Pietro Paolini

Anonymous sale, Ansorena, Madrid, 21 May 2024, lot 124 (as Italian School, possibly Neapolitan).

‘Paolini is a “bizarre” painter for his choice of subjects and their translation into painting. His literary culture, his originality and his taste for the strange prompt him to create new, unusual and surprising images which are often troubling […].’ This is N. de Vernejoul’s analysis in his monograph published in 2024 (Pietro Paolini (1603-1681). Peintre caravagesque de l’étrange, Arthéna, Paris, 2024, p. 172). Pietro Paolini was a major figure in the artistic scene in Lucca, which in the seventeenth century was an independent Tuscan republic. Self-trained in Rome, he was strongly influenced by the work of Caravaggio and subsequently Angelo Caroselli in the 1620s. When he returned to the city of his birth, he received commissions from prestigious religious institutions in Lucca and from noble families in the city which helped to establish his studio’s good name, not least thanks to the influence of his wealthy family. In the 1640s, he founded the Accademia del naturale, introducing the Caravaggesque Naturalist aesthetic to his pupils Simone del Tintore, Antonio Franchi and Girolamo Scaglia. He frequented the free thinkers of the time and displayed a certain interest in stoicism, becoming close to the painters of the Dissenso such as Angelo Caroselli and Salvator Rosa, although he did not oppose the academic system.

A man of advanced years, with a bald head, is shown in three-quarter view, looking intensely out at the viewer. He is writing, the pen held in his right hand while the left holds down the page of the manuscript. On the table, a small copper vessel serves as his ink pot. The deep, dark background and the blue-grey tones of the drapery around the figure contrast with his skin, burnished by the sun. The clear light coming from the left of the painting highlights the marks of time on his emaciated face and his hands gnarled by hard work, creating a contrast with his literary activities. His head is crowned with a few plaited laurel leaves: linked to Apollo, this symbol of musicians, poets and heroes is rendered almost ironic by its straggly appearance. This model, with his distinctive physical features, recalls The Lute player (Puerto Rico, Museo de Arte de Ponce) and The Piva player (Ajaccio, Palais Fesch, inv. MFA 2017.1.1). The figures in all these paintings have the same thin mouth, long nose and slightly protruding ears.

This individual is a mondone, an iconography derived from Ribera’s bald men wearing the hats of morosophers, or learned fools (see for example Jusepe de Ribera, A philosopher: the happy geometer, c. 1610–1612, sold at the Hôtel Drouot on 16 June 2020, lot 23). This was itself inspired by the northern tradition of the tutto raso, a character whose comic role was chiefly expressed through his ugliness. From 1645–1650, a period when he was exploring different forms of mondoni, Paolini used this type to represent peasant musicians, as well as sages. In the view of Erasmus, the figure of the morosophoï put the world’s balance at risk: the learned fool demonstrates that all purported wisdom can only be folly and that all fools are satisfied with their lot, making the task of correcting behaviours still more difficult (T. Gheeraert, ‘La satirique et le morosophe: Boileau, dernier fou du roi’, boileau.hypotheses.org, 2020). By imagining the soul of the poet or philosopher in the body of a peasant or beggar, the artist exalts his ugliness with his talent, thus also disrupting the established order.

The mysterious atmosphere of this painting illustrates the taste for the strange and the sinister that defines Paolini’s work. The nocturnal lighting amplifies the sense of instability created by the leaning torso and the pronounced diagonal of the book. The model’s facial features, with lips contorted into a rictus and eyes looking sideways, presents a troubling face. This unstable world, with impossible perspectives and distorted bodies, is marked by a tormented quality that echoes the metaphysical concerns of the literary circles which the artist frequented in Lucca. Sources mention a number of mondoni produced by his studio, as well as two paintings of philosophers owned by the Mansi and Raffaelli families.