Landscape with the Sacrifice of Isaac

Workshop of Castrucci Cosimo e Giovanni

Attributed to

Together with its pendant depicting The Promised Land (inv. no. 494), this commesso, or Florentine mosaic, was mentioned by Iacomo Manilli in 1650 in his description of the many rooms of the Casino di Porta Pinciana. In all likelihood it was executed in the workshop of Cosimo and Giovanni Castrucci in the early 17th century. It depicts a mountain landscape with various structures and a bridge, below which flows a stream of water. The scene of sacrifice of Isaac is represented in the foreground on the left, showing the moment in which Abraham is stopped by an angel sent by God as he is in the act of sacrificing his only son.

Object details

Commentary

The circumstances and date of the entry of this Florentine mosaic into the Borghese Collection are still unclear. According to Paola della Pergola (1959), the work – together with other mosaics (inv. nos 491, 493, 494, 505 and 522) – was purchased in 1634 by Prince Marcantonio Borghese, who through his chamberlain Domenico Baroncino entered into possession of an unspecified number of compositions in ‘fine stone’. Although some critics unhesitatingly accepted Della Pergola’s thesis (C. Stefani, in Moreno Stefani 2000; Herrmann Fiore 2006), it is marred by the fact that the documents she cited, while undoubtedly attesting to the interest of the Borghese family in this artistic genre, cannot with certainty be associated with the works in question, as they lack descriptions. In addition, as Sara Staccioli rightly observed (in Opere in mosaico 1971), Scipione Borghese took an interest in ‘certain flowers made in hardstone’ as early as 1612, which Pietro Strozzi judged to be ‘rare pieces’ in a letter to the rich and powerful cardinal. Together with the description of the panel in a document published by Sandro Corradini, probably datable to 1633 or earlier (Corradini 1998; Pierguidi 2014), Strozzi’s letter allows us to hypothesise that the work already formed part of the Borghese Collection in the time of the cardinal-nephew; this chronology would disprove the theory that until now has been espoused by many critics.

The first written source which unambiguously proves the presence of the mosaic in the Borghese Collection is Iacomo Manilli’s 1650 account. Among the many works which he admired in the Casino di Porta Pinciana, he mentions two compositions made of ‘precious hardstones of various sorts, commonly known as Florentine mosaics, one of which shows two explorers in the Promised Land and the other Abraham’s sacrifice’. The latter undoubtedly refers to the work in question, which remained part of the Borghese possessions until 1902, when the Italian state purchased the villa and its belongings.

Together with two other compositions in the Borghese Collection (Landscape with Penitent Mary Magdalene, inv. no. 491; Landscape with a Laundress, inv. no. 493), the two works cited by Manilli formed part of an exhibition held at the Galleria Borghese in the 1970s. Curator Sara Staccioli rightly divided the four mosaics into two groups based on the types of materials used for them. On that occasion, for the first time the works were attributed to the workshop of Cosimo and Giovanni Castrucci, Florentine artists active at the court of Rudolf II in Prague from 1596 (S. Staccioli, in Opere in mosaico 1971). According to Staccioli, the Borghese mosaics are among several compositions executed by the two Tuscan masters in Florence and Prague; in the specific case of the Landscape with Two Grape Pickers, the work shows certain similarities to the antependium in the church of San Lorenzo in Florence. While subsequent critics did not accept Staccioli’s theory (C. Stefani, in Moreno, Stefani 2000, p. 206; Herrmann Fiore 2006, pp. 157-158), the present writer recently revived it (Iommelli 2022): several stylistic characteristics – the attention to small details which are only apparent when viewed close-up, the alternating of light and dark stones to create perspective, and the representation of the trees, whose curiously curled foliage creates the effect of a theatrical scene – point to the Castrucci workshop. In all likelihood, the execution of the work dates to the first quarter of the 17th century, when the Tuscan artists skilfully used the chromatic variety of the stones to produce mosaics with refined, well-articulated volumes.

Unfortunately, at present we have no information as to how and when the work in question entered the Borghese Collection. Nonetheless, the presence of hardstone in the composition which were regularly used in Florentine workshops leads us to imagine that it was executed in Florence or Rome; indeed we would be justified in assuming the existence of a branch workshop in the Eternal City, visited by the two masters during their continuous journeys between Tuscany and Prague. In support of this thesis, our sources tell us that Giovanni Battista Castrucci, father of the Florentine goldsmiths Francesco and Silvestro and undoubtedly related to the Tuscan masters, was in Rome between the late 16th century and the first decades of the 17th (Bulgari 1958).

Finally, we should mention two panels held in Vienna – the Landscape with Penitent Mary Magdalene and the Landscape with an Obelisk (Kunsthistorisches Museum, inv. nos 3006, 3397; Neumann 1957) – with subjects and media similar to the two other Borghese mosaics: this resemblance suggests that the same cartoons were used, which reached the Florentine workshop together with mosaics from Bohemia (Neumann 1957). Some details in the Landscape with a Laundress are repeated in the Landscape with an Obelisk, while the scenes of the two compositions depicting Mary Magdalene are identically constructed. If on the other hand we accept the theory that they were executed in Prague (S. Staccioli, in Opere in mosaico 1971), we could presume that they were sent to the Borghese family as gifts, brought to Rome by Antonio Tempesta, the Florentine artist who for some time had been in contact with both Scipione and Rudolf II in Prague (Prag um 1600 1988). Alternatively, the works could have come to the Eternal City through either Pietro Strozzi or Cardinal Francesco Maria del Monte: the latter was an advisor to Ferdinando de’ Medici and Pope Paul V, for whom he procured precious works in marble and stone to embellish the Cappella dei Principi in San Lorenzo in Florence and the Borghese Chapel in Santa Maria Maggiore in Rome.

Antonio Iommelli