Giovanni Baglione

Commissioned circa 1599 by Paolo Santacroce, who paid 130 scudi, and possibly destined for the Cappella Santacroce in the church of San Martino ai Monti, Rome;
Private collection, Italy;
By whom anonymously sold, Milan, Sotheby's, 17 November 2008, lot 39, where acquired by the present owner (as Tuscan School, 16th Century).

Rome, Palazzo Venezia, Roma al Tempo di Caravaggio, 1600-1630, 16 November - 5 February 2012, no. II.2.

A. Bertolotti, Artisti bolognesei, ferraresi ed alcun altri nei secoli XV, XVI e XVII, Bologna 1885, 1962 edition, p. 146;
A. Morandotti and M.C. Terzaghi, Giovanni Baglione, un dipinto ritrovato, Milan 2009;
G. Serafinelli, 'Un "Amore dormiente" di Giovanni Baglione: aggiunta al catalogo del pittore', in Storia dell'Arte, 125/126, 2010, pp. 68-69, note 2, detail of the angel's upper body and face reproduced p. 69, fig. 6;
G. Serafinelli in R. Vodret, (ed.), Roma al Tempo di Caravaggio, 1600-1630, Rome 2011, pp. 30-31, cat. no. II.2, reproduced in colour;
M. Nicolaci, 'Sul naturalismo di Giovanni Baglione. Il Cristo in meditazione sulla Passione del 1606', in Roma moderna e contemporanea, XIX, 2011, 2, pp. 491-492, note 13.

The following condition report is provided by Hamish Dewar, who is an external specialist and not an employee of Sotheby's. UNCONDITIONAL AND WITHOUT PREJUDICE Structural condition The canvas has been lined and is securely attached to a relatively newly made keyed wooden stretcher. This is providing an even and stable structural support. Paint surface The paint surface has a relatively even varnish layer. There is a craquelure pattern visible throughout the composition which appears stable. Inspection under ultra-violet light shows fairly extensive retouchings throughout the composition, the most significant of which are: 1) a thick band of retouching running up the right vertical framing edge, 2) a large circular area of retouching to the left of arm of the angel on the right of the composition, with associated lines of retouching, 3) a vertical band of retouching running down the composition just to the right of the centre which is particularly concentrated above the architecture in the centre of the composition and just below the pink robes of the figure of Joseph, 4) a large area within the sky to the right of the leaves in the centre of the composition, 5) several areas along the lower horizontal framing edge, and 6) two large areas of retouching just below the cloud towards the upper right of the composition. There are several other areas of scattered retouchings and small, carefully applied spots throughout the composition. Summary The painting is therefore in fair and stable condition, having undergone fairly extensive restoration work in the past.
"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."

This recently rediscovered altarpiece by Giovanni Baglione was painted circa 1599, and was exhibited in last year's exhibition in Rome on Caravaggio and his followers. It is an invaluable document showing the twilight years of the colourful late Mannerism of Roman art which was soon to be radically altered by Caravaggio's revolutionary new style. While the soft pastel colours and the figure of Joseph are still very much rooted in the late sixteenth century and point to Baglione's formation in the wake of Federico Barocci and the Cavalier d'Arpino - witness his frescoes from 1598 in the church of Santa Maria dell'Orto in Rome - the features of the angel, particularly the physiognomy and eyes, are topoi which recur throughout Baglione's career and which were present in his recently rediscovered Saint John sold in these Rooms last December.¹ The extraordinarily ethereal yet statuesque presence of the angel point to a possible knowledge of Caravaggio's Rest on the Flight into Egypt in the Galleria Doria Pamphilj.² Despite not yet bearing witness to Caravaggio's tenebrism, the painting nevertheless points to an increased interest in naturalism in the plants in the foreground and more specifically in Joseph's attributes lower left.

The attribution was first recognised by Alessandro Morandotti (see Literature) who, with the aid of Maria Cristina Terzaghi's documentary investigations based on Maryvelma Smith O'Neill's monograph on the artist, was able to trace the altarpiece's origins to the Santacroce family, for whom the artist had worked on numerous occasions, both in their countryside residences in Oriolo and Vejano, and in their Roman palazzo. In his autobiography the artist published the details surrounding the commission of certain works with the express aim of distancing himself from the Santacroce family, for in 1603 scandal had hit the family when the Marchese Onofrio Santacroce was arrested, accused of having incited his brother Paolo to commit matricide. In September of that year Baglione was called to bear witness in favour of the defendant, and asked to explain why he had given him lodging in his house in Via Condotti. During the trial - not to be confused with his own trial that year against Caravaggio and Orazio Gentileschi - Baglione explained that in the summer of 1599 Paolo Santacroce had asked him to begin working on a certain number of canvases. Following the confiscation of Onofrio Santacroce's assets and his sentencing to the death penalty, Baglione turned to the Reverenda Camera Apostolica as a creditor to ask for his work to be paid, whereupon Cristoforo Roncalli, better known as il Pomarancio, and Annibale Carracci were asked to provide valuations for the work Baglione had produced for the Santacroce household. Having already received an account of 50 scudi from Paolo in 1599, Baglione was keen for the remaining 80 scudi to be paid in full from Onofrio. In the ensuing investigations it emerged that Paolo had commissioned a portrait, two figure-paintings showing Saint Silvestro and Saint Martino, and a "...tavola di Altare da Sancto Gioseffo nunziato da langelo", the present altarpiece. The measurements given of fourteen palmi corresponds to the size of our altarpiece.³

Less certain, though by no means to be excluded, is the possibility that the altarpiece was destined for the family chapel in San Martino ai Monti, as Terzaghi proposes, since in his autobiography Baglione lists only the aforementioned Saint Silvestro and Saint Martino as being specifically produced for that chapel.

The attribution has been endorsed on the basis of photographs by Maryvelma Smith O'Neil, to whom we are grateful.



1. See M. Smith O'Neil, Giovanni Baglione, Artistic Reputation in Baroque Rome, Cambridge 2002, p. 199, cat. no. 10. The architecture in the frescoes frames the compositions in much the same way as in the present work. The Saint John was sold anonymously, London, Sotheby's, 5 December 2012, lot 19, for £260,000.
2. See S. Schütze, Caravaggio, The Complete Works, Cologne 2009, p. 251, cat. no. 12, reproduced in colour.
3. See Morandotti and Terzaghi, under Literature, p. 28.