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Lot Essay
Though he escaped scholarly attention for some time, the position of Francesco Curradi as a leading figure of early seventeenth century Florentine art has by now been firmly re-established. His unusually long life – he lived until he was 90 – enabled him not only to produce a significant body of work, but also to bear witness to some key stylistic developments that took place during these years. From his mannerist beginnings in the workshop of Giovanni Battista Naldini, he flourished, cultivating a refined and elegant style, firmly rooted in the principles of disegno that had so strongly determined the course of Florentine art in preceding centuries. Alongside Matteo Rosselli, he can be considered as the precursor of Carlo Dolci, who would take forward the counter reformative art of Florence in the succeeding generation.
The present lot belongs to his most fruitful period. In 1620s and ‘30s, he produced a rich vein of biblical and mythological pictures, including the Tobias and the Angel at the Southampton Art Gallery. Though our picture has been known and admired by scholars for some time, we can now date the work more accurately, thanks to the statue of the putto, astride a turtle, on the fountain in the upper right. Its model is taken from one of the twelve putti that decorate the famous Fontana del Carciofo in the Boboli Gardens in Florence. Recent research has indicated that these small statues were designed by a number of different sculptors, including Domenico Pieratti (1600-1656), who invented the putto borrowed by Curradi here. Though the fountain was not completed until 1639, Pieratti’s design is documented in 1620-1, meaning that the present picture must postdate those years. And although the subject is listed as Susannah at her bath in both recent literature and when exhibited in the past, it is more likely that this represents Bathsheba. In common with other representations of the latter, David is seen looking on from a distance: here he is shown peering through a break in the trees stage left.
When the present lot was exhibited at the Royal Academy and the Fitzwilliam in 1979, Charles McCorquodale singled it out, together with the aforementioned Tobias and the Angel, as one of his most characteristic works, that revealed how Curradi ‘was fascinated by that most Baroque of concepts, the affetti, or externalisation of emotion through facial expression and gesture’, developing a style where ‘many of the ideals of the seicento in Florence are cystallised […], ideals which were shared by the very young Carlo Dolci...’ (op. cit.).
We are very grateful to Dr Sandro Bellesi for his assistance in cataloguing the present lot.
The present lot belongs to his most fruitful period. In 1620s and ‘30s, he produced a rich vein of biblical and mythological pictures, including the Tobias and the Angel at the Southampton Art Gallery. Though our picture has been known and admired by scholars for some time, we can now date the work more accurately, thanks to the statue of the putto, astride a turtle, on the fountain in the upper right. Its model is taken from one of the twelve putti that decorate the famous Fontana del Carciofo in the Boboli Gardens in Florence. Recent research has indicated that these small statues were designed by a number of different sculptors, including Domenico Pieratti (1600-1656), who invented the putto borrowed by Curradi here. Though the fountain was not completed until 1639, Pieratti’s design is documented in 1620-1, meaning that the present picture must postdate those years. And although the subject is listed as Susannah at her bath in both recent literature and when exhibited in the past, it is more likely that this represents Bathsheba. In common with other representations of the latter, David is seen looking on from a distance: here he is shown peering through a break in the trees stage left.
When the present lot was exhibited at the Royal Academy and the Fitzwilliam in 1979, Charles McCorquodale singled it out, together with the aforementioned Tobias and the Angel, as one of his most characteristic works, that revealed how Curradi ‘was fascinated by that most Baroque of concepts, the affetti, or externalisation of emotion through facial expression and gesture’, developing a style where ‘many of the ideals of the seicento in Florence are cystallised […], ideals which were shared by the very young Carlo Dolci...’ (op. cit.).
We are very grateful to Dr Sandro Bellesi for his assistance in cataloguing the present lot.