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Paintings Drawings Sculptures 2016 - Jean Luc Baroni

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Stylistically, the present work belongs to a series of<br />

works dating to the 1650s which seek a balance<br />

between the landscape in the background and the fulllength<br />

figures in the foreground, such as the Preaching<br />

of St.John the Baptist in the Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza<br />

in Madrid (1647-50), the St. John the Baptist in the Brera<br />

(circa 1648-49), a further painting of the same subject<br />

in Sant’Anastasia in Rome (1649-50), the Prodigal Son<br />

in the Museum Boymans Van Beuningen in Rotterdam<br />

(1650-52), the St. Eustace in Palazzo Pamphilj in<br />

Nettuno (1655) and the Bacchus and Ariadne in the<br />

Herzog Anton Ulrich Museum, Braunschweig (1659-<br />

60). This evolutionary progression culminates in the<br />

St. Bruno (fig.2) from the Chigi collection with is now<br />

at the Getty Museum, Malibu (1660-3) and may be<br />

considered the most baroque of Mola’s works 5 . Cain’s<br />

pose is however very similar to that of the figure of the<br />

tormentor on the right of the fresco of the Martyrdom<br />

of SS. Abdon and Sennen in the church of San Marco in<br />

Rome (1653-33) 6 , while the anatomy records that in the<br />

Preaching of St. John the Baptist formerly in the Chigi<br />

collection, now in the Galleria Nazionale d’Arte Antica<br />

di Roma (1660-2), which also includes the two glimpses<br />

of blue sky visible in the clouds 7 . The figure of Cain has<br />

clearly inspired that, almost identical, in the very similar<br />

2. Pier Francesco Mola, St. Bruno, the Getty Museum, Malibu.<br />

painting of the same subject by Guglielmo Cortese, il<br />

Borgognone, datable to around 1653-4 and now in the<br />

Palazzo Doria Pamphilj, Rome, although the figure of<br />

Abel, the setting of the scene and the format differ. The<br />

Cortese painting was part of a cycle of large canvases<br />

executed by the French painter in collaboration with<br />

Gaspard Dughet for Prince Camillo Doria Pamphilj,<br />

two of which were paid for in 1653 8 . This is not the<br />

only time that Borgognone shows a certain dependence<br />

upon Mola, above all in his youthful works done for<br />

the Doria Pamphilj patron and in the decorative cycles<br />

in the palazzi at Nettuno and Valmontone which were<br />

overseen by the master.<br />

Pier Francesco Mola, Ticinese by birth but Roman by<br />

adoption, was a pupil of Cavalier d’Arpino, a roving<br />

artist who completed his training between Bologna and<br />

Venice, frequenting the studios of Albani and Guercino.<br />

In 1649, he returned definitively to Rome, where<br />

he executed the major part of his important works.<br />

An excellent draughtsman and lively caricaturist, he<br />

practiced in many fields, making decorative works<br />

with both profane and sacred subjects, frescoes and<br />

portraits. He enjoyed the favour of the Papal families of<br />

the Pamphilj and the Chigi, the patronage of Cristina of<br />

Sweden, as well as commissions from other important<br />

families such as the Costaguti, the Colonna and the<br />

Omodei, testifying to his success. He was elected as the<br />

Principe of the Accademia di San <strong>Luc</strong>a in 1662. Mola’s<br />

success is also witnessed by the Roman based still<br />

life painter Abraham Brueghel, who, a few years after<br />

Mola’s death, affirmed: “Qui ha lasciato fama il primo<br />

Pictor d’Italia” (His fame still lasts as the pre-eminent<br />

Italian painter). The vast workshop, the considerable<br />

number of copies of his work which can still be found<br />

on the art market and are present in both private and<br />

public collections, as well as his influence on the work<br />

of generations of painters up until the 19 th century, are<br />

a clear reflection of the uninterrupted popularity of his<br />

work. Between the 18 th and the 19 th centuries many of<br />

his paintings found their way into prestigious collections<br />

of the royal and aristocratic families of France, England<br />

and Europe, from Louis XIV to Catherine the Great, the<br />

Marchese de Marigny to the Dukes of Sutherland, the<br />

Elector of Bavaria to the Dukes of Orléans, the Counts<br />

of Exeter to the Dukes of Rutland. His influence on<br />

painting continued into the 19 th century when Eugène<br />

Delacroix advised his pupils to copy Mola just as Turner<br />

and Fragonard had done, whereas Gainsborough<br />

considered himself unable to paint as well as him.<br />

Translated from a text by Professor Francesco Petrucci<br />

22

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