The Master of the Annunciation to the Shepherds

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. Although the varnish is uneven and should be addressed, the picture is otherwise in presentable condition. The canvas has a good lining. The painting seems to be more or less clean. Under ultraviolet light, most of the retouches are in the hand in the upper center, addressing some cracking and a loss in the palm. There is a clear line around all four edges, indicating that the work was either folded or creased on each side by about 1 inch from the extreme edge. However, it does seems that these edges are original to the work. There are retouches around the extreme edges. There are numerous small dots of retouching in the child's face addressing some abrasion and weakness, which so often develops in Italian works like these. If the varnish were addressed, the work should be hung as is.
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This depiction of a mischievous young boy eating pasta captures a curious sub-genre of Neapolitan culture. As meat prices rose in the 17^th century, pasta became less expensive and provided a more affordable alternative. Maccheroni (as all types of Neapolitan pasta were then termed) was sold by street vendors and often cooked in a meat broth, giving much-needed sustenance to peasants, who traditionally ate it with their hands. So-called mangiamaccherroni (macaroni-eaters) became a familiar spectacle in the streets of Naples, so much so that in the 18^th and 19^th centuries, tourists would pay for plate of hot pasta in order to watch peasants scoop it with their hands and swallow it whole.

From the 16^th century, these mangiamaccheroni became a popular subject in Neapolitan painting, at times used as a humorous personifications of “taste” in representations of the five senses. Luca Giordano painted a number of mangiamaccheroni (though with an adult protagonist rather than a child) including one in the Princeton University Art Museum, Princeton (fig. 1; inv. no. y1985-35) and another in the Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna (inv. no. 9064).¹ The small boy in the present painting, however, instantly recalls one of the young urchins in Bartolomé Estaban Murillo’s iconic Two Boys Eating Pie in the Alte Pinakothek, Munich (fig. 2).² The boys' poses are very similar, with right arm raised, head tilted upward and eyes fixed on the next mouthful, pinched between finger and thumb. Giordano’s two representations of taste date to circa 1660 and Murillo’s waifs slightly later, between 1665 and 1675. The Master of the Annunciation to the Shepherds, however, was active in Naples during the first half of the century, meaning this impish pasta-eater pre-dates the paintings by Giordano and Murillo by at least two decades. Given the distinct likeness of the respective figures, it is possible that Murillo used the present figure as a model for the pie-eater in the Munich picture.

We are grateful to Prof. Ricardo Lattuada for proposing the attribution after firsthand inspection.

1. O. Ferrari and G. Scavizzi, Luca Giordano: L’opera completa, Naples 1992, vol. I, p. 270, cat. No. A133, reproduced vol. II, p. 535.
2. E. Valdivieso, Murillo: Catalogo razonado de pinturas, Madrid 2010, p. 550, cat. no. 401, reproduced.