each of whom would have lent his painting to the Compagnia on important feast days but would otherwise have held it in his possession.

The Compagnia di San Paolo di Notte was one of the so-called 'Buche' or places of worship that had existed for over two hundred years, where vigils and nocturnal prayer meetings were held in imitation of early Christian practices. The confratelli of this particular Compagnia met on Saturday nights, in addition to special feast days throughout the year. The meeting on Monday 24 January 1633, the day before the feast of the Conversion of Saint Paul, was particularly memorable because of the inauguration of this decorative cycle of paintings, each of which is described in great detail in an anonymous contemporary manuscript account.¹ An excerpt from this account reads: "The first picture was placed up high in the lunette that has our shield and, because of its size and magnificent frame, it occupies the whole space. It shows the story of the Conversion of our Father St. Paul, painted by Giovan Battista Vanni and paid for with his own money by Sig. Lorenzo di Carlo Franceschi, our brother; the first lunette has another picture with Ananias restoring our Father St. Paul's sight, painted by Ottavio Vannini at the expense of Guglielmo Tani, our brother; and in the second lunette next to it was the Baptism, painted by Lorenzo Lippi and paid for by Vincenzo Porcellini; and next in the third one was the Cursing of the Viper, painted by Giovan Battista Vanni and paid for by the knight Girolamo Brandani. In the lunette directly above the chapel was the Healing of the young man who fell while our Father St. Paul was preaching at Damascus, painted by Matteo Rosselli and commissioned by Sig. Cosimo Paganucci; in the other lunette of the chapel was the Miracle of the healing of the lame, by Jacopo Vignali at the expense of Jacopo Falconelli; in the following lunette of the Compagnia the Healing of a paralytic, by Cesare Dandini [sic], paid for by Francesco Milanesi; in the middle lunette, when he is taken before the judge, a painting by Baccio del Bianco paid for by Vincenzio del Riccio; and in the final one the Beheading, painted by Giovan Battista Vanni and paid for by Vincenzio Coresi. I have made this list not only for the reasons stated above, but also so that on occasions of a festivity it is known which brothers to ask for the pictures, because they were only made to honour our Father St. Paul and for the service of this holy place."

According to this document the canvases were all of similar dimensions and their Pauline subjects correspond to the paintings identified to date by Pagliarulo. Along with the present Baptism of Saint Paul by Lippi, Pagliarulo identified Ottavio Vannini's Ananias restoring Saint Paul's sight and Jacopo Vignali's Saint Paul healing the Lame (both in private collections, Florence) as well as Matteo Rosselli's Saint Paul reviving Eutychus (sold at Lepke in 1905).² The three paintings by Giovanni Battista Vanni, one by Cesare Dandini and another by Baccio del Bianco are still missing. Of those that have come to light, every canvas demonstrates the individuality of each artist's style but the uniformity of their compositions is a clear indication that they were commissioned as a cycle, with a single destination in mind.

Two of the artists involved in the realisation of the cycle – Giovan Battista Vanni and Cesare Dandini – were also confratelli of the Compagnia.³ Vanni is first mentioned in its registers on 24 December 1626, and in 1651 he is named as a guarantor in a lawsuit between the Compagnia and Vincenzo and Giulio Porcellini, the first of whom had commissioned the present picture from Lippi. On 21 February 1638 Dandini is recorded as having contributed towards the cost of the Christmas celebrations, thereby suggesting that he was also a confratello. Vincenzo and Giulio Porcellini were well-known speziali, and the former has been identified as the 'speziale del Porcellino a San Lorenzo' who was recorded as Lippi's great friend in Giovan Camillo Sagrestani's account of the artist's life. This did not, however, prevent Vincenzo from closing family ranks when the artist sued another brother, Zanobi, over his lack of payment for a painting of The Death of Adonis which he executed just two years later.⁴

1. The account is dated 24th January 1633 and is transcribed (in italian) by Pagliarulo, see Literature, pp. 54-55.
2. Vannini's canvas measures 145.5 by 198.5 cm. and is reproduced by Pagliarulo, op. cit., plate 55. Vignali's, measuring 145.4 by 196 cm., was sold, Florence, Sotheby's, 21 October 1970, lot 73, and is now in a private collection, Florence; Pagliarulo, ibid., plate 61. Rosselli's, measuring 144 by 196 cm., was sold, Berlin, Lepke, 11 April 1905, lot 99, but its current whereabouts are unknown; Pagliarulo, ibid., plate 59.
3. Vanni and Dandini are not the only artists to have belonged to the Compagnia: Francesco Furini is listed as having taken Holy Communion there on 15th August 1631, and his name recurs on 10th April amongst those who participated in the Holy Week festivities.
4. This painting, recorded as having been executed 'pel Porcellini Speziale' by the biographer Baldinucci, is in a private collection, Florence (see C. d'Afflitto, under Literature, p. 199, cat. no. 28, reproduced).