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Lot Essay
The present picture originally formed part of a set of the Four Evangelists, of which two of the three other constituents have also been traced: Saint Matthew (J. Paul Getty Museum, Malibu, fig. a; Baldassari, op. cit., 1995, no. 30) and Saint John the Evangelist (sold Christie's, New York, 11 Jan. 1995, lot 99, $398,500, and now in a European private collection; fig. b; Baldassari, op. cit., 1995, no. 31). The fourth, Saint Luke, was last recorded in the Morrison Collection at Basildon Park (Baldassari, op. cit., 1995, under no. 32). Baldinucci, Dolci's pupil, friend and biographer, records that the canvases were 'fatti da Carlo ne' primi tempi per un suo confessore, per non più di cinque scudi l'uno'; earlier on the same page, he identifies as Dolci's confessor Canonico Domenico Carpanti, for whom the artist also executed a vanitas still life, now lost. As Burton Fredricksen points out in his 1976 article, the care taken by Dolci in this commission would seem to reflect the affinity felt by the pious artist for his confessor, as well as his need to establish a reputation at this early stage of his career.
Baldinucci also records that the four octagonal pictures 'da Giovambatista Galli nostro gentiluomo furono per centoventi scudi comprati [e] poi Carlo messavi di nuovo la mano, gli ridusse in stato di assai maggior bellezza'. Giovanni Battista Galli, born in 1642, had inherited from his father Agnolo a fine collection of Florentine seicento paintings, including Lorenzo Lippi's Triumph of David, which contains portraits of Giovanni Battista, his mother and his fifteen siblings, painted in 1656 (exhibited Florence, Palazzo Strozzi, Il Seicento Fiorentino, Arte a Firenze da Ferdinando I a Cosimo III, 21 Dec. 1986-4 May 1987, Pittura pp. 346-8, no. 1.184, illustrated in colour). He took the opportunity to purchase the present picture and its companions in order to augment the collection in the family palace in Via Pandolfini, where 'i quattro Evangelisti maggiori del naturale, di mano del Dolci' were noted by Giovanni Cinelli in 1677 (loc. cit.)
They are next recorded at the end of the 17th Century in the collection of Cosimo Riccardi (1671-1751), and appear in various inventories of the family palazzo on the Via Larga (the Palazzo Medici-Riccardi) throughout the eighteenth century. In 1810, they were acquired from the family by Napoleon's brother, Lucien Bonaparte, Prince of Canino, who was in Italy from 1804 until 1810. On his way to America in 1810, Bonaparte was captured at sea by the British and his collection confiscated and subsequently sold in London in 1816 after his return to Italy. While in Bonaparte's collection Buchanan remarked that 'of the works of this esteemed master none exist which hold a higher rank, or have been more esteemed than the Four Evangelists in this collection. They formed part of the principal ornaments of the Riccardi Gallery at Florence' (loc. cit., 1815). When the collection was sold the series was dispersed; Saint Matthew and Saint John the Evangelist being sold privately to Sir Simon Clarke while Saint Mark and Saint Luke were included in the public sale held by Mr. Stanley in London on 16 May 1816. Buchanan does not record who bought Saint Mark (which was erroneously described as Saint Luke in the sale catalogue), but it later reappeared in the collection of King Willem II of the Netherlands by 1837.
Baldassari dates the series c. 1640, describing it as the 'capolavoro giovanile del Dolci' and praising the contrasting characterizations of the four subjects (op. cit., 1995, pp.21-2).
Baldinucci also records that the four octagonal pictures 'da Giovambatista Galli nostro gentiluomo furono per centoventi scudi comprati [e] poi Carlo messavi di nuovo la mano, gli ridusse in stato di assai maggior bellezza'. Giovanni Battista Galli, born in 1642, had inherited from his father Agnolo a fine collection of Florentine seicento paintings, including Lorenzo Lippi's Triumph of David, which contains portraits of Giovanni Battista, his mother and his fifteen siblings, painted in 1656 (exhibited Florence, Palazzo Strozzi, Il Seicento Fiorentino, Arte a Firenze da Ferdinando I a Cosimo III, 21 Dec. 1986-4 May 1987, Pittura pp. 346-8, no. 1.184, illustrated in colour). He took the opportunity to purchase the present picture and its companions in order to augment the collection in the family palace in Via Pandolfini, where 'i quattro Evangelisti maggiori del naturale, di mano del Dolci' were noted by Giovanni Cinelli in 1677 (loc. cit.)
They are next recorded at the end of the 17th Century in the collection of Cosimo Riccardi (1671-1751), and appear in various inventories of the family palazzo on the Via Larga (the Palazzo Medici-Riccardi) throughout the eighteenth century. In 1810, they were acquired from the family by Napoleon's brother, Lucien Bonaparte, Prince of Canino, who was in Italy from 1804 until 1810. On his way to America in 1810, Bonaparte was captured at sea by the British and his collection confiscated and subsequently sold in London in 1816 after his return to Italy. While in Bonaparte's collection Buchanan remarked that 'of the works of this esteemed master none exist which hold a higher rank, or have been more esteemed than the Four Evangelists in this collection. They formed part of the principal ornaments of the Riccardi Gallery at Florence' (loc. cit., 1815). When the collection was sold the series was dispersed; Saint Matthew and Saint John the Evangelist being sold privately to Sir Simon Clarke while Saint Mark and Saint Luke were included in the public sale held by Mr. Stanley in London on 16 May 1816. Buchanan does not record who bought Saint Mark (which was erroneously described as Saint Luke in the sale catalogue), but it later reappeared in the collection of King Willem II of the Netherlands by 1837.
Baldassari dates the series c. 1640, describing it as the 'capolavoro giovanile del Dolci' and praising the contrasting characterizations of the four subjects (op. cit., 1995, pp.21-2).