The Master of the Annunciation to the Shepherds

Rovin Müller, London;
Anonymous sale, London, Christie's, 13 December 1985, lot 85 (as The Master of the Annunciation to the Shepherds);
Dr. Carlo Croce, Philadelphia;
By whom sold, New York, Christie's, 14 January 1993, lot 110 (as Bartolomeo Passante, also known as The Master of the Annunciation to the Shepherds);
With Mathiessen Fine Art, London, 1993;
There acquired by the present collector.

Naples, Museo di Capodimonte, Civilità del Seicento a Napoli, October 24, 1984 - April 14, 1985, no. 2.147 (lent by Rovin Müller);
Northampton, Massachusetts, Smith College Museum of Art, Baroque Painters in Italy, November 17, 1989 - February 8, 1990 (lent by Dr. Croce);
Wilmington, Delaware, Delaware Art Museum, Mostly Baroque: Italian Paintings and Drawings from the Carlo Croce Collection, April 24 - June 14, 1992.

J. Pereira, "Bartolomé Passante y el 'Maestro del Anuncio a los pastores'", in Archivo Español de Arte, 1957, p. 220, reproduced plate V;
G. de Vito, in Painting in Naples, 1606-1705: from Caravaggio to Giordano, exhibition catalogue, London, Royal Academy of Arts, October 2 - December 12, 1982, p. 194, under cat. no. 84;
G. de Vito, in Civiltà del Seicento a Napoli, exhibition catalogue, Naples, Museo di Capodimonte, October 24, 1984 - April 14, 1985, p. 345, cat. no. 2.147, reproduced;
G. de Vito, in La peinture napolitaine de Caravage à Giordano, exhibition catalogue, Paris, Musée Nationale du Grand Palais, May 24 - August 29, 1988, p. 232, under cat. no. 42;
R. Enggass, "Review of the Exhibition in Naples, The Seicento", in The Burlington Magazine, vol. CXXVII, no. 983, February 1985, p. 121 (incorrectly identified as no. 2.144);
F. Navarro, in Battistello Caracciolo e il primo naturalismo a Napoli, in exhibition catalogue, Naples, Castel Sant'Elmo, November 9, 1991 - January 19, 1992, p. 336, under cat. no. 2.109;
G. de Vito, "Variazioni sul nome del Maestro dell'Annuncio ai pastori", in Ricerche sul '600 napoletano. Saggi e documenti 1996-1997, Naples 1998, p. 30, reproduced p. 47, fig. 24 (as Giovanni Dó).

The following condition report has been provided by Simon Parkes of Simon Parkes Art Conservation, Inc. 502 East 74th St. New York, NY 212-734-3920, simonparkes@msn.com, an independent restorer who is not an employee of Sotheby's. This painting has been restored, but not recently. The canvas has a glue lining and the paint layer is stable. The varnish is slightly uneven and dull in places. Given the fairly good retouching, cleaning is not necessarily encouraged, although there seem to be remnants of dirt here and there. A better varnish is recommended. Retouches have been applied here and there in the background. The body of the lute has attracted a fair amount of restoration. There is a vertical line of retouches in the side of the face from the side burn to the beard. There are restorations in the lower center and lower right, and in a few spots in the hair. The paint layer is thick and one gets the feeling that the picture could look better than it does. Therefore, re-examination of the varnish and possibly the retouching would be very helpful.
"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 this striking painting is, in its most literal sense, a genre scene showing a man playing a lute, it can also be interpreted as an Allegory of Hearing and may once have formed part of a series depicting the Five Senses. Two other paintings have been put forward as belonging to the same series: a Portrait of a Girl Smelling a Rose (the Sense of Smell) and a Portrait of a Bearded Man Holding a Mirror (the Sense of Sight), both in private collections (see figs. 1 and 2).¹  These three works do appear to be linked both aesthetically and stylistically: all three pictures share similar dimensions;² the figures are shown in three-quarter-length format and are placed in much the same way in each picture space; they are all painted in subdued tones and with a color palette that is characteristic of this master's works; the solid handling of drapery and the reddish tinge to the figures' cheeks, noses and fingertips are also closely comparable. The symbolic interpretation of this painting is emphasized by the man bending over and concentrating intently on the music emanating from his lute; indeed he seems to be tuning the instrument rather than playing it, his focus fixed on a point beyond the picture frame. At the time of this painting's last appearance on the market in 1993, Spike had proposed that it - together with the two paintings mentioned above - may have formed part of a set of Five Senses by Passante recorded in the collection of Filippo Pisacane, marchese di San Leucio, in Naples in 1702: 'Cinque quadri di palmi 2 e 2 ½ in circa di mano di Bartolomeo Passante colle figure dei cinque sensi del corpo con cornice intagliata'.³  Pisacane's inventory dates from almost eighty years after the pictures were painted and further undermining such an identification is the fact that scholars by no means universally agree that the Master of the Annunciation to the Shepherds should be identified with Bartolomeo Passante; indeed his identity has been the subject of much debate (see below). One thing on which scholars do agree, however, is the dating of these pictures to the 1630s as their naturalism is surely dependent upon Ribera, rather than antecedent to him.

The Master of the Annunciation to the Shepherds' name was coined by August L. Mayer in the 1920s due to the artist's association with a number of paintings of that subject: one, for example, is in the Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery (formerly attributed to Diego Velázquez) and another in the Museo di Capodimonte, Naples.⁴  The Master was considered by some to be identifiable with Bartolomeo Passante (or Bassante), an artist mentioned in numerous 17th-century sources and 18th-century Neapolitan inventories, whilst others favoured his identification with Juan Do, a Valencian painter recorded in Naples from 1626 who was clearly associated with other painters active there during this time.⁵  The former was based on Ferdinando Bologna's interpretation of the swirls on the letter an old man holds in a painting by the Master of the Annunciation to the Shepherds, which Bologna read as 'B. Pass.'.⁶  Another scrawl on the same letter was interpreted by Giuseppe de Vito, however, as Juan Do's signature (in monogram) and so too was the writing on the cartiglio on which a philosopher leans, in a painting in Vienna, Kunsthistorisches Museum, seen to carry Juan Do's signature.⁷  Neither of these hypotheses seems entirely plausible and both are refuted by Nicola Spinosa.⁸  Another argument that has been used in favour of a possible identification with Juan Do is the biographer Bernardo De Dominici's description of the artist's technique: "Ma finalmente operando da se, diede certa tinta alle carnagioni, che riuscì graziosa, come composta con poca tinta di nero di carbone, e di lacca, usata però con leggerezza. Di questa tinta, che mirabilmente accorda nel bel impasto del suo colore, egli si servì infin che visse".⁹  Such a method has found parallels in two paintings attributed to the Master of the Annunciation to the Shepherds which, when tested through scientific analysis, were found to demonstrate the use of charcoal dust in the flesh tones to lend them greater chiaroscuro.¹⁰  Whether this technique was widely adopted in Ribera's studio is not known, though De Dominici's very specific reference to it suggests it is unlikely. Evidence against an identification with Juan Do came to light as recently as 2009, however, after the restoration of the Retablo de Jesús Nazareno in the Cathedral at Granada. One of this altarpiece's components, a straight copy after Ribera's Martyrdom of Saint Lawrence in the National Gallery of Victoria in Melbourne, is clearly signed by Juan Do and dated 1639.¹¹  Not only does this demonstrate that Juan Do was merely an imitator of Ribera at this date but, more importantly, the painting is evidently not by the same hand as the accomplished group of pictures given to the exceptionally talented Master of the Annunciation to the Shepherds.

1. See G. de Vito, under Literature, 1998, reproduced in colour p. 48, plate XI, and p. 25, plate IV respectively (both in private collection, Milan). The latter was formerly in Giuseppe de Vito's collection. De Vito himself did not support the hypothesis that the three paintings once formed part of a single set; see G. de Vito, under Literature, 1984-85, p. 344, under cat. no. 2.146.
2. Smell measures 108.5 by 78.5 cm. whilst Sight measures 103 by 75 cm. compared to the present canvas' dimensions of 104.6 by 79.2 cm..
3. "Five paintings of around 2 to 2 1/2 palmi by the hand of Bartolomeo Passante of figures depicting the five senses of the body with carved frame," see J.T. Spike, "The case of the Master of the Annunciation to the Shepherds, alias Bartolomeo Passante", in Studi di Storia dell'Arte, vol. III, 1993, p. 209, under Appendix I. The complete inventory is published by R. Ruotolo in Ricerche sul '600 napoletano, Naples 1987, pp. 187-189.
4. See de Vito, op. cit., the former reproduced p. 8, fig. 1, and the latter reproduced in colour p. 29, plate V. Other examples showing The Annunciation to the Shepherds are in the Alte Pinakothek, Munich (deposits), and formerly in the Brooklyn Museum.
5. In 1626 Juan Do is recorded as marrying Grazia, the sister of Pacecco da Rosa, and Giovan Battista Caracciolo and Jusepe de Ribera are both named as witnesses at this event.
6. Private collection, Milan: see de Vito, ibid., reproduced in colour on p. 17, plate I, and a detail of the 'signature' on p. 18, fig. 4.
7. Ibid., reproduced in colour on p. 20, plate II, and a detail of the 'signature' on p. 19, fig. 5.
8. See Spinosa's discussion of the Master of the Annunciation's identification in "Aggiunte al Maestro dell'Annuncio ai pastori, alias Bartolomeo Passante o Juan Do", in Man Könnt vom Paradies nicht angenehmer Träumen. Festschrift für Prof. Dr. Harald Marx zum 15. Februar 2009, Berlin 2009, pp. 85 ff.
9. B. De Dominici, Vite de' pittori, scultori etc., Naples 1742, vol. III, p. 22: (trans.) 'But when he worked alone, he gave his flesh tones a certain colour, which turned out pleasing, by mixing in a little charcoal, and lacquer, but in small amounts. He used this colour, which mixes so well with his impasto, until his death'.
10. See De Vito, ibid., pp. 14-15 and 58-60. One of the paintings tested was the Portrait of a bearded man holding a mirror (the Sense of Sight?) in a private collection.
11. See Esplendor Recuperado. Proyecto de investigación y restauración de los retablos del Nazareno y la Trinidad de la Catedral de Granada, 2009, where the altarpiece and a detail of Juan Do's signature are reproduced ('IVAN/ DO/ F.'). We are grateful to Prof. Nicola Spinosa for pointing out this vital piece of literature.