Archers

Attributed to Siciolante Girolamo

(Sermoneta 1521 - Rome 1575)

Unlike the other two frescoes that were part of the same cycle and came from the Casino Olgiati – once located in the area of the present-day gallop in the Villa Borghese (purchased by the Borghese in 1831 and destroyed in 1849) – namely the Marriage of Alexander and Roxane and the Offering to Vertumnus and Pomona, Archers was initially attributed to an artist other than Siciolante, an opinion not shared by more recent critics. The composition derives from a drawing by Michelangelo, inspired by the classical world, revealing, however the knowledge and borrowing of some of Raphael’s compositional techniques. As part of the original decorative cycle, based on a theme of an erotic nature, the subject of the painting symbolizes the Passions that beset the Virtues, that is, spiritual Love undermined by carnal Love.

Object details

Commentary

The Archers fresco, attributed to Girolamo Siciolante, an artist from Sermoneta, together with the Offering to Vertumnus and Pomona (no. 300) and The Marriage of Alexander and Roxane (no. 303) – all three in the Borghese Collection – was part of a cycle that decorated what was until the early 19th century considered the Roman residence of Raffaello Sanzio (Raphael): the Casino Olgiati-Bevilacqua within the Villa Borghese grounds, in the area of the present-day gallop.

On account of the 'noble' sojourn in Rome of the Urbino painter, it still retained its celebrity at the end of the eighteenth century: in fact, it was to be, until its destruction in 1849, a place of 'pilgrimage' visited especially by English and French milords but also frequented by the Roman nobility and artists. From the parish records of Santa Maria del Popolo it appears that a certain Giuseppe Wiseman lived in the Olgiati vineyard until 1765 and that from 1775 a large colony of English painters resided there, including Giuseppe's son, Gaetano Wiseman.

This fascinating foreign retreat was described by Charles Burney in his book Music, Men and Manners in France and Italy: “To the Villa Rafaele without the gates of Rome I had a long, hot, and dusty walk. It is now occupied by a Mr Wiseman, a worthy Music-Master and Copyist, a native of England who has resided in Rome 19 years and is esteemed by all the English in Rome. He now speaks broken English like an Italian. The villa is large and beautifully situated in the centre of the park. There are some vaults and a few pieces of wall painted by Raphael on a well-rendered plaster, made of marble dust mixed with egg whites. On the wall are his mistress and several very expressive naked male figures shooting arrows at a target. There are also some fascinating grotesque paintings by Giovanni da Udine, based on a drawing by Raphael.   During the first winter months, till the operas begin, Mr Wiseman has a weekly concert here for our noblemen and gentlemen. The late Duke of York, the Prince of Brunswick, and several high-ranking figures used to hold concerts here for the best of Roman society.” (Burney 1770, p. 228).

It is difficult to trace the Casino on the maps of the time, which range from Bufalini’s map of 1551 to the 18th century one by Giovan Battista Nolli. The Olgiati were the owners until it was acquired, in the 18th century by Cardinal Giuseppe Doria Pamphili. From the Doria it then passed first to Vincenzo Nelli and, at the beginning of the 19th century, to the sculptor Bevilacqua and then to the Garroni heirs. The latter sold it in 1831 for 6,750. 52 scudi to Prince Camillo Borghese (Canina’s estimate was 3,380 scudi, according to Hunter, 1996). After the Prince bought it, the frescoes were detached in 1836 and became part of the Borghese Collection.

The cycle, including Archers, was described again in situ in 1791 by the historian Mariano Vasi in his guide to Rome entitled Itinerario istruttivo di Roma o Descrizione generale delle opere più insigni di pittura (1791) and later, along with the fittings of the room, by Karl Förster (1827, pp. 139-142) and by Johann David Passavant (1860, pp. 286-290).

These frescoes were apparently to be found, according to Passavant's description, between the grotesques that decorated two lunettes: each lunette contained two medallions with female portraits and a painting.

The author attributed this fresco and the other with The Marriage of Alexander and Roxane to Perin del Vaga; later the cycle was more cautiously identified as related to the school of Raphael. The stylistic proximity to the fresco The Marriage of Alexander and Roxane points to the same hand or group of artists certainly close to the school of Raphael, but, especially in the Archers, with clear hints of Michelangelo's influence (Della Pergola 1959). The attribution to Siciolante dates back only to the twentieth century: Bernice Davidson in 1966 recognized in two of the three detached frescoes those ‘dusty pastel colours [...] iridescent’ as ‘very similar to those in the Caetani chapel in Sermoneta’, rejecting, however, the Archers, which, it seemed to her ‘may be by some other hand’ (Davidson 1966, p. 63). This thesis was taken up and expaned almost twenty years later (dissertation 1983; Italian edition 1996) by John Hunter, who considered them to be early works by the painter (c. 1544-45) although the lack of definite information about the commission (pp. 136-139) complicates the issue.

The subject has a famous model in the passionate Michelangelesque drawing that was in the Farnese Collection, later to become part of the British Royal Collections of the Dukes of Windsor. The creation of the fresco as a counterpart to the drawing may indicate that the work is based, rather than on the magnificent model, on an engraving of the same or perhaps on a lost original (Della Pergola, 1959, pp. 129-130). Clear references to Michelangelo and, in compositional solutions, to Raphael are filtered through the experience of Siciolante, who shared works with Daniele da Volterra and Sebastiano del Piombo, though without reaching their elevated levels.

The original cycle in the room that housed them was intended to represent the Passions threatened by the Virtues and, specifically, spiritual Love tempted by carnal Love, an evocation of a theme with a subtly erotic background.

The fresco is in good condition and does not appear to have ever undergone restoration even though the entire Casino, including its artwork, had been mentioned as being in poor condition by Davidson (1966, p. 63).

Gabriele de Melis