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Lot Essay
This exceptionally well-preserved canvas by Bernardo Strozzi is among the finest versions of one of the artist's most popular subjects. The figure of Berenice was treated in two distinct compositions, one in which the heroine looks directly at the viewer, the other, of which ours is an example, portrays her looking up and to the right hand side.
Our picture depicts Queen Berenice, daughter of the King of Libya and wife of King Ptolemy III Euergetes of Egypt. They were married in 245 B.C. Celebrated by amongst others Catullus and Racine as a paragon of marital devotion, to ensure her husband's safe return from a campaign against the Syrians, Berenice cut off her hair and offered it on the altar of Aphrodite. According to legend, the hair mysteriously disappeared from the temple and was installed in the heavenly skies as the constellation, Coma Berenices.
The prime version of the more conventional frontal composition is to be found in the Castello Sforzesco, Milan (fig. 1), with versions in Los Angeles, Munich, Bologna and Stockholm. Mortari, noting its Flemish character, dated the Milan picture to around 1615. The format of our picture is more unambiguously erotic: the steel of her gorget setting off the sensual femininity of her exposed breast - indeed the provocative disarray of her chemise recalls Venetian paintings of courtesans such as the 'Flora' by Palma Vecchio (London, National Gallery) and Titian (Florence, Uffizi). Mary Newcome Schleier, who has examined the painting, confirms the attribution to Strozzi and dates it to his Venetian period.
Other, probably later, versions of this composition exist, including a three-quarter length (El Paso, Museum of Art); one of the pictures sharing the exact format of our version is in the Museo Civici, Udine. Painted unusually on panel, it is ruddy in tonality and the paint is applied densely, indicating that it was painted after 1630 when Strozzi moved to Venice. The lightness of touch and charm of sentiment in these pictures anticipates the creamy rococo half-length figures of Tiepolo - indeed it is hard to imagine that the great Venetian master had not studied works such as this by Strozzi.
Bernardo Strozzi is one of the most recognizable figures of the Italian baroque, and undoubtedly the finest native painter to work in Genoa in the seventeenth century. He trained initially in the studio of the Sienese painter, Pietro Sorri, and in 1598 became a Capuchin monk (hence his sobriquet, Il Cappucino). Strozzi's early works are executed with a loaded brush and characterized by an elegance and sweetness, a vibrant acidic palette and a tendency towards abstraction in the draperies which reflects the combined influence of his Tuscan mannerist teacher, the Lombard artists Cerano and Procaccini and Federico Barocci, all of whom were working in Genoa in the first decade of the seventeenth century. In the 1620s, Strozzi turned away from his earlier mannerist tendencies and developed a broader more vigorous style of painting influenced in part by the Flemish artists most notably Rubens, who were working in Genoa. The Flemish artists' predilection for genre paintings was especially influential for Strozzi - indeed his famous La Cuoca (Palazzo Rosso, Genoa) is loosely based on a picture by Pieter Aertsen (Palazzo Bianco, Genoa). In 1630, refusing to return to his cloistered monastery, Strozzi left Genoa for Venice where he was to remain for the rest of his life. The numerous portraits of notables testify to Strozzi's considerable success in Venice. He produced versions of successful early compositions such as St. Lawrence distributing the Riches of the Church (S. Nicola dei Tolentini, Venice) and La Cuoca (National Gallery of Scotland, Edinburgh) but his handling of paint becomes increasingly dense and robust, and his palette deeper and more warm.
In Venice the influence of Strozzi was immediately felt by his contemporaries, Domenico Fetti and Johan Liss, whilst in Genoa his legacy was a brilliant school which included Assereto, Castiglione and Castello.
Our picture depicts Queen Berenice, daughter of the King of Libya and wife of King Ptolemy III Euergetes of Egypt. They were married in 245 B.C. Celebrated by amongst others Catullus and Racine as a paragon of marital devotion, to ensure her husband's safe return from a campaign against the Syrians, Berenice cut off her hair and offered it on the altar of Aphrodite. According to legend, the hair mysteriously disappeared from the temple and was installed in the heavenly skies as the constellation, Coma Berenices.
The prime version of the more conventional frontal composition is to be found in the Castello Sforzesco, Milan (fig. 1), with versions in Los Angeles, Munich, Bologna and Stockholm. Mortari, noting its Flemish character, dated the Milan picture to around 1615. The format of our picture is more unambiguously erotic: the steel of her gorget setting off the sensual femininity of her exposed breast - indeed the provocative disarray of her chemise recalls Venetian paintings of courtesans such as the 'Flora' by Palma Vecchio (London, National Gallery) and Titian (Florence, Uffizi). Mary Newcome Schleier, who has examined the painting, confirms the attribution to Strozzi and dates it to his Venetian period.
Other, probably later, versions of this composition exist, including a three-quarter length (El Paso, Museum of Art); one of the pictures sharing the exact format of our version is in the Museo Civici, Udine. Painted unusually on panel, it is ruddy in tonality and the paint is applied densely, indicating that it was painted after 1630 when Strozzi moved to Venice. The lightness of touch and charm of sentiment in these pictures anticipates the creamy rococo half-length figures of Tiepolo - indeed it is hard to imagine that the great Venetian master had not studied works such as this by Strozzi.
Bernardo Strozzi is one of the most recognizable figures of the Italian baroque, and undoubtedly the finest native painter to work in Genoa in the seventeenth century. He trained initially in the studio of the Sienese painter, Pietro Sorri, and in 1598 became a Capuchin monk (hence his sobriquet, Il Cappucino). Strozzi's early works are executed with a loaded brush and characterized by an elegance and sweetness, a vibrant acidic palette and a tendency towards abstraction in the draperies which reflects the combined influence of his Tuscan mannerist teacher, the Lombard artists Cerano and Procaccini and Federico Barocci, all of whom were working in Genoa in the first decade of the seventeenth century. In the 1620s, Strozzi turned away from his earlier mannerist tendencies and developed a broader more vigorous style of painting influenced in part by the Flemish artists most notably Rubens, who were working in Genoa. The Flemish artists' predilection for genre paintings was especially influential for Strozzi - indeed his famous La Cuoca (Palazzo Rosso, Genoa) is loosely based on a picture by Pieter Aertsen (Palazzo Bianco, Genoa). In 1630, refusing to return to his cloistered monastery, Strozzi left Genoa for Venice where he was to remain for the rest of his life. The numerous portraits of notables testify to Strozzi's considerable success in Venice. He produced versions of successful early compositions such as St. Lawrence distributing the Riches of the Church (S. Nicola dei Tolentini, Venice) and La Cuoca (National Gallery of Scotland, Edinburgh) but his handling of paint becomes increasingly dense and robust, and his palette deeper and more warm.
In Venice the influence of Strozzi was immediately felt by his contemporaries, Domenico Fetti and Johan Liss, whilst in Genoa his legacy was a brilliant school which included Assereto, Castiglione and Castello.