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Lot Essay
With the attribution and publication of this picture, Fischer Pace made a significant addition to Pietro da Cortona's early oeuvre, of which little is known. She pointed out that this type of composition, with half-length figures, was almost exclusively used by Cortona in the 1620s, and that it can be compared with the Adoration of the Shepherds in the Palazzo Mattei, and the Christ and the Woman taken in Adultery, now in a private collection. The Saint Cecilia of c. 1623, in the National Gallery also shows a monumental half-length figure. Yet the style of the present picture indicates an earlier date, and therefore it is generally dated c. 1622 when Pietro was working with Petro Paolo Bonzi on the frescoes of the ceiling of the gallery of the Palazzo Mattei in Rome, his first documented work. It still shows the influence of the work of Baccio Ciarpi whose workshop Pietro entered on the recommendation of Andrea Commodi at the age of eighteen. Fischer Pace also points out the similarities with Ciarpi's Communion of Saint Lucy in the church of Santa Lucia in Rome: the deacon on the right seems to be a quotation from Ciarpi's picture and the monumentality of Pope Clement resembles that of the Bishop in the same picture. Furthermore, this monumentality as well as the treatment of the paint also recall Titian and the Venetian tradition, whose influence on Cortona has been discussed by Papi (op. cit., 1995, p. 33).
The picture was included in the major monographic exhibition on the artist in 1997; in the catalogue, Lo Bianco argues that the picture was probably commissioned by a member of the Paolucci family as it is recorded in the inventory made on 8 March 1695, after the death of the abbott, Giuseppe Paolucci: 'Un quadro rappresentante S. Urbano e S. Domitilla con altre quattro figure di grandezza quasi naturale per altezza palmi 6 e lunghezza palmi 8 di Pietro da Cortona' (op. cit., 1997, p. 294). Both the number of figures and the size of the listed picture are similar to this lot; the only discrepancy with this picture is that the notary mistook Pope Clement for Pope Urban.
The subject of the Roman virgin Flavia Domitilla, receiving a veil from Pope Clement, is taken from the 'Legend of Saint Domitilla' in the Acta Sanctorum or from the Legenda Aurea. Pope Clement I is recognisable from the attribute of his martyrdom, the anchor which was bound to his neck when he was thrown into the sea. The hypothesis, put forward by Lo Bianco, was that the picture was commissioned by Fabrizio Paolucci (1556-1625) because he, like Cortona, had close ties with the Oratorians and their church (see also Merz, op. cit., 1991, p. 164).
The picture was included in the major monographic exhibition on the artist in 1997; in the catalogue, Lo Bianco argues that the picture was probably commissioned by a member of the Paolucci family as it is recorded in the inventory made on 8 March 1695, after the death of the abbott, Giuseppe Paolucci: 'Un quadro rappresentante S. Urbano e S. Domitilla con altre quattro figure di grandezza quasi naturale per altezza palmi 6 e lunghezza palmi 8 di Pietro da Cortona' (op. cit., 1997, p. 294). Both the number of figures and the size of the listed picture are similar to this lot; the only discrepancy with this picture is that the notary mistook Pope Clement for Pope Urban.
The subject of the Roman virgin Flavia Domitilla, receiving a veil from Pope Clement, is taken from the 'Legend of Saint Domitilla' in the Acta Sanctorum or from the Legenda Aurea. Pope Clement I is recognisable from the attribute of his martyrdom, the anchor which was bound to his neck when he was thrown into the sea. The hypothesis, put forward by Lo Bianco, was that the picture was commissioned by Fabrizio Paolucci (1556-1625) because he, like Cortona, had close ties with the Oratorians and their church (see also Merz, op. cit., 1991, p. 164).