Apostle (Peter or Paul)
This painting was first mentioned in connection with the Borghese Collection in 1693. It was executed on a thin sheet of slate, whose naturally dark colour contributes to the rendering of the image. It depicts an apostle, yet one who cannot be readily identified given the absence of iconographic attributes. The bearded man wears a yellow mantle, the colour often associated with Peter’s garments. The use of slate and the mediocre quality of its execution lead us to believe that it can be traced to Roman artistic circles before the early 1630s.
Object details
Inventory
Location
Date
Classification
Medium
Dimensions
Frame
18th-/19th-century frame, 30 x 26 x 4.5 cm
Provenance
Rome, Borghese Collection, 1693 (Inv. 1693, room XI, no. 105; Della Pergola 1955); Inv. 1790, room VII, no. 20; Inventario Fidecommissario Borghese 1833, p. 31. Purchased by Italian state, 1902.
Conservation and Diagnostic
- 1914 Tito Venturini Papari
Commentary
The provenance of this painting is unknown. It was first mentioned in connection with the Borghese Collection in 1693, when the inventory of that year listed it as the product of an ‘anonymous’ artist.
For no apparent reason, the 1790 inventory ascribed the work to Pier Francesco Mola, the painter from Ticino. This name was rightly rejected by both Adolfo Venturi (1893) and Roberto Longhi (1928), who made the more probable attribution to the ‘Bolognese school’. Yet as Paola della Pergola (1955) pointed out, no features of the work allow us to associate it with a specific artistic circle; she in fact justifiably published it as by an ‘unknown’ artist. The composition probably dates to the first three decades of the 17th century, a period which saw a significant demand on the part of believers and pilgrims visiting Rome for small images on slate of the most popular Catholic saints. The nature of this demand prompted artists to produce simple works without paying undue attention to their artistic quality. This Apostle – perhaps Peter or Paul – certainly falls into this category. It was executed quickly, as if just another copy of a well-known prototype. Finally, it is interesting to note that in this case the support material contributes directly to the meaning of the work: the anonymous apostle is portrayed on a thin sheet of rock as a likely allusion to the words of Christ that made Peter – and indirectly also all his other disciples – the true ‘rocks’ on which to establish his Church (Matthew 16:18-19).
Antonio Iommelli
Bibliography
- G. Piancastelli, Catalogo dei quadri della Galleria Borghese, in Archivio Galleria Borghese, 1891, p. 119;
- A. Venturi, Il Museo e la Galleria Borghese, Roma 1893, p. 222;
- R. Longhi, Precisioni nelle Gallerie Italiane, I, La R. Galleria Borghese, Roma 1928, p. 224;
- P. della Pergola, La Galleria Borghese. I Dipinti, I, Roma 1955, p. 146, n. 266;
- P. della Pergola, L’Inventario Borghese del 1693 (III), in “Arte Antica e Moderna”, XXX, 1965, p. 211;
- K. Herrmann Fiore, Galleria Borghese Roma scopre un tesoro. Dalla pinacoteca ai depositi un museo che non ha più segreti, San Giuliano Milanese 2006, p. 169.
