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拍品专文
This newly discovered depiction of a female saint belongs to the type of half-length, single-figure devotional image that secured Carlo Dolci’s reputation as the pre-eminent painter of such subjects in seventeenth-century Florence. With his profound sense of piety and painstaking execution – his biographer Filippo Baldinucci noted that ‘sometimes he would take weeks over a single foot’ – Dolci rapidly attracted collectors beyond Italy. English Grand Tourists in particular ‘cultivated a real passion for Dolci’s work’ (F. Baldassari, Carlo Dolci: Complete Catalogue of the Paintings, Florence, 2015, p. 11), and his reputation remained elevated throughout the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.
The saint, shown half-length, holds the palm of martyrdom, her hands delicately crossed over her chest. Her porcelain-like face, illuminated by an unseen light source, stands out against the dark background. Meticulously rendered tears bead on her skin as she raises her eyes towards heaven. She is enveloped in a richly patterned damask gown, further adorned by the starched cuffs of her underdress, over which Dolci layers a voluminous blue mantle and a light, diaphanous shawl.
On account of the delicacy of execution and the creamy brilliance of the palette, Francesca Baldassari has proposed a mature dating for the painting. The saint’s upturned face draws upon Jacopo Vignali’s Virgin in his signed and dated Pentecost of 1648 in the parish church of San Lorenzo in Borgo San Lorenzo, Mugello, providing a terminus post quem for Dolci’s painting. Baldassari therefore suggests a date towards the end of the circa 1640s or early 1650s. The dating is supported by clear parallels with Dolci’s Saint Mary Magdalene (Rome, Ducrot collection), especially in the porcelain-like finish of the flesh tones and the handling of the voluminous folds (ibid., pp. 210–211, no. 106). The martyr’s upturned gaze and half-open mouth also recall Dolci’s Saint Christina of Bolsena (Derbyshire, Kedleston Hall), dated by Baldassari to the first half of the 1650s (ibid., p. 213, no. 110).
Although the saint holds no specific attribute enabling a firm identification, she has previously been described as Saint Agnes. Dolci painted Saint Agnes in four surviving canvases, all holding her traditional lamb and datable to the 1660s and 1670s (ibid., nos. 154–157); two further unidentified depictions are also recorded (ibid., p. 338). The present figure may instead represent the third-century Sicilian martyr Saint Agatha: her hands crossed over her chest may allude to her torture, in which her breasts were removed using pincers after she rejected the Roman governor’s marriage proposal. Four depictions of Saint Agatha by Dolci are documented, one described as looking towards heaven (ibid.).
The attribution of this painting has been endorsed by Francesca Baldassari following first-hand inspection.
The saint, shown half-length, holds the palm of martyrdom, her hands delicately crossed over her chest. Her porcelain-like face, illuminated by an unseen light source, stands out against the dark background. Meticulously rendered tears bead on her skin as she raises her eyes towards heaven. She is enveloped in a richly patterned damask gown, further adorned by the starched cuffs of her underdress, over which Dolci layers a voluminous blue mantle and a light, diaphanous shawl.
On account of the delicacy of execution and the creamy brilliance of the palette, Francesca Baldassari has proposed a mature dating for the painting. The saint’s upturned face draws upon Jacopo Vignali’s Virgin in his signed and dated Pentecost of 1648 in the parish church of San Lorenzo in Borgo San Lorenzo, Mugello, providing a terminus post quem for Dolci’s painting. Baldassari therefore suggests a date towards the end of the circa 1640s or early 1650s. The dating is supported by clear parallels with Dolci’s Saint Mary Magdalene (Rome, Ducrot collection), especially in the porcelain-like finish of the flesh tones and the handling of the voluminous folds (ibid., pp. 210–211, no. 106). The martyr’s upturned gaze and half-open mouth also recall Dolci’s Saint Christina of Bolsena (Derbyshire, Kedleston Hall), dated by Baldassari to the first half of the 1650s (ibid., p. 213, no. 110).
Although the saint holds no specific attribute enabling a firm identification, she has previously been described as Saint Agnes. Dolci painted Saint Agnes in four surviving canvases, all holding her traditional lamb and datable to the 1660s and 1670s (ibid., nos. 154–157); two further unidentified depictions are also recorded (ibid., p. 338). The present figure may instead represent the third-century Sicilian martyr Saint Agatha: her hands crossed over her chest may allude to her torture, in which her breasts were removed using pincers after she rejected the Roman governor’s marriage proposal. Four depictions of Saint Agatha by Dolci are documented, one described as looking towards heaven (ibid.).
The attribution of this painting has been endorsed by Francesca Baldassari following first-hand inspection.