Life of Joseph: the Search for the Stolen Cup

Ubertini Francesco called Bachiacca

(Borgo San Lorenzo 1494 - Florence 1557)

The panel illustrates an episode from the Life of Joseph [Old Testament] and is part of a series of six panels produced in 1515-1516 by Francesco Ubertini, known as Bachiacca, for the bridal chamber of Pierfrancesco Borgherini and Margherita Acciaiuoli in the family palazzo in Florence. The works were part of a large and sumptuous decorative scheme with paintings by artists such as Andrea del Sarto, Jacopo Pontormo and Francesco Granacci, in addition to Ubertini. The display was soon dismantled and four of the six panels by Bachiacca ended up in the Borghese collection, where they were mentioned as early as the mid-17th century. Variously attributed to Raphael, Giulio Romano and Orazio Gentileschi, they were traced to Bachiacca by Giovanni Morelli, who also reconstructed their Borgherini provenance.

Object details

Commentary

The small panel depicting the episode of the Search for the Stolen Cup is part of a series of six panels focusing on tales from the life of Joseph [Old Testament] painted by Francesco Ubertini, known as Bachiacca, a Florentine artist who lived in the first half of the 16th century and trained as a pupil of Perugino. The series was commissioned in 1515 by Salvi Borgherini for the wedding of his son Pierfrancesco to Margherita Acciaiuoli and was designed to adorn the bride and groom’s bedchamber, the decoration of which, as recorded by Vasari (1568), had been entrusted to Baccio d’Agnolo. In addition to the one here, three other panels are still in the Galleria Borghese (inv. 425, The Arrest of the Brothers; inv. 427, The Sale of Joseph; inv. 442 The Finding of the Stolen Cup),  while the two remaining scenes are in the National Gallery in London (inv. 1218, 1219). Within the series, the scene here is closely related to The Finding of the Stolen Cup, its pendant, in which some of the same characters appear. The decoration of the room was completed by other panels, entrusted respectively to Andrea del Sarto, Jacopo Pontormo and Francesco Granacci, currently divided between Florence (Uffizi Gallery, Palazzo Pitti) and London (National Gallery).

The circumstances that led to the four Borghese panels being moved to Rome are unknown to this day, but it is known that the sumptuous Borgherini decoration had attracted the attention of collectors since its completion in 1517, to the extent that, some ten years later, the Medici expressed their intention to dismantle it in order to donate the paintings to the King of France. This operation was fiercely opposed by Margherita Acciaiuoli herself (Vasari 1568; Ranalli 1845); however, in the 1580s, her heirs agreed to the dismantling of the decorative scheme and the panels by Andrea del Sarto and Granacci ended up in the hands of Francesco I de’ Medici. There was also the transfer of the four panels by Bachiacca to Rome, which may have come to Scipione Borghese via the Medici, and in particular Cardinal Ferdinando de’ Medici, to whom several works that ended up in the Roman collection belonged (for this hypothesis, see Iommelli’s commentaries, inv. 425 e inv. 427),

It is certain that in 1650 the four panels were already in the possession of the Borghese family, as shown by the reference in Manilli’s guide, where they are described as works by Raphael. Later, in the collection’s inventories, they are recorded as being attributed to Giulio Romano (Inv. 1693) and Orazio Gentileschi (Inv. 1700; Inv. 1790; Inv. Fid. 1833), the latter cited by Piancastelli (1891). Ubertini’s name was suggested by Giovanni Morelli (1897), who traced the panels to the decoration of Palazzo Borgherini. This was accepted by later critics (Longhi 1928; De Rinaldis 1937; Berenson 1938; Marcucci 1958; Della Pergola 1959; Freedbreg 1961; Id. 1963; Monti 1965; Nikolenko 1966; Braham 1979; La France 2008). From the time of Morelli’s contribution to the present day, several drawings housed in Florence, Paris and Vienna have been linked to Bachiacca’s series (Morelli 1897; Berenson 1937; McComb 1926; Gaeta Bertelà 1980; Fischer 1984; Riccardo 2020).

In terms of style, the artist is close to Perugino, his master, and he was influenced by Raphael (Abbate 1965, Nikolenko 1966), Franciabigio (Marcucci 1958; Mancini 1998) and Andrea del Sarto; the characters’ clothing is brightly coloured and recalls the types of costumes commonly found in North-European engravings, found in, for example, Albrecht Altdorfer and Lucas van Leyden (Bartoli 1996; Stefani 2000).

Pier Ludovico Puddu