- 74
Francesco Furini
Description
- Francesco Furini
- Abigail Before David
- oil on unlined canvas
Condition
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Catalogue Note
This David and Abigail constitutes an important addition to the corpus of the early work of Francesco Furini; indeed, the young artist has included a self portrait of himself at the extreme left of the composition, looking out towards the viewer (see fig. 1).
In this composition, datable to circa 1628-30 on stylistic grounds and on the basis of the age of the painter as he portrays himself, Furini has employed, with a high degree of quality, the personal style of his first production. The poses of the figures are based on the model of antique sculpture, which the artist had admired and studied in depth on a trip to Rome undertaken with his colleague Giovanni da San Giovanni (1619-1622). The composition reveals a scenographic arrangement, almost like a stage set, typical of Florentine Baroque painting. Also notable are the graphic qualities of the image, most perceptible in the working of the elaborate vase in the right foreground, the broad range of the palette used, and the influences of his masters Cristofano Allori and Giovanni Bilivert in the quickly sketched figures in the background.
The story depicted in the canvas is described in the book of Samuel (I.25: 1-44), a theme painted by Furini again in a much later work executed for the Strozzi, formerly in the Bigongiari collection, Florence, and now in the collection of the Cassa di Risparmio di Pistoia e Pescia, datable to the first half of the 1640's. Abigail is shown in the act of kneeling before King David in order to ask for the pardon of her evil husband Nabal, the wealthy lord of Carmel, who had been guilty of refusing aid to David and his army. The words of Abigail touched David who renounced his intention of killing all Nabal's male servants. Nabal was stricken dead ten days later, and then David married Abigail.
There are numerous parallels in the body of Furini's work that support the proposed date for the canvas, the second half of the 1620's. The youth with the cap behind Abigail's shoulder can be twinned with the figure of Acis painted in the Acis and Galatea executed for the Galli family of Florence, today in the Alte Pinakothek, Munich, datable to 1626. Moreover, there are very close affinities with the Allegory of the Glory of the Salviati Family in a private collection (see Il Seicento Fiorentino, Pittura, exhibition catalogue, Florence 1986, p. 270, cat. no 1.131), which is documented to 1628, in which the same female typologies are found, the same treatment of drapery and even the same highlights of reflected light on the armor. The refined vase on the right presents unquestionable comparisons with that in the painting of the Birth of Rachel, a Medici commission, today in the Staatsgalerie, Schleissheim (1632-33). The figure of a woman seen from behind with her sleeve pulled down to reveal a breast and the long, sensual bare arm is almost a signature of the artist, and is realized with polished and carved flesh tones, usefully comparable with those of the nymphs in the Hylas and the Nymphs, also painted for the Galli family, today in the Galleria Palatina, Florence (1633).
The present painting appears, therefore, to be one of the earliest, refined compositions with which the young Furini proved himself a follower of an unique classicism that has no parallels in Florence, and which finds correspondence in Bologna in the art of Guido Reni whom Furini was called to rival, not by chance, during his Venetian sojourn in 1629. Furini's biographer Baldinucci describes how considerably the artist's fame had grown during the years that he painted the David and Abigail; a wealthy perfume merchant of Venice had heard about the artist's talent, and paid for his trip to Venice in order to supply for his collection with "una Teti, che dovesse servire per accompagnarne un altro di una Europa, che egli avea di mano di Guido Reni...Stette il Furino in Venezia circa a sei mesi, nel qual tempo fece al profumiere il bel quadro.... Tornatosene poi alla patria con maggior credito."1
Francesca Baldassari
1 "A Thetis, that was to be used as a pendant for another [painting] of Europa, that he had from the hand of Guido Reni... Furini remained in Venice for about six months, in which time he made the beautiful painting for the profumer... Then returned home with even greater repute." (see F. Baldinucci, Notizie de' professori del disegno da Cimabue in qua, Florence, 1681/1728), vol. IV, ed. F. Ranalli , Florence, 1845/7, pp.631-2).