Ludovico Carracci

Bolognetti Collection, Bologna;
Private Collection, United States;
With Heim Gallery, London, 1978, from whom acquired by the present owner.

London, Heim Gallery, The Baroque in Italy, 15 June – 25 August 1978, no. 1;
Warsaw, The Royal Castle, Opus Sacrum, 10 April – 23 September 1990, no. 26.

C.C. Malvasia, Felsina Pittrice. Vite de' pittori bolognesi, Bologna 1678 [1841], pp. 286, 329, note 1;
M. Oretti, Le Pitture che si ammirano nelli Palaggi, e Casa de'Nobili della città di Bologna, late eighteenth century, Ms. B 104, Biblioteca Comunale, Bologna, folio 161;
M. Oretti, Le Pitture che si ammirano nelli Palaggi, e Casa de'Nobili della città di Bologna, late eighteenth century, Ms, B 105, Biblioteca Comunale, Bologna, folio 606;
F. Belvisi, Elogio Storico del Pittore Ludovico Carracci, Bologna 1825, p. 54;
H. Bodmer, Ludovico Carracci, Burg bei Magdeburg 1939, pp. 138-140;
D. Miller, 'A Drawing by Ludovico Carracci for his lost "Penitence of St. Peter"', in The Burlington Magazine, vol. 106, August 1964, p. 374;
G. Feigenbaum, Ludovico Carracci. A Critical Study of his Later Career and a Catalogue of his Paintings, Princeton University dissertation 1984, pp. 441;
A. Brogi, 'Lorenzo Garbieri: un "incamminato" fra romanzo sacro e romanzo nero', in Paragone, vol. 471, 1989, pp. 15, 24, note 42;
D. Benati in J. Grabski, ed., Opus Sacrum, exhibition catalogue, Vienna 1990, pp. 154-159, no. 26, reproduced in colour;
C. Legrand, Le dessin à Bologne 1580-1620. La réform des trois Carracci, Paris 1994, p. 22;
C. Loisel, Gli Affreschi dei Carracci. Studi e disegni preparatori, Bologna 2000, p. 100;
A. Brogi, Ludovico Carracci, Bologna 2001, pp. 225-226, no. 113, reproduced in colour plate XLVII.

"The following condition report has been provided by Sarah Walden, an independent restorer who is not an employee of Sotheby's. This painting has a recent lining and stretcher, and the restoration is also quite recent. This has been gentle and discreet, leaving a film of older varnish carefully, and maintaining the natural texture and craquelure. The beautiful condition of the picture suggests that it has always been treated with care and had minimal intrusive interventions in the past. The remarkably fresh open brushwork is exceptionally unworn and intact. Even in the darks and in the light sketchy areas such as the lower left foreground below the cock there is scarcely any wear. Only in the ankle and on the shadowy side of the neck and lower cheek is there some thinness, with the neck having some old retouching. Even the edges have escaped the usual casual damages. The red drapery has nevertheless lost much of its original deep madder glazing in the folds. There are a few superficial little cosmetic retouchings and one or two scratches touched out on the knee and in the drapery, with some strengthening by the cheek and neck, in the cock's feathers and elsewhere. However the painting has undoubtedly been preserved in exceptionally beautiful condition. This report was not done under laboratory conditions."
"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 mentioned by Ludovico's earliest biographer Malvasia as early as 1678, all trace of this monumental and imposing image of repentance was lost until its rediscovery only thirty years ago. Malvasia recorded how Ludovico had given to Count Camillo Bolognetti, a nobleman and occasional amateur painter in the Carracci workshop, 'la figura intera di quel S. Pietro piangente, così risentito e terribile' .¹  In a handwritten note included in the 1841 edition of his Felsina pittrice the picture is referred to as 'San Pietro piangente l'aversi negato discepolo di Cristo, figura sedente, meno del naturale'. In 1682 he records that the French painter Henri Gascars ('pittor da ritratti famoso') attempted to purchase the painting from Count Paolo Bolognetti on behalf of the d'Este family in Modena for the considerable sum of 200 gold doubloons.²  Gascars' suit failed, even though he promised the Countess twelve diamond buttons if she could persuade her husband to sell the painting. After this, despite a reference in a manuscript by Marcello Oretti from the late 17th century,³ the painting passes from view, although Belvisi, writing in 1825, records a 'Negazione di San Pietro' in the collection of Count Cesare Bianchetti Monti in Bologna.

We can surmise, however, that the Saint Peter remained in Bologna for most of the eighteenth century, for a copy of the same dimensions painted by Marcantonio Franceschini (1648-1729) was in the Fabbriceria di San Petronio (fig. 1) where it was recorded in 1777 and where it remains today.⁴  The painting was also engraved by Antonio Baccari with a dedication to Count Girolamo Bolognetti, thus supporting the provenance supplied by Malvasia. The knowledge of the Franceschini copy enabled Dwight Miller to recognise and publish a related drawing by Ludovico in the Cabinet des Dessins in the Louvre in Paris (fig. 2) (inv. 12.579).⁵ Here virtually the same pose is employed as for the figure of Saint Peter; the only difference being that his left hand is closed in a fist rather than open with fingers outstretched as in the finished painting.

The question of a possible date of execution for the Saint Peter has been the subject of some discussion among later scholars. Miller's belief that the Louvre drawing should be dated to the beginning of the 1590s was based upon comparison with other drawings from this period, such as that of the Preaching of Saint John the Baptist of 1592 in the Pinacoteca, Bologna. The discovery of the painting itself led initially to a similar dating to the last decade of the sixteenth century. Benati, for example, compares the Saint Peter to Ludovico's altarpiece of The Madonna of the Rosary with St. Francis and two donors in prayer of 1591, now in the Pinacoteca in Cento, in which a similar brooding seated figure of Saint Joseph appears.⁶  This early dating was followed by Loisel and initially by Brogi. Feigenbaum, however, was the first to suggest that the large scale and emotional grandeur of the present canvas suggested a later phase in Ludovico's career, towards the middle of the second decade of the seventeenth century, and specifically around 1613. Brogi later agreed with this dating, similarly comparing the Saint Peter to works of this period, in particular the Crucifixion of 1614 in the Church of Santa Francesca Romana in Ferrara, in which the figures of the patriarchs gathered below the cross find immediate echoes in the emotions of the present painting.⁷  Brogi further points out that the preparatory studies for the Crucifixion may also be compared to the Louvre drawing found by Miller. Further points of comparison are afforded by Ludovico's altarpiece of The preaching of Saint Anthony Abbot to the hermits of 1615 now in the Brera in Milan, in which the expressive use of the hands of Saint Anthony as well as the massive brooding kneeling figures of the foreground hermits provide striking parallels.⁸

It is precisely this striking use of expressive gesture and emotional content that marks out the Saint Peter among Ludovico's later works. The figure, physically large and imposing, occupies virtually all of the picture surface, and is dramatically lit from above, highlighting the Saint against a dark and neutral background. As Benati has convincingly observed, this exaltation of sentiment in the service of the dramatic qualities of Ludovico's spiritual subject may well have reflected contemporary thought, and in particular post-Tridentine views on the nature of repentance. This association with the sacrament of Penance can be understood as a reflection of Counter Reformation Catholic teaching. As opposed to Protestant questionings of the sacramental validity of repentance, the Council of Trent decreed that God's mercy was insufficient for the individual, from whom a duty of voluntary personal penance was desired. Luigi Tansillo's poem, Le Lacrime di San Pietro, the first dedicated to the subject of Saint Peter's tears, had been published in Italy as recently as 1585, and enjoyed considerable popularity across Catholic Europe.

 

1. C.C. Malvasia, Felsina Pittrice, I, 1678, 1841 ed. Bologna, p. 329.
2. ibid. p. 286, note 1.
3. F. Belvisi, Elogio storico del pittore Ludovico Carracci, Bologna 1825, p. 59.
4. Le pittore di Bologna, 1777.
5. Red chalk heightened with white. See Miller, op. cit, 1964, reproduced fig. 18 (the drawing) and fig. 19 (the painting).
6. For which see, for example, Brogi, op. cit., 2001, p. 152, no. 41, fig. 104.
7. ibid., p. 223, cat. no. 111, fig. 229.
8. ibid., p. 226, cat. no. 114, fig. 232.