SARACENI, Carlo

The painting shows the influence of the work of both Adam Elsheimer (to whom the painting was once attributed) and Caravaggio, two artists who profoundly affected Saraceni’s style in Rome. It stands out for its subtle effects of light and complex compositional arrangement with seven light sources - the moon, the fire in the distance at right, the four candles held by the figures and the heavenly radiance of the Christ Child.

Saraceni most likely executed this painting in Rome. In the first decade of the seventeenth century artists from all corners of Italy and Europe descended on the Eternal City to create a flourishing artistic scene. Northern artists brought with them the use of copper as a support, a development which provided Italian painters with a novel vehicle to produce different textures and finishes to their painted surfaces. From Bologna the Carracci family and their satellites imported the horizontal bipartite structure of their designs which was to have a profound influence on the non-Caravaggesque, Classical strand of Roman painting and which can be felt in the present work.

In the lower section of the painting, the three sleeping disciples are arranged in a solid pyramidal shape.

The biblical subject of this painting was rarely depicted. It represents the scene of an angel announcing to the aged wife of Manoah the birth of her son Samson.

Saraceni was mostly active as a figure painter and executed only a few landscapes. His landscapes rely heavily on the example of the German Adam Elsheimer.

This work reveals the influence of Caravaggio in the poverty of the setting and the illumination by artificial light.

Saraceni executed this altarpiece for the first altar to the right in the Church of San Simeone Profeta, which was reconstructed and decorated by Cardinal Lancellotti in 1610. The canvas came to the museum in 1929, following the suppression of the church. Scholars agree on attributing it to Saraceni, and as the commission is securely datable it constitutes (along with the Frascati Rest on the Flight into Egypt, securely dated to 1606) an important point of reference for the reconstruction of the painter’s first Roman period.

Compared to the 1606 Frascati canvas, which shows only the first timid hints of naturalism, here the artist displays a significant maturing and reveals an absorbtion of Caravaggesque method. The background landscape has been eliminated and replaced with a deep shadow throughout, in accordance with the tenets of the new naturalistic style. The figures, all concentrated in the foreground, are set much closer to the picture plane, accentuating the emotional intereaction between themselves and the viewer.

The beautiful dove held by Saint Anne is a master passage of impressionistic brushwork, economically rendered with extremely rapid brushstrokes that are full of color and light. Likewise the cradle to the lower right, realized with an astonishing speed and lucid realistic effect, can be considered as a harbinger of the painting of Vel�zquez. This passage is an important parallel to the famous “basket” executed by Borgianni in these same years.

There is a long history of attributions of this painting to various artists. The attribution to Saraceni is accepted by the majority of art historians. However, the attribution to a non-Italian, Guy Fran�ois, has been sustained by all the French critics, notwithstanding the absence of any confirmed Roman works by this artist.

If the painting is compared with certified works of Saraceni and with those of Guy Fran�ois (all executed after his return to Le Puy) it seems evident that neither of the two painters can be convincingly considered the author of this masterpiece. It is true nevertheless that one can identify in the execution of the painting some of the signature details shared by both artists, and some details peculiar to the style of one or the other. The most distinctive element of the picture, however, is the extraordinarily inventive composition, dominated by the enormous wings of the angel and by the diagonal of the bass viol. This instrument, along with the large lyre in the foreground, stretches across the entire surface of the canvas, as if to measure the space within. The courageous and original composition has no convincing analogues in the work of Fran�ois, which is always rather more conventional. On the other hand, this composition seems to fit well alongside proven works by Saraceni, beginning with the Flight into Egypt at the Eremo dei Camaldoli (1606).

The depiction of the subject is related to the vigorous revival of the cult of Saint Cecilia in the first few decades of the seventeenth century, following the 1599 discovery of the virgin martyr’s incorrupt body during the course of excavations at the Roman church of Santa Cecilia.

In this painting the patron saint of musicians and musical instrument makers is a beautiful young woman, who appears surrounded by instruments in this interior created by green and red draperies. She is tuning her lute with a delicate movement, according to the instructions of an angel next to her. Her devoted attention indicates that her skill in the handling of instruments is derived from God. The painter depicted the spiritual meeting of the angel and Cecilia through a poetic mood and the inner brilliance of the soft profiles.

The elegance of forms and gestures is coupled with gentle and natural realism. The dominant element, as it fills nearly one-third of the composition, is the six-stringed viola da gamba, which the angel holds in his right hand. The viewer is overwhelmed by the near-concrete realism of its shell, material and outline. Next to it on the ground lie two wind instruments; in the centre under the opened sheet music, a violin. The painter even included a small harp in the right background. On the other hand, the organ is missing; thus there is nothing to refer to the text of the St Cecilia legend.

Suggested listening (streaming mp3, 3 minutes):

Girolamo Frescobaldi: Ricercar No. 8

The saint is tuning her lute with a delicate movement, according to the instructions of an angel next to her.

Suggested listening (streaming mp3, 2 minutes):

Francesco da Milano: Tre fantasie for lute

Formerly attributed to Caravaggio, but in the 19th century it was changed in favour of an attribution to Stern (a Flemish artist). Recently the painting was reassigned to an anonymous Italian imitator of Saraceni who was perhaps copying a lost work by the Venetian master.

This painting can be identified with an entry in an unpublished inventory (dated 1802) of the Giustiniani collection, where it is listed as a work of Caravaggio (Vodret 1994). This attribution was maintained in the early Torlonia inventories until 1855, when it was changed in favour of an attribution to Stern (Vodret 1994). Longhi gave the picture to Saraceni, dating it to the second decade of the seventeenth century on account of its similarities to Saraceni’s work in the Roman churches of San Lorenzo in Lucina and Santa Maria dell’Anima (Longhi, 1943). Ottani Cavina (1968) and Nicolson (1990), however, reassigned the painting to an anonymous Italian imitator of Saraceni who was perhaps copying a lost work by the Venetian master.

The canvas is extraordinary for its compositional originality, the intensity of the pictorial material, the rapid execution and the vivacity of chromatic range. All these qualities point to Saraceni, one of the first followers of Caravaggio. Yet at the moment, despite its tight Caravaggesque observation, the painting does not seem to be attributable with certainty to the Venetian master, on account of stylistic differences between it and certifiable works of the painter like the Madonna and Child with Saint Anne (also in the Galleria Nazionale d’Arte Antica, Rome). Nor is the name of the Flemish artist Stern sustainable at this time, though such an attribution is partially justifiable on the basis of the lucid optical rendering of the details.

Suggested listening (streaming mp3, 12 minutes):

Gregorian chants

Saraceni is a difficult artist to define. He was essentially eclectic, with an unusual skill in brushwork almost akin to that of a northerner. He assimilated many influences, ranging from Caravaggio to the German Elsheimer.

This painting is a copy (with several variations) of a monumental composition which Saraceni painted in oil for the Annunciation chapel in the church of Santa Maria in Aquiro, in Rome.

There are indications of Caravaggio’s influence in this painting, but Saraceni presents an original and innovative interpretation of Caravaggio’s language through his choice of vivid colours and novel iconography.

The recorder, violin, tambourine and musical scores in the foreground refer to the saint’s patronage of music.

This monumental composition, executed for the Camaldolite hermitage in Frascati, includes a number of details that not only enliven the subject, but also transform it into an almost intimate narrative. The landscape setting is remarkable in itself and appears to have been based on the work of Adam Elsheimer. Saraceni did take some inspiration from Caravaggio’s Rest on the Flight into Egypt in which music also comforts the Holy Family on their difficult journey.

The subject of this painting is an episode from classical literature about the loves of the gods. Mars, the god of war, falls in love with Venus and succeeds in meeting her in the palace of her husband, Vulcan. Saraceni depicts the moment just before the adulterous couple is caught by Vulcan. Saraceni used the love of Mars and Venus for two other well-known paintings.