Catalogue-2014-Jean-Luc-Baroni

Lorenzo Lippi
Florence 1606-1665)
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Moses before the Pharaoh turning the Water of the River Nile into Blood
Oil on canvas.
127.6 x 186.7 cms. (50 ¼ x 73 ¾)
Provenance: The Late John Appleby, Jersey, Channel Islands.
Literature: C.d’Afflitto. Lorenzo Lippi, Florence 2002, pp.146-7, 149 and 294, cat.120, illustrated (as
Biblical Scene); F. Baldassari, La Pittura del Seicento a Firenze, Indice degli artisti e delle loro opere,
Turin, 2009, pp.451 and 461, fig.244; G. Cantelli, Repertorio della pittura fiorentina del Seicento
Aggiornamento, vol.I, Pontedera 2009, p.124 (as Biblical Scene); S. Bellesi, Catalogo dei pittori fiorentini
del ‘600 e ‘700. Biographie e opere, vol.I, Florence 2009, p.181, (as Biblical Scene).
Baldinucci describes Lorenzo Lippi as a precociously talented artist who showed a natural brilliance
as a draughtsman as well as being a talented horseman, dancer and writer. He recounts tales of Matteo
Rosselli, Lippi’s master, saying often in company: Lorenzo, you draw better than I do (Lorenzo, tu disegni
meglio di me) 1 . At the age of 40, Lorenzo married the daughter of the sculptor Giovanni Francesco
Susini, and as a result of the latter’s connections, was invited to be court painter to Archduchess Claudia,
the Florentine widow of Leopold V of Tyrol, at Innsbruck. A number of Lippi’s portraits, painted whilst
he was in Austria, are in the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna. In Innsbruck he also began the long,
humourous poem Malmantile Raequistato, for which he became and remains well known. A burlesque
love story employing folk tales and Florentine vernacular speech, the poem is evidence of Lippi’s wit and
culture. Back in Florence, Lippi became a friend and supporter of Salvator Rosa with whom he attended
literary academies and discussed the works of the classical writers. Lippi produced paintings for many of
the noble families of the city, his most famous work being the Triumph of David painted for Agnolo Galli
which depicts all of Galli’s seventeen children amongst the crowd celebrating David’s triumph. His aim
in painting was to follow nature; Baldinucci criticised him for his lack of artfulness but the purity and
refinement of his style were admired by Rosa in particular.
Despite having been acknowledged for its grandeur and fine quality by Academics, this painting was
only known from an old photograph until its recent re-appearance, as Consul Gaius Popillius drawing
a Circle around King Antiochus IV. Chiara d’Afflitto (see literature) described it as being one of the best
examples of his artistic achievement, on par with the Erminia and the Shepherds in the Museo Rospigliosi
in Pistoia 2 and dated it to the artist’s mature period in the second half of the 1660s. Particularly admirable
are the fusion between the grand and eloquent protagonists in the foreground and the details of the three
gracefully poised figures in the background, as well as the rich colours and subtle lighting. A preparatory
drawing for the young man standing by the river in the background is in the Kunst Museum, Copenhagen 3
(fig.1).
Francesca Baldassari has recently recognised that the subject is in fact a biblical episode taken from
Exodus, Chapter 7: Moses and his brother Aaron come before the Pharaoh to ask that the tribes of Israel
be allowed to leave Egypt, the Pharaoh challenges them to work a miracle to prove themselves. God had
told Moses to command Aaron to put his staff at the Pharaoh’s feet where it would transform into a snake.
The Pharaoh’s own magicians and wise men looked on but the Pharaoh’s heart remained hardened and
the next day God told Moses to command Aaron to touch the waters of the Nile with his staff and the river
would turn to blood. On the left of the composition, the arrogant figure of the Pharaoh and his attendants,
with their richly decorated and colourful garments, make a strong contrast with the austerely dressed and
sombre figure of Moses at the right edge of the scene. While the Pharaoh frames the reddening waters
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