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Lot Essay
Born in San Giovanni Valdarno in 1592, Giovanni da San Giovanni entered the studio of Matteo Rosselli in 1608 and, between 1615-1621, executed a number of important fresco commissions in Florence, that established him as the leading artist working in the medium in that city in the first half of the seventeenth century. He decorated both church interiors, such as the dome of the church of Ognissanti in 1615, and the faades of private buildings (for example the house of Cosimo II de Medici in Piazza della Calza, where he executed an Allegory of Florence - now destroyed - which brought him great fame). Other works of this period, such as the Rest on the Flight into Egypt (circa 1621, reconstructed in the Accademia delle Belli Arti, Florence), in which the figures are seen - somewhat untypically - dismounting from a donkey at an inn, reveal the artist's attraction to a certain informality associated more with the art of the North than that of Italy. In around 1621, he went to Rome with Francesco Furini, where he won the support of several important patrons, including Cardinal Guido Bentivoglio and Marchese Enzo Bentivoglio, who introduced him to the most sophisticated Roman circles. It was for such clients that he executed a number of works that explored his fascination with the bizarre and the fanciful (see, for example, the drowsy figures and the somewhat unsettling presence of bats and owls in the Chariot of the Night, which he painted in 1623-7 in the Palazzo Bentivoglio). In 1628 he returned to Florence as the leading fresco artist in Tuscany, and executed a number of important fresco cycles, both religious and secular, the most prestigious of which was the decoration of the salone at the Palazzo Pitti. He was still working on this commission with the assistance of Baldassare Franceschini, when he died prematurely in 1636.
Giovanni painted less frequently on canvas and seems to have preferred working in fresco even for small-scale pictures such as the present lot. A number of other works in this medium and of similar subject (bust-length portraits) and comparable size (circa 53 x 38cm.) are known. The most famous is the Self-portrait (62 x 58cm.) in the Uffizi. It is particularly noteworthy for its appealing lack of formality in the costume and pose of the artist, and the obvious naturalistic relish with which he paints the hairs on the mole on his left cheek. Similar to this work are two portraits of young men, both about 51 x 37cm.: one in the Staatsgalerie, Stuttgart (Inv. no. 3255), the other sold from the collection of A. Jaffé, Hamburg, at Heberle, Cologne, 31 March-1 April 1905, lot 22, illustrated. In each the sitter is presented with the same informality - the clothing is simple and the hair slightly dishevelled, while the body is likewise set against a plain background and faces left with the head turned to engage the viewer. In the Stuttgart picture, the young man also holds an object in his right hand, as the artist does in his Self-portrait. Other comparable works are listed but not fully described in the eighteenth-century inventories of two Florentine collections: listed in that of Marchese Francesco Riccardi on 27 March 1715 are 'Sei quadri, alti circa br. 1, dipintovi in tegolo da Giovanni da San Giovanni diversi ritratti' (Getty Provenance Index, Inv. no. I-3), while on 18 March 1792, Marchese Donato Guadagni was the recorded owner of 'numero tre quadri, alti braccia 1 1/6, larghi br. 1, dipinti sul tegolo a fresco, di mano di Giovanni da S. Giovanni, esperimenti tre teste '(Getty Provenance Index, Inv. No. I-101.).
The present painting, hitherto unrecorded, corresponds closely to the works described above. Of these, only the Self-portrait in the Uffizi has been dated, to circa 1620 (see M.P. Mannini in the exhibition catalogue Il Seicento Fiorentino, Florence, 1986-7, p. 257), and in the absence of further documentation, it would seem prudent to date the present painting, with some caution, to the same time, that is before the artist left for Rome in 1621. Certainly it is of comparable size, technique and format, and it also has a similar informality in its presentation of the subject. This informality derives equally from the medium in which the artist has chosen to work. The technique of frescoing is essentially one of speed and lends itself perfectly to creating a sense of immediacy in the image. It is precisely this immediacy and spontaneity that can be felt in the present work, in the summary description of the 'details' of his jacket (the buttons, the embroidered (?) pattern and the border of the lace collar) and the loose curls of hair that fall around the temples of the young man's head. These serve as a frame to his face, which the artist has worked on with greater attention.
The identity of the sitter is not known, as indeed is the case with the two works recorded in Germany (see above). It is also interesting to note that not one of the nine works listed in the two inventories noted earlier carries an identification. Perhaps, however, this is to be expected with works of this type, for they lack precisely those characteristics commonly associated with portraiture of the time, with its emphasis on the outward signs of the sitter's social standing rather than his interior world. In place of this, one finds, in the present work, a refreshing lack of pretence and pleasing absence of artifice that seems modern by comparison.
We are grateful to Carol Togneri of the Getty Provenance Index for her help in preparing this note.
In a seventeenth century Italian frame.
Giovanni painted less frequently on canvas and seems to have preferred working in fresco even for small-scale pictures such as the present lot. A number of other works in this medium and of similar subject (bust-length portraits) and comparable size (circa 53 x 38cm.) are known. The most famous is the Self-portrait (62 x 58cm.) in the Uffizi. It is particularly noteworthy for its appealing lack of formality in the costume and pose of the artist, and the obvious naturalistic relish with which he paints the hairs on the mole on his left cheek. Similar to this work are two portraits of young men, both about 51 x 37cm.: one in the Staatsgalerie, Stuttgart (Inv. no. 3255), the other sold from the collection of A. Jaffé, Hamburg, at Heberle, Cologne, 31 March-1 April 1905, lot 22, illustrated. In each the sitter is presented with the same informality - the clothing is simple and the hair slightly dishevelled, while the body is likewise set against a plain background and faces left with the head turned to engage the viewer. In the Stuttgart picture, the young man also holds an object in his right hand, as the artist does in his Self-portrait. Other comparable works are listed but not fully described in the eighteenth-century inventories of two Florentine collections: listed in that of Marchese Francesco Riccardi on 27 March 1715 are 'Sei quadri, alti circa br. 1, dipintovi in tegolo da Giovanni da San Giovanni diversi ritratti' (Getty Provenance Index, Inv. no. I-3), while on 18 March 1792, Marchese Donato Guadagni was the recorded owner of 'numero tre quadri, alti braccia 1 1/6, larghi br. 1, dipinti sul tegolo a fresco, di mano di Giovanni da S. Giovanni, esperimenti tre teste '(Getty Provenance Index, Inv. No. I-101.).
The present painting, hitherto unrecorded, corresponds closely to the works described above. Of these, only the Self-portrait in the Uffizi has been dated, to circa 1620 (see M.P. Mannini in the exhibition catalogue Il Seicento Fiorentino, Florence, 1986-7, p. 257), and in the absence of further documentation, it would seem prudent to date the present painting, with some caution, to the same time, that is before the artist left for Rome in 1621. Certainly it is of comparable size, technique and format, and it also has a similar informality in its presentation of the subject. This informality derives equally from the medium in which the artist has chosen to work. The technique of frescoing is essentially one of speed and lends itself perfectly to creating a sense of immediacy in the image. It is precisely this immediacy and spontaneity that can be felt in the present work, in the summary description of the 'details' of his jacket (the buttons, the embroidered (?) pattern and the border of the lace collar) and the loose curls of hair that fall around the temples of the young man's head. These serve as a frame to his face, which the artist has worked on with greater attention.
The identity of the sitter is not known, as indeed is the case with the two works recorded in Germany (see above). It is also interesting to note that not one of the nine works listed in the two inventories noted earlier carries an identification. Perhaps, however, this is to be expected with works of this type, for they lack precisely those characteristics commonly associated with portraiture of the time, with its emphasis on the outward signs of the sitter's social standing rather than his interior world. In place of this, one finds, in the present work, a refreshing lack of pretence and pleasing absence of artifice that seems modern by comparison.
We are grateful to Carol Togneri of the Getty Provenance Index for her help in preparing this note.
In a seventeenth century Italian frame.