Federico Barocci

The Earl of Lanesborough;
With Thomas Agnew & Sons Ltd., London, 1960;
In the collection of Vincent Korda (1897-1979), London, by 1962.

London, Thomas Agnew & Sons Ltd., The Seventeenth Century, 21 June - 23 July 1960, no. 38;
Bologna, Museo Civico, Mostra di Federico Barocci, September 14 - November 16, 1975, no. 190;
London, Thomas Gibson Fine Art Ltd., Inaugural Exhibition, June - July 1987;
London, Thomas Gibson Fine Art Ltd., 19th and 20th Century Masters and selected Old Masters, 1994, May - June 1994.

D. Sutton, "The Variety of Seventeenth Century Paintings," in The Connoisseur, June 1960, p. 53, reproduced plate 55;
H. Olsen, Federico Barocci, Copenhagen 1962, p. 185, under cat. no. 43, reproduced 68a;
H. Olsen, Urbino, Copenhagen 1971, a detail reproduced in color plate 48;
A. Emiliani, in Mostra di Federico Barocci, exhibition catalogue, Bologna, Museo Civico, September 14 - November 16, 1975, pp. 163-64, no. 190, reproduced;
London, Thomas Gibson Fine Art Ltd., Inaugural Exhibition, June - July 1987, reproduced p. 9;
London, Thomas Gibson Fine Art Ltd., 19th and 20th Century Masters and selected Old Masters, 1994, May - June 1994, reproduced in color p. 11;
A. Emiliani, "Aggiunte al Catalogo di Federico Barocci: Tre "Abbozzi per il Colore," in Hommage à Michel Laclotte. Études sur la peinture du Moyen Age et de la Renaissance, Milan-Paris 1994, pp. 465-66, reproduced p. 460 and a detail on p. 461;
A. Emiliani, Federico Barocci (Urbino, 1535-1612), Recanati 2008, vol. II, p. 91, cat. no. 49.1, reproduced in color on p. 92.

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 recently well restored and in its beautiful frame, should be hung as is. The original canvas has been treated but it is not lined and the paint layer is stable. Some thinness has developed to the paint layer and the retouches have been applied attending to this abrasion. Retouches are particularly noticeable in the floor in the lower portion of the picture, and in the sky and landscape beyond the figure group. Within the figures themselves the condition is very respectable with retouching only having been applied in the darker colors. The same can be said for the angels and the drapery in the upper right and left. It is tempting to speculate that the retouches in the floor and in the sky are a little over-enthusiastic, nonetheless the painting looks well.
"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."

Since its last appearance on the art market in 1960, this painting has been widely published as Barocci's modello for the large altarpiece of The Circumcision of Christ; most recently by Andrea Emiliani, the leading authority on the artist. The altarpiece was painted for the Compagnia del Nome di Gesù in Pesaro and stood on the high altar of the church of the same name until the Napoleonic era and, in particular, the Treaty of Tolentino: in 1797 the altarpiece was taken to Paris where it was hung first in the church of Notre-Dame and then, since 1862, at the Louvre (see fig. 1).¹   Although signed and dated 1590, archival research undertaken by scholars has revealed that the painting was commissioned as early as 1581, eight years after the Compagnia del Nome di Gesù was founded.²  Payments are recorded in 1583 and 1588, indicating that this commission occupied Barocci for almost a decade and indeed this is attested to by the sheer number of preparatory studies and cartoons that have survived (at least thirty-five are known).

The Circumcision of Christ constitutes one of the most complex compositions the artist ever undertook. As well as this painted modello Barocci produced compositional drawings, larger cartoons squared and ready for transfer, as well as countless single-figure chalk studies for each of the individual protagonists. One can easily follow Barocci's working method through the sheets that have survived: thus the compositional sketch in the Uffizi, which shows the figures broadly in reverse, is almost certainly a first idea for the composition (see fig. 2).³  The cartoon which has been squared for transfer, also in the Uffizi, shows the figures already in their final positions, though a number of smaller details were still to change; such as the lamb in the foreground or the tilt of the boy's head in the far center, not to mention the absence of the two angels above (though these may have appeared on a separate sheet).⁴  The numerous sheets of single-figure studies in Berlin – and those dispersed in London, Florence, Rennes, Stockholm, Vienna, Sacramento, Paris and Pesaro – are extraordinary works of art in themselves whilst being entirely characteristic of Barocci's working practice, in which the artist defines a figure's position, its drapery or modeling.⁵

This painted modello, whose function was almost certainly to define the color scheme for the altarpiece, constitutes a rarity in the artist's oeuvre. Only one other modello of this kind is published by Emiliani: a painting showing The Burial of Christ, which relates to the altarpiece in the church of Santa Croce, Senigallia.⁶ The composition is identical to that in the final altarpiece though the figures in the modello seem slightly larger in relation to the picture space, thus giving the impression of a closer or more intimate viewpoint. The figures are arranged in a semi-circle, at the center of which lies the infant Christ, His outward gaze calm yet arresting at the same time. Before Him stands the man who is about to circumcise Him: though his back is turned, his pose indicates arrested movement, contrasting sharply with the Infant's resigned inactivity. The Madonna and Saint Joseph are shown in positions of adoration and submission, as are the shepherds in the foreground, and it is the two angels up above that lend a flurry of activity to the scene. They hover above, their draperies fluttering, and Barocci has achieved a greater sense of movement in this modello than in the final altarpiece where their more finished state lends them a more static or statuesque quality. The arc of the composition is anchored in the lower left foreground by the figure of a kneeling shepherd. Barocci was fully aware of the importance of this repoussoir figure in the design for he dedicated a large number of preparatory studies to his torso, in particular to the turn of his head and the beautifully articulated right arm and shoulder. At his feet lies a sacrificial lamb, its legs tied together. Its presence is undoubtedly symbolic, as is the bowl to which the boy holding a candle points: in the modello it is only sketchily indicated but in the altarpiece the drop of Christ's blood – an allusion to the Eucharist – is clearly visible.

The painting was in the collection of Vincent Korda, the Hungarian-born art director who won an Academy Award for Best Art Direction for The Thief of Baghdad (1940) and was nominated for three further awards for That Hamilton Woman (1941), Jungle Book (1942) and The Longest Day (1962).

1. Inv. 1149; 374 by 252 cm.; see Emiliani, under Literature, 2008, cat. no. 49, reproduced in color on p. 90. A copy of Barocci's original by Carlo Paolucci, an artist from Urbino, now hangs on the high altar in Pesaro.
2. G. Calegari, "La pittura di Barocci e dei barocceschi a Pesaro," in Pesaro nell'età dei Della Rovere, vol. III, no. 2, Venice 2001, pp. 17-21, and p. 91, footnote 17.
3. Inv. no. 11551F, pen and ink (161 by 140 mm.); Emiliani, op. cit., p. 93, cat. no. 49.2, reproduced.
4. Inv. no. 91459 N.A., chalk on white paper (232 by 263 mm.); ibid., p. 95, cat. no. 49.4, reproduced.
5. Ibid., pp. 96-106, cat. nos. 49.5-49.37, all reproduced.
6. New York, private collection; ibid., vol. I, p. 354, cat. no. 39.2, reproduced in color. Emiliani also publishes another painting relating to this composition, apparently unfinished and also used to block out colors, in the Galleria Nazionale delle Marche, Urbino (idem, pp. 352-53, cat. no. 39.1, reproduced in color).