A Goatherd and his Flock

The present work is by the same anonymous hand as the Shepherd with Dog and Goats and A Shepherd and Goats, both in private collections (see Vittoria Markova Alcune nuove proposte per Tommaso Salini, in Paragone, 475, Sept. 1989, pp. 26-51, pls. 35 and 41). These pastoral landscapes with figures can be added to a group of paintings whose attribution has been much debated; for instance, ibid., pl. 40 has been associated with the work of Pacceco Rosa; ibid., pl. 39 in the Foundling Hospital, London was attributed to Pier Francesco Mola; ibid., pl. 35 was attributed to Paolo Finoglia; and Maurizio Marini proposed in Nature Morte Italiane e di Italianizzanti del XVII secolo, 1984, no. 10, that an attribution to Michelangelo Cerquozzi and Angeluccio was plausible.

Although Salini has been much discussed as a painter of still lifes, the importance of his caravaggesque work as a figure painter has only recently been established, notably in the Paragone articles by Markova and Gregori cited herein, together with that by Gianni Papi Un Tema Caaravaggesco fra i Quadri di Figura di Tommaso Salini in the same publication. The addition of the present work to the known paintings by an anonymous follower of Salini further attests to the importance of Salini's pastoral works of the 1620s - witnessed in such works as that sold at Christie's, London, May 24, 1991, lot 59 - for the landscape and genre painters active in the early 17th century (see M. Gregori, Altre Aggiunte a Tommaso Salini, in Paragone, 475, Sept. 1989, pl. 46).