Works on Paper 2019 - Jean Luc Baroni

Rutilio Manetti
1571-1639 Siena
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A Life Study: a Monk Sleeping on a Straw Mat Leaning against a Pile of Books on a Mattress
Red chalk
Inscribed Annibal Carrache on the verso.
250 x 378 mm (9 7 /8 x 14 7 /8 in.)
The attribution of this striking drawing to Rutilio
Manetti was first suggested by Dr. John Marciari.
The quality and handling of the rich red chalk has
a distinctly Sienese flavour but as a figure study it is
conceived with a greater naturalism than is generally
seen in the school of Francesco Vanni, the principle
Sienese painter of the late 16 th , early 17 th centuries.
Vanni visited Bologna and was certainly aware of
the Bolognese research in figure drawing but, in
his own drawings, he does not seem to have taken
on the realistic quality common to the technique
and style of Bolognese figure studies. It appears to
have been his pupil Rutilio Manetti who was most
strongly inspired to work in this less mannered,
more naturalistic and observational manner. In
Siena itself, Manetti encountered Bartolommeo
Fig. 1 R. Manetti, The Death of the Blessed Antonio
Patrizi, Monticiano, Sant ‘Agostino.
Cesi’s work 1 when two altarpieces by him were
installed in the Certosa di Maggiano in 1612. In
his later projects, he clearly shows the influence of
Caravaggism though whether he actually spent time
in Rome himself is not recorded. Manetti’s painting
style certainly changes considerably in the course of
his career from the sweet faced, hierarchical early
works painted in the Vanni manner to powerful
and dramatically lit pictures such as the St. Jerome
Comforted by Angels of 1628 2 . This Caravaggist
aspect of his work has been a fascinating issue for
art historians in the last decades and has led to
considerable discussion and research. Luigi Lanzi
in his Storia Pittorica of 1795-6 likened Manetti to
Guercino 3 . Marco Ciampolini describes Manetti as
the “most modern” artist working in Siena at the turn
of the century and adds that his activity during the first
decade of the 17 th century revitalised Sienese culture,
by reflecting updated Bolognese prototypes through
his leaning towards naturalism and his instinctive
propensity towards realism 4 .
This attribution, initially advanced on the basis of
stylistic similarities, is confirmed by comparison with
the figure in an altarpiece which the artist painted
for the church of Sant’Agostino in Monticiano, The
Death of the Blessed Antonio Patrizi (Fig. 1). This
young Augustinian hermit (1287-1311) became the
object of a local cult after he died whilst visiting
his fellow monks. Alessandro Bagnoli, curator of
the 1978 exhibition on the artist, describes the
painting as one of Manetti’s most interesting and
proposes a dating around 1626 because of its
evidently Caravaggesque style 5 . The artist painted
the figure of the blessed Antonio Patrizi with only
minor variations from his preparatory drawing: the
young hermit is represented lying on a bed instead
of the straw mat, leaning against a pile of books,
with his hands and feet positioned in a very similar
way. Both works show the hermit shaggy haired and
with an incipient moustache. These highly realistic
details may suggest that Manetti used a studio
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