Francesco Vanni, attribuito

A poignant painting from the late 1500s or early 1600s, unsigned, attributed to Francesco Vanni, possibly with the help of his workshop. Dimensions: 127 x 100 cm. The nocturnal representation shows Jesus lying on the ground with a chain around his neck and tied with a rope to his left forearm. Held down by two torturers, one of whom, muscular, swings his right arm to strike him, while stepping on him with his right foot. A small bundle of thorns is also visible on the ground to the right, intended for the subsequent flagellation. Jesus, wearing only a cloth around his waist, suffers and lets them do it. In the background on the left is depicted St. Peter's penance, wringing his hands in remorse, and other figures approaching. The attribution of the painting to Francesco Vanni, perhaps with the help of his workshop, appears plausible. It is observed that the figure of the torturer, the most interesting pictorially, is likely the direct hand of the master, while the other figures may have been made with the help of the workshop. In fact, comparing the face of Christ and other details of the body in our painting with another flagellation by Vanni with a different composition, kept at the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna (photos 7 - 8 - 9), while the expressive analogies and features are evident, our painting appears as a somewhat more hasty and less detailed realization than the one in Vienna. Perhaps a less "illustrious" commission? Conservation conditions: work in patina, clearly legible, with colors preserved even if slightly attenuated by the patinated protective varnish. Small, circumscribed color losses retouched during a restoration probably at the beginning of the 1900s when the painting was also lined for conservation purposes (see UV reflectography report in photo n.5) The fascinating story of Vanni's flagellations. There is talk of another copy/version of this painting, the original by Francesco Vanni that was in the church of Santa Cecilia in Trastevere in Rome, which was destroyed; altarpiece, of which the preparatory drawings remain. This flagellation was created in several versions and copies by the Vanni (father and son) in their workshop in Siena, some of which have come down to us. Among these, another similar flagellation from the beginning of the 17th century, which is now hanging in the corridor between the Chiesa Nuova and the Oratorio dei Filippini in Rome (the latter appears very similar to our work, also due to the placement of the central semi-column still preserved in Santa Prassede in Rome, and for other details similar to Vanni's preparatory sketches now kept in the Biblioteca Comunale in Siena n. S.III.10/13 r. such as the torturer's boots (photo 9)). Three versions attributed to the Vanni workshop are known in Siena (see Wegman 1979). Other later copies of the flagellation in question are also known, made in the 17th century, including a French one by Jérémie le Pileur (fl.1619-1638), kept at the Musée des Beaux-Arts de Tours [n.1825-1-51]. We also point out the same version, very similar to our painting, probably painted with the help of a mirror that orients the scene in the opposite direction, now kept in the Convent of S. Maria in Vallicella in Rome, which the Sovraintedenza del Lazio dates around 1650 and attributes to the son of Francesco Vanni, Raffaello, visible at the link at the bottom of the page: See photographic comparison between the two works photo n. 6 In Emilia Romagna, at the diocese of Imola, another version/copy from the early 1600s of our flagellation attributed to Garbieri Lorenzo, 1580-1654 is preserved. See photographic comparison between the two works at n. 7 visible at the link at the bottom of the page: thus described: "Villa says he saw a print of this painting with the name G.Battista Gabbioni, a painter from Imola. Both Villa and Buscaroli agree on the attribution to Garbieri, an interesting exponent of the 17th-century Emilian school." Other later copies from the mid and late 1600s, certainly not from the Vanni workshop, have been auctioned over the years by various auction houses with incorrect attributions, such as "Neapolitan or Spanish or even Flemish schools", or "Caravaggio-like painter". Susan Wegner (Susan Wegner, 'Further notes on the works of Francesco Vanni for Roman clients' in Mitteilungen des Kunsthistorischen Institutes in Florenz, 23. Bd., H. 3 (1979), p.316), writes about the original version destroyed in Rome: "The Flagellation was placed on an altar to the right of the main altar, near a door that led to the crypt. The painting was in poor condition at the beginning of the 19th century (Romagnoli reports - Manuscript ca. 1830 voi. Vili, p. 599), and was removed and probably destroyed when the entire altar was replaced by a modern altar during the renovations of the late 19th century. Baglione (ed. 1733, p. 105) reported that Vanni's painting had been sent to Rome from Siena, and Nava Cellini noted that Vanni had been paid through intermediaries in Siena. We read in the text by Riedl "drawings of the Sienese Barocchi" published in 1976: "The sources tell us that Vanni supplied two paintings for the titular church of Cardinal Sfondrato, that is, Santa Cecilia in Trastevere in Rome: a representation of the Death of Saint Cecilia and a Flagellation of Christ, which I have not been able to trace. Mancini (ed. 1956, voi. I, p. 82) cites a "Christ Beaten on the Ground"; Baglione (ed. 1733, p. 105) recalls "a Christ at the column beaten, and thrown on the ground, whom a thug tramples on, very devout. And he sent these two paintings from Siena." Romagnoli (Manuscript ca. 1830 voi. Vili, p. 599) mentions the Flagellation as largely ruined ("but little can have life"). According to Nava Celimi (1969, p. 40, note 30), in 1601 and 1602 the payments for the Flagellation were transferred from Rome to Siena. A small oil painting with the Flagellation is kept in the Chigi Saracini collection in Siena, which corresponds to the old descriptions; however, it should be a copy from the workshop rather than a model by Vanni himself. The composition has in common with the Death of Saint Cecilia the lunette shape, there is also a formal, visible correspondence between the fallen Christ and the lying Saint. However, the Death of Saint Cecilia and the Flagellation do not seem to have served as pendants. The sketches on our sheet prepare the Flagellation without getting too close to the drafting of the Chigi Saracini painting, but the central figure, which refers to a Denial of Saint Peter (see n. 46), is not part of this scene. 46. - SKETCHES FOR A FLAGELLATION AND FOR A DENIAL OF ST. PETER, n. 4778 S. Fig. 47 202 x 273 — Pen, white paper. Coli.: Santarelli (L. 907). Bibl.: Cat. SANTAHEIXI, 1870, p. 341, n. 81. Photo 9 The three sketches for a Flagellation are probably thoughts for the painting already in the church of Santa Cecilia in Trastevere (see n. 45). Especially the draft at the bottom right contains elements of the composition, as it is handed down by the Chigi Saracini painting. The four variants of the standing man refer to a Denial of Saint Peter for which there is a compositional drawing at the Louvre, n. 1978, and a study for the maid at the Biblioteca Comunale di Siena, n. S.I.5/11 v. A drawing with sketches for the Flagellation in the Biblioteca Comunale in Siena, n. S.III.10/13 r. is related to this sheet and the previous one." There is another preparatory sketch by Vanni of this scene, now kept at the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge, photo 10 Francesco Vanni (Siena, 1563 – Siena, October 26, 1610) Vanni evolves his style from Mannerism and is considered a Baroque painter. He underwent the influences and fascination of the art of Raphael, Federico Barocci and Annibale Carracci. His stepfather Arcangelo Salimbeni was his teacher. At about fifteen he moved to Bologna where he may have worked with Bartolomeo Passarotti. In the 1580s he returned to Siena, where he dedicated himself to numerous works of sacred art, commissioned to respect the new canons of the Counter-Reformation. He created the altar of Sant'Ansano, evangelizer and protector of the city, in the Duomo of Siena and the main altar in the church of San Niccolò in Sasso. In 1595 he created a map of Siena that has been defined as "an ante litteram photograph". With a skill still unusual for the times, the city is taken "in bird's eye view". Consider how rudimentary the instruments for land surveys were despite the Renaissance progress. From 1600 to 1604 he was in Rome where he created an altarpiece in the Basilica of San Pietro and other works. He died in 1610 and was buried in the church of San Giorgio in Siena, where a commemorative monument on the counter-façade built by his sons remembers him. His work continued after his death in the family workshop directed by his son Raffaello, who was also a painter. Bibliography: Art in Siena under the Medici: 1555-1609, catalog edited by Fiorella Sricchia Santoro, (Palazzo Pubblico, Siena, 3.5.-15.9.1980), Rome, De Luca, 1980. Alessandro Bagnoli, The beginnings of Francesco Vanni, in Prospettiva, 82.1996, p. 84-94. Jane Turner (edited by), The dictionary of art, XXXI ad vocem, New York, Grove; London, Macmillan, 1996 Cristiana Garofalo, Francesco Vanni: (Siena, 1563-1610), in: In the sign of Barocci: pupils and followers between Marche, Umbria, Siena. Fondazione Cassa di Risparmio di Pesaro, (edited by Anna Maria Ambrosini Massari and Marina Cellini), Milan, Motta, 2005, pp. 346-369. 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