拍品专文
The story is related in Judges IV, 4-9. Deborah, an Israelite prophetess and judge, summoned Barak and instructed him to take three thousand men to the River Kishon, where God would deliver Sisera and his army into his hands. Barak agreed to go on condition that she accompany him and the Canaanites were routed. Sisera escaped but was murdered by Jael soon afterwards.
Solimena's best known depiction of this unusual subject is in the Harrach Collection at Schloss Rohrau, having been acquired, along with other paintings, by Alois Raimund von Harrach during his years as Viceroy in Naples, 1728-33 (F. Bologna, Francesco Solimena, Naples, 1958, p. 281, fig. 175; N. Spinosa, Pittura napoletana del Settecento dal Barocco al Rococò, Naples, 1986, p. 115, no. 46, and p. 206, fig. 52; and the catalogue of the exhibition Settecento napoletano. Sulle ali dell'aquila imperiale 1707-1734, Kunstforum der Bank Austria, Vienna, 10 Dec. 1993-20 Feb. 1994, and Castel Sant'Elmo, Naples, 19 March-24 July 1994, pp. 272-3, no. 66, illustrated in colour).
The composition of the present, hitherto unrecorded, picture corresponds with the upper left section of the Harrach painting in the relationships between the main figures, and in the positioning of Deborah's throne beneath a cloth draped over a palm tree. The only details which are repeated, however, are the figures of Deborah and the two female attendants sitting on the steps of her throne, and even here the facial types are very different. The influence of Mattia Preti clearly evident in the present picture, and its compacted composition, with all the main figures close to the picture plane, suggest that it is of significantly earlier date, probably between 1700 and 1715. Furthermore, the figure of Barak is closely paralleled by that of Saint George in the Madonna dei Martiri altarpiece in the church of S. Pietro Martire, Naples, documented to 1705 (Bologna, op. cit., p. 264, fig. 138).
A sketch in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, generally considered preparatory to the Harrach painting, may now be presumed to precede the present work (J. Bean, 17th Century Italian Drawings in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1979, pp. 268-9, no. 355, illustrated). Solimena's other paintings of the subject, in the Villa Bombrini at Cornigliano and the Galleria Sabauda at Turin, are both horizontal and less closely related in composition (Bologna, op. cit., figs. 132 and 164).
Solimena's best known depiction of this unusual subject is in the Harrach Collection at Schloss Rohrau, having been acquired, along with other paintings, by Alois Raimund von Harrach during his years as Viceroy in Naples, 1728-33 (F. Bologna, Francesco Solimena, Naples, 1958, p. 281, fig. 175; N. Spinosa, Pittura napoletana del Settecento dal Barocco al Rococò, Naples, 1986, p. 115, no. 46, and p. 206, fig. 52; and the catalogue of the exhibition Settecento napoletano. Sulle ali dell'aquila imperiale 1707-1734, Kunstforum der Bank Austria, Vienna, 10 Dec. 1993-20 Feb. 1994, and Castel Sant'Elmo, Naples, 19 March-24 July 1994, pp. 272-3, no. 66, illustrated in colour).
The composition of the present, hitherto unrecorded, picture corresponds with the upper left section of the Harrach painting in the relationships between the main figures, and in the positioning of Deborah's throne beneath a cloth draped over a palm tree. The only details which are repeated, however, are the figures of Deborah and the two female attendants sitting on the steps of her throne, and even here the facial types are very different. The influence of Mattia Preti clearly evident in the present picture, and its compacted composition, with all the main figures close to the picture plane, suggest that it is of significantly earlier date, probably between 1700 and 1715. Furthermore, the figure of Barak is closely paralleled by that of Saint George in the Madonna dei Martiri altarpiece in the church of S. Pietro Martire, Naples, documented to 1705 (Bologna, op. cit., p. 264, fig. 138).
A sketch in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, generally considered preparatory to the Harrach painting, may now be presumed to precede the present work (J. Bean, 17th Century Italian Drawings in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1979, pp. 268-9, no. 355, illustrated). Solimena's other paintings of the subject, in the Villa Bombrini at Cornigliano and the Galleria Sabauda at Turin, are both horizontal and less closely related in composition (Bologna, op. cit., figs. 132 and 164).