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Lot Essay
Antonio di Benedetto Aquilio, called Antoniazzo Romano, was the leading painter in Rome during the later fifteenth century, one of the three founders of the Compagnia di San Luca, the guild of painters in Rome, for which he signed the statutes in 1478. The son of an obscure artist, Benedetto Aquilio (active 1423-1451), under whom he is presumed to have studied, his earliest documented works, which date from the mid-1460s, demonstrate a vigorous plasticity and luminosity that recall the art of Fra Angelico and his pupil, Benozzo Gozzoli, both of whom had themselves been active in Rome. From the 1470s until his death, he garnered some of the most prestigious commissions in the Eternal City, which after several centuries of decline was at the time experiencing a renewal as the centre of the Church and a locus for the fine arts; in 1483, for example, Antoniazzo and the Sienese artist Pietro Turini were commissioned to decorate three rooms in the Vatican palace, none of which survive.
Around this time, Antoniazzo's style, which owed much to the art of Piero della Francesca and Melozzo da Forli (with whom he collaborated in 1480), came under the influence of Domrenico Ghirlandaio, then actively at work in the Vatican: a development that bore fruit in one of Antoniazzo's finest paintings, the Nativity with Two Saints of circa 1488 (Rome, Soprintendenza per i beni artistici e storici). Perhaps no other picture sums up his achievement so completely as the Annunciation with Cardinal Torquemada and Three Dowered Maidens (Rome, Santa Maria sopra Minerva, Cappella dell'Annunziata), painted to commemorate the Holy Year of 1500. In that work, the figures display all of the vivacity, gravitas and eloquence that was a hallmark of his style, whilst the use of gold ground and the participants' comparative sizes (scaled in accordance with their hieratic importance) underscore Antoniazzo's essential conservatism.
The present painting is one of the few works by Antoniazzo Romano for which the identity of the original patron is known. As attested to by the inscription and coat-of-arms, it was commissioned for Clemente Brigante Colonna (d. 16 December 1481), a leading citizen of Tivoli and a relation of the powerful Colonna family of Rome. The earliest mention of the painting, in 1744 (Casimiro da Roma, loc. cit.), gives its location as the first chapel on the right in the Franciscan church of Santa Maria Maggiore at Tivoli. In 1477, that chapel was ceded to Clemente, and it was probably at that time that it was rededicated to Saint Francis of Assisi (see B. Forastieri, loc. cit., pp. 4 and 7); in all likelihood, Clemente commissioned the present painting for this location following the chapel's rededication. Certainly, a dating in the late 1470s is supported stylistically by the influence of Verocchio (shared with Ghirlandaio, with whose own work Antoniazzo would not yet have been familiar), the blond tonalities, crisp line and graceful pose all marking it as a work of Antoniazzo's early maturity.
Around this time, Antoniazzo's style, which owed much to the art of Piero della Francesca and Melozzo da Forli (with whom he collaborated in 1480), came under the influence of Domrenico Ghirlandaio, then actively at work in the Vatican: a development that bore fruit in one of Antoniazzo's finest paintings, the Nativity with Two Saints of circa 1488 (Rome, Soprintendenza per i beni artistici e storici). Perhaps no other picture sums up his achievement so completely as the Annunciation with Cardinal Torquemada and Three Dowered Maidens (Rome, Santa Maria sopra Minerva, Cappella dell'Annunziata), painted to commemorate the Holy Year of 1500. In that work, the figures display all of the vivacity, gravitas and eloquence that was a hallmark of his style, whilst the use of gold ground and the participants' comparative sizes (scaled in accordance with their hieratic importance) underscore Antoniazzo's essential conservatism.
The present painting is one of the few works by Antoniazzo Romano for which the identity of the original patron is known. As attested to by the inscription and coat-of-arms, it was commissioned for Clemente Brigante Colonna (d. 16 December 1481), a leading citizen of Tivoli and a relation of the powerful Colonna family of Rome. The earliest mention of the painting, in 1744 (Casimiro da Roma, loc. cit.), gives its location as the first chapel on the right in the Franciscan church of Santa Maria Maggiore at Tivoli. In 1477, that chapel was ceded to Clemente, and it was probably at that time that it was rededicated to Saint Francis of Assisi (see B. Forastieri, loc. cit., pp. 4 and 7); in all likelihood, Clemente commissioned the present painting for this location following the chapel's rededication. Certainly, a dating in the late 1470s is supported stylistically by the influence of Verocchio (shared with Ghirlandaio, with whose own work Antoniazzo would not yet have been familiar), the blond tonalities, crisp line and graceful pose all marking it as a work of Antoniazzo's early maturity.