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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