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Lot Essay
This imposing canvas depicting the Death of Lucretia is an outstanding work by Orazio Borgianni, one of the most idiosyncratic and original Baroque painters in Rome during the first two decades of the seventeenth century. Dated to the 1610s, Gianni Pappi considers this work to be a highly important response to the Caravaggist movement in Rome during the artist’s final years. The picture is a superb example of the work that led Harold Wethey to praise the artist for his ‘fine sensibilities and superior pictorial imagination’ (‘Orazio Borgianni in Italy and Spain’, The Burlington Magazine, CVI, April 1964, p. 159).
The drama of the unfolding tragedy, contained within a characteristically tight composition and strikingly restricted pictorial plane, is heightened by the strong chiaroscuro and extravagant gestures of the protagonists. Papi convincingly argues that the soldier attempting to restrain Lucretia is Brutus, while the figure with his arms raised in dismay can be identified as Lucretia’s husband, Collatinus, and that of the bearded old man in the upper left of the composition as her father, Lucretius Spurius (op. cit., p. 123). As Papi observes (ibid.), the present work betrays a very clear debt to Caravaggio, not only in the forceful gesture of the intervening soldier, but also in the shaft of light above the figure on the right, a clear quotation from Caravaggio’s celebrated masterpiece, The Calling of Saint Matthew (fig. 1), painted in 1599-1600 for the church of San Luigi dei Francesi in Rome.
The attribution of this remarkable picture evaded scholars, including Benedict Nicholson who gave it to an unidentified French follower of Caravaggio operating in Rome in the second half of the 1620s (op. cit.). Following the picture's appearance on the market in 1985 and 1990, where on both occasions it was given to the Bolognese Caravaggesque painter Lionello Spada, the attribution to Borgianni was convincingly advanced by Papi in 1990 (op. cit.). In his monograph of the artist’s work, Papi points to the stylistic affinities with other key works from Borgianni’s final period in Rome, such as Saint Christopher carrying the Infant Christ in Gelves and The Holy Family with Saint Anne, of which three versions are documented. In particular, he notes the striking similarity in the treatment of the head of Brutus with that of Saint Christopher, and the stirred handling of Lucretia’s sleeves, which corresponds closely to the Madonna’s in the Holy Family with Saint Anne compositions.
An elusive artistic figure, Borgianni’s reputation as one of the leading painters in seventeenth-century Rome has only recently been restored, a position that was confirmed with the 2020 exhibition Orazio Borgianni, un genio inquieto nella Roma di Caravaggio, allied with the appearance on the art market of such exceptional works as Christ amongst the doctors, sold at Sotheby’s, London, 4 July 2012, for £3,401,250, and now on loan to the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam (fig. 2).
The son of a Florentine carpenter, Borgianni was born on 16 April 1574 in Rome. He was trained by his stepbrother Giulio Lasso (d. 1617), the sculptor and architect, with whom he travelled to Sicily around 1591. The young painter's first documented work, a picture of Saint Gregory in his study (1593; private collection, Catania), was executed for the church of San Domenico in Taormina. In late 1597 he travelled to Spain where he found success, receiving commissions from those within the circle of King Philip III's favorite, the Duke of Lerma (1552/3-1625). There the artist travelled extensively, stopping in Zaragoza in 1600, Pamplona in March of the following year, and Valladolid by February 1603, the city in which he executed an important series of pictures for the Convento dei Portacoeli. By June 1603 he was in Madrid, where he became a founding member of the Academia de San Lucas before settling in Toledo from October 1603 to March 1604. According to the artist and biographer Giovanni Baglione (1566-1643), Borgianni married in Spain and only returned to his native country following the death of his wife.
By 1606 Borgianni was back in Rome where he seems to have been embroiled in a number of feuds with rival artists. Indeed, contemporary anecdotes paint a picture of a somewhat volatile character. Baglione recounts an episode in which Borgianni, while out riding in his carriage, was laughed at by a group of artists, among them Caravaggio, prompting him to launch a bottle of varnish at the heads of his deriders. In June of 1606 – the same year in which Caravaggio was forced to flee Rome following his infamous duel in the Campo Marzio - Borgianni wounded a man named Antonio Pellegrini with his sword. On 2 November of that year, Borgianni found himself in court, alongside the artist Carlo Saraceni, accused of orchestrating an assault on the aforementioned Baglione.
Despite these tribulations, the ensuing period in Rome before his early death in 1616 was unquestionably the artist’s most successful, from which survives a number of startlingly original works, including The Holy Family with Saint Elizabeth, Saint John the Baptist and an angel (Palazzo Barberini, Galleria Nazionale d’Arte Antica, Rome) and the remarkable Three-hundred Christian Martyrs (fig. 3; Pinacoteca Ambrosiana, Milan). In October 1606 he joined the Accademia di San Luca, in which he occupied the position of bookkeeper and then rector alongside Guido Reni. In 1608 he joined the Accademia degli Humoristi and two years later was elected to the congregation of the Virtuosi al Pantheon.
The story of Lucretia takes place in the late sixth Century B.C., a time of growing discontent over the rule of Tarquinius Superbus, known as ‘Tarquin the Proud’, the tyrannical final king of Rome. Livy (Ad urbe condita 1, 57-59) recounts how Lucretia, a beautiful and virtuous woman, was married to Collatinus, a relative of the king. During a feast outside the city, Collatinus and the king's sons began to debate the relative merits of their wives, none of whom were present. To settle the matter, they agreed to observe the women at their respective homes. While the princes' wives were discovered revelling in the absence of their husbands, Lucretia was found to be still spinning wool. This event resulted in one of the princes, Sextus Tarquinus, developing an infatuation with Lucretia. One night, when Collatinus was away from home, the prince visited Lucretia but when she rejected his advances, he raped her at knifepoint. Afterwards, the anguished Lucretia revealed the crime to her family and demanded vengeance. Then, wishing to expunge her dishonor, she drew a dagger and plunged it into her heart. Brutus, one of the witnesses to her suicide and a nephew of the king, vowed revenge against the Tarquins. Along with Collatinus, he led an uprising that forced the king into exile, thus ending the monarchy, and established the Roman republic. From the Middle Ages onwards, Lucretia was seen as an exemplar of virtue because of her chastity, loyalty and self-sacrifice.
The drama of the unfolding tragedy, contained within a characteristically tight composition and strikingly restricted pictorial plane, is heightened by the strong chiaroscuro and extravagant gestures of the protagonists. Papi convincingly argues that the soldier attempting to restrain Lucretia is Brutus, while the figure with his arms raised in dismay can be identified as Lucretia’s husband, Collatinus, and that of the bearded old man in the upper left of the composition as her father, Lucretius Spurius (op. cit., p. 123). As Papi observes (ibid.), the present work betrays a very clear debt to Caravaggio, not only in the forceful gesture of the intervening soldier, but also in the shaft of light above the figure on the right, a clear quotation from Caravaggio’s celebrated masterpiece, The Calling of Saint Matthew (fig. 1), painted in 1599-1600 for the church of San Luigi dei Francesi in Rome.
The attribution of this remarkable picture evaded scholars, including Benedict Nicholson who gave it to an unidentified French follower of Caravaggio operating in Rome in the second half of the 1620s (op. cit.). Following the picture's appearance on the market in 1985 and 1990, where on both occasions it was given to the Bolognese Caravaggesque painter Lionello Spada, the attribution to Borgianni was convincingly advanced by Papi in 1990 (op. cit.). In his monograph of the artist’s work, Papi points to the stylistic affinities with other key works from Borgianni’s final period in Rome, such as Saint Christopher carrying the Infant Christ in Gelves and The Holy Family with Saint Anne, of which three versions are documented. In particular, he notes the striking similarity in the treatment of the head of Brutus with that of Saint Christopher, and the stirred handling of Lucretia’s sleeves, which corresponds closely to the Madonna’s in the Holy Family with Saint Anne compositions.
An elusive artistic figure, Borgianni’s reputation as one of the leading painters in seventeenth-century Rome has only recently been restored, a position that was confirmed with the 2020 exhibition Orazio Borgianni, un genio inquieto nella Roma di Caravaggio, allied with the appearance on the art market of such exceptional works as Christ amongst the doctors, sold at Sotheby’s, London, 4 July 2012, for £3,401,250, and now on loan to the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam (fig. 2).
The son of a Florentine carpenter, Borgianni was born on 16 April 1574 in Rome. He was trained by his stepbrother Giulio Lasso (d. 1617), the sculptor and architect, with whom he travelled to Sicily around 1591. The young painter's first documented work, a picture of Saint Gregory in his study (1593; private collection, Catania), was executed for the church of San Domenico in Taormina. In late 1597 he travelled to Spain where he found success, receiving commissions from those within the circle of King Philip III's favorite, the Duke of Lerma (1552/3-1625). There the artist travelled extensively, stopping in Zaragoza in 1600, Pamplona in March of the following year, and Valladolid by February 1603, the city in which he executed an important series of pictures for the Convento dei Portacoeli. By June 1603 he was in Madrid, where he became a founding member of the Academia de San Lucas before settling in Toledo from October 1603 to March 1604. According to the artist and biographer Giovanni Baglione (1566-1643), Borgianni married in Spain and only returned to his native country following the death of his wife.
By 1606 Borgianni was back in Rome where he seems to have been embroiled in a number of feuds with rival artists. Indeed, contemporary anecdotes paint a picture of a somewhat volatile character. Baglione recounts an episode in which Borgianni, while out riding in his carriage, was laughed at by a group of artists, among them Caravaggio, prompting him to launch a bottle of varnish at the heads of his deriders. In June of 1606 – the same year in which Caravaggio was forced to flee Rome following his infamous duel in the Campo Marzio - Borgianni wounded a man named Antonio Pellegrini with his sword. On 2 November of that year, Borgianni found himself in court, alongside the artist Carlo Saraceni, accused of orchestrating an assault on the aforementioned Baglione.
Despite these tribulations, the ensuing period in Rome before his early death in 1616 was unquestionably the artist’s most successful, from which survives a number of startlingly original works, including The Holy Family with Saint Elizabeth, Saint John the Baptist and an angel (Palazzo Barberini, Galleria Nazionale d’Arte Antica, Rome) and the remarkable Three-hundred Christian Martyrs (fig. 3; Pinacoteca Ambrosiana, Milan). In October 1606 he joined the Accademia di San Luca, in which he occupied the position of bookkeeper and then rector alongside Guido Reni. In 1608 he joined the Accademia degli Humoristi and two years later was elected to the congregation of the Virtuosi al Pantheon.
The story of Lucretia takes place in the late sixth Century B.C., a time of growing discontent over the rule of Tarquinius Superbus, known as ‘Tarquin the Proud’, the tyrannical final king of Rome. Livy (Ad urbe condita 1, 57-59) recounts how Lucretia, a beautiful and virtuous woman, was married to Collatinus, a relative of the king. During a feast outside the city, Collatinus and the king's sons began to debate the relative merits of their wives, none of whom were present. To settle the matter, they agreed to observe the women at their respective homes. While the princes' wives were discovered revelling in the absence of their husbands, Lucretia was found to be still spinning wool. This event resulted in one of the princes, Sextus Tarquinus, developing an infatuation with Lucretia. One night, when Collatinus was away from home, the prince visited Lucretia but when she rejected his advances, he raped her at knifepoint. Afterwards, the anguished Lucretia revealed the crime to her family and demanded vengeance. Then, wishing to expunge her dishonor, she drew a dagger and plunged it into her heart. Brutus, one of the witnesses to her suicide and a nephew of the king, vowed revenge against the Tarquins. Along with Collatinus, he led an uprising that forced the king into exile, thus ending the monarchy, and established the Roman republic. From the Middle Ages onwards, Lucretia was seen as an exemplar of virtue because of her chastity, loyalty and self-sacrifice.