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拍品专文
Executed with dramatic chiaroscuro and psychological intensity, this recently rediscovered painting is a characteristic example of Bartolomeo Mendozzi's genre subjects. Known until recently by the sobriquet 'Maestro dell'Incredulità di San Tommaso' ('Master of the Incredulity of Saint Thomas'), Mendozzi was among the most accomplished Caravaggesque painters active in Rome during the second quarter of the seventeenth century.
The young musician is depicted in half-length, his features emerging from deep shadow under a strong raking light. He wears a loosely wrapped red cap and an ochre-brown cloak, and holds a cornetto—a curved wind instrument widely employed in sacred and secular music during the Renaissance and Baroque periods. His upturned gaze and parted lips suggest a moment of song or anticipation of play. The vivid red of the cap creates a striking focal point against the otherwise muted palette of warm browns and deep shadows, recalling the saturated reds found in the artist's Judith Beheading Holofernes (Dorotheum, Vienna, 23 May 2023, lot 54) and the vibrant mantle of Christ in his Christ and the Woman Taken in Adultery (M. Pulini, Bartolomeo Mendozzi da Leonessa, Rimini, 2022, pp. 79-80, no. 18).
An X-ray of the present canvas reveals an underlying composition depicting the Madonna and Child, beneath which the physiognomy of the Virgin closely resembles that in Bartolomeo Manfredi's altarpiece in San Pietro, Leonessa (fig. 1 and 2). This detail testifies to Mendozzi's early admiration for that painting in his hometown, and consequently for Manfredi, who is documented as his first teacher (F. Curti, 'Bartolomeo Mendozzi alias Maestro dell'Incredulità di San Tommaso', in A. Cosma and Y. Primarosa, eds., Barocco in chiaroscuro, Rome, 2020, p. 44). The presence of this sacred composition beneath a genre subject is symptomatic of a reuse of the canvas for commercial and opportunistic reasons: in his early maturity, the painter evidently found greater appreciation for figures of musicians and genre subjects than for classical and sacred iconography. This is fully in line with the fashion that spread in Rome during the second and third decades of the seventeenth century, when such works by Caravaggesque painters were particularly sought after by collectors.
The style of the present painting is strongly influenced by the work of Nicolas Tournier and Valentin de Boulogne, both active in Rome during the third decade of the seventeenth century, with whom Mendozzi undoubtedly came into contact. The identification of Mendozzi with the 'Maestro dell'Incredulità di San Tommaso' was established by Giuseppe Porzio, who attributed two lateral canvases in Rieti Cathedral—the Martyrdom of Saint Stephen and the Martyrdom of Saint Lawrence—to an artist named 'Mendozzi' in an eighteenth-century inventory. Francesca Curti subsequently connected this reference to Bartolomeo Mendozzi of Leonessa (op. cit., p. 42; see G. Porzio, A Rediscovered Concert, the Master of the Incredulity of Saint Thomas and Jean Ducamps, Florence, 2015). The presence of Mendozzi's paintings in the celebrated Giustiniani collection attests to the high esteem he enjoyed during his lifetime.
We are grateful to Francesco Gatta for his assistance in cataloging the present lot and for recognizing it as a work of Bartolomeo Mendozzi’s early maturity. We are also grateful to Tommaso Borgogelli (written communication, 3 November 2025) and Massimo Pulini (written communication, 6 November 2025) for endorsing the attribution on the basis of photographs.
The young musician is depicted in half-length, his features emerging from deep shadow under a strong raking light. He wears a loosely wrapped red cap and an ochre-brown cloak, and holds a cornetto—a curved wind instrument widely employed in sacred and secular music during the Renaissance and Baroque periods. His upturned gaze and parted lips suggest a moment of song or anticipation of play. The vivid red of the cap creates a striking focal point against the otherwise muted palette of warm browns and deep shadows, recalling the saturated reds found in the artist's Judith Beheading Holofernes (Dorotheum, Vienna, 23 May 2023, lot 54) and the vibrant mantle of Christ in his Christ and the Woman Taken in Adultery (M. Pulini, Bartolomeo Mendozzi da Leonessa, Rimini, 2022, pp. 79-80, no. 18).
An X-ray of the present canvas reveals an underlying composition depicting the Madonna and Child, beneath which the physiognomy of the Virgin closely resembles that in Bartolomeo Manfredi's altarpiece in San Pietro, Leonessa (fig. 1 and 2). This detail testifies to Mendozzi's early admiration for that painting in his hometown, and consequently for Manfredi, who is documented as his first teacher (F. Curti, 'Bartolomeo Mendozzi alias Maestro dell'Incredulità di San Tommaso', in A. Cosma and Y. Primarosa, eds., Barocco in chiaroscuro, Rome, 2020, p. 44). The presence of this sacred composition beneath a genre subject is symptomatic of a reuse of the canvas for commercial and opportunistic reasons: in his early maturity, the painter evidently found greater appreciation for figures of musicians and genre subjects than for classical and sacred iconography. This is fully in line with the fashion that spread in Rome during the second and third decades of the seventeenth century, when such works by Caravaggesque painters were particularly sought after by collectors.
The style of the present painting is strongly influenced by the work of Nicolas Tournier and Valentin de Boulogne, both active in Rome during the third decade of the seventeenth century, with whom Mendozzi undoubtedly came into contact. The identification of Mendozzi with the 'Maestro dell'Incredulità di San Tommaso' was established by Giuseppe Porzio, who attributed two lateral canvases in Rieti Cathedral—the Martyrdom of Saint Stephen and the Martyrdom of Saint Lawrence—to an artist named 'Mendozzi' in an eighteenth-century inventory. Francesca Curti subsequently connected this reference to Bartolomeo Mendozzi of Leonessa (op. cit., p. 42; see G. Porzio, A Rediscovered Concert, the Master of the Incredulity of Saint Thomas and Jean Ducamps, Florence, 2015). The presence of Mendozzi's paintings in the celebrated Giustiniani collection attests to the high esteem he enjoyed during his lifetime.
We are grateful to Francesco Gatta for his assistance in cataloging the present lot and for recognizing it as a work of Bartolomeo Mendozzi’s early maturity. We are also grateful to Tommaso Borgogelli (written communication, 3 November 2025) and Massimo Pulini (written communication, 6 November 2025) for endorsing the attribution on the basis of photographs.