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Lot Essay
Published and exhibited for the first time in 2013, this canvas is a key addition to the oeuvre of Carlo Saraceni. The composition had been known through a copper panel in the Residenzgalerie in Salzburg, given to the artist’s studio by Anna Ottani Cavina in her 1968 monograph (Carlo Saraceni, Venice, 1968, p. 135, no. 126), but it was only on the occasion of the recent exhibition in Rome that this picture came to light, together with a version on copper, of reduced format, testifying to the success of this charming and richly expressive composition.
Born in Venice into a family of Bolognese merchants, Saraceni moved to Rome in around 1598, specialising in the early part of his career in small format pictures. He and Adam Elsheimer, who arrived in Venice in 1598 and went to Rome two years later, exerted a mutual influence on each other; in particular, both created innovative nocturnal scenes that marked them out as pioneers in this genre. Saraceni’s inventive use of illumination is used to dramatic effect here, as he includes multiple light sources to create a scene of captivating intimacy – from the natural moonlight in the upper right, to the candlelit groups of huddled figures and the radiance of the Child himself.
The appearance on the market of such a large-scale work by Saraceni is rare. The picture was almost certainly intended as an altarpiece, though no record of such a commission has yet come to light. It is generally acknowledged that Saraceni only began to turn his hand to works of more monumental dimensions after 1606. One of his first important, large-scale commissions came as a result of a notorious scandal surrounding an altarpiece by Caravaggio. The latter’s Death of the Virgin (now Paris, Musée du Louvre) was commissioned for Santa Maria della Scala in Rome, but it caused such controversy that the church fathers demanded it was replaced. They turned to Saraceni, who painted his own version of the subject in circa 1610, which is still in situ and marked his first documented commission on a large scale. Archival documents record commissions for other large-scale works of the same time (see ibid., pp. 15-16). In Rome, he received commissions from the highest echelons of Roman society. Olimpia Aldobrandini, the niece of Pope Clement VIII, commissioned the renowned altarpiece, The Rest on the Flight to Egypt (Frascati, Eremo di Camaldoli), a picture that marked the distinctive influence of Caravaggio. The profile of Saint Joseph in that altarpiece bears a very close resemblance to the kneeling Joseph in this Adoration. This picture likely dates to his full maturity, circa 1614, around the same moment of the three canvases in the cathedral in Toledo, and the Preaching of San Raimondo, formerly in S. Adriano in Campo Vaccino.
Born in Venice into a family of Bolognese merchants, Saraceni moved to Rome in around 1598, specialising in the early part of his career in small format pictures. He and Adam Elsheimer, who arrived in Venice in 1598 and went to Rome two years later, exerted a mutual influence on each other; in particular, both created innovative nocturnal scenes that marked them out as pioneers in this genre. Saraceni’s inventive use of illumination is used to dramatic effect here, as he includes multiple light sources to create a scene of captivating intimacy – from the natural moonlight in the upper right, to the candlelit groups of huddled figures and the radiance of the Child himself.
The appearance on the market of such a large-scale work by Saraceni is rare. The picture was almost certainly intended as an altarpiece, though no record of such a commission has yet come to light. It is generally acknowledged that Saraceni only began to turn his hand to works of more monumental dimensions after 1606. One of his first important, large-scale commissions came as a result of a notorious scandal surrounding an altarpiece by Caravaggio. The latter’s Death of the Virgin (now Paris, Musée du Louvre) was commissioned for Santa Maria della Scala in Rome, but it caused such controversy that the church fathers demanded it was replaced. They turned to Saraceni, who painted his own version of the subject in circa 1610, which is still in situ and marked his first documented commission on a large scale. Archival documents record commissions for other large-scale works of the same time (see ibid., pp. 15-16). In Rome, he received commissions from the highest echelons of Roman society. Olimpia Aldobrandini, the niece of Pope Clement VIII, commissioned the renowned altarpiece, The Rest on the Flight to Egypt (Frascati, Eremo di Camaldoli), a picture that marked the distinctive influence of Caravaggio. The profile of Saint Joseph in that altarpiece bears a very close resemblance to the kneeling Joseph in this Adoration. This picture likely dates to his full maturity, circa 1614, around the same moment of the three canvases in the cathedral in Toledo, and the Preaching of San Raimondo, formerly in S. Adriano in Campo Vaccino.