The Crossing of the Red Sea
(Florence 1555 - Rome 1630)
Painted on ruin marble, The Crossing of the Red Sea has formed part of the Borghese Collection since at least 1693, when it was listed in the inventory of that year as a work by Antonio Tempesta. The attribution was repeated in all subsequent inventories and is generally accepted by critics. It was probably conceived as the pendant of The Calling of Saint Peter by the same artist (inv. no. 497). The work can be dated to between the second and third decade of the 17th century.
Object details
Inventory
Location
Date
Classification
Period
Medium
Dimensions
Frame
Salvator Rosa, 23 x 40 x 4 cm
Provenance
Borghese collection, cited in Inv. 1693, room XI, no. 228; Inv. 1790, room VII, no. 120; Inventario Fidecommissario 1833, p. 36. Purchased by Italian state, 1902.
Exhibitions
- 1971-1972 Roma, Galleria Borghese
- 2022-2023 Roma, Galleria Borghese
Commentary
The work was first mentioned in connection with the Borghese Collection in the inventory of 1693, where it was described as ‘an oblong painting half a span high on stone, when the Hebrews cross the Red Sea, black frame, no. 228 marked on back, by Tempesta’. The description, dimensions and support material correspond exactly to the work in question, which was executed on ruin marble. The painting in fact depicts the Biblical episode of The Crossing of the Red Sea, narrated in Exodus (14:26-28). With regard to the reference in the inventory to a presumed inscription on the back of the slab, while some critics maintained that it was still visible (Collomb 2006, Appendix 5, pp. 269-270, no. 65; Lohff 2015, pp. 198-199, no. 5.2), more recently others have claimed that there is no indication of an inventory number or an artist’s name (Settimi 2022, p. 226). The number 228 mentioned in the 1693 inventory is the same given to another work on ruin marble in the Collection, The Calling of Saint Peter (inv. 497), which was likely conceived as the pendant of the Crossing of the Red Sea. The two paintings in fact share a number of technical elements and modes of execution.
The work in question reappears in the 1790 inventory with the same attribution to the Tuscan painter: ‘a landscape with the Red Sea and the drowning Pharoah, by Tempesta’. The artist’s name was repeated in the 1833 Inventario fidecommissario and was accepted by Adolfo Venturi and Roberto Longhi. In more recent times it has been upheld by most critics, with the exception of Johanna Beate Lohff, who proposed downgrading the work as a product of Tempesta’s workshop or circle (Lohff 2015, pp. 198-199, no. 5.2; Lohff 2018, p. 195). Nonetheless, in the current exhibition at the Galleria Borghese on painting on stone the Crossing is displayed together with the Calling: on the basis of stylistic considerations, Emanuela Settimi confirmed the attribution to Tempesta, while dating our work to between 1615 and 1630 (Settimi 2022).
Pier Ludovico Puddu
Bibliography
- X. Barbier de Montault, Les Musées et Galeries de Rome, Rome 1870, p. 357, n. 56;
- G. Piancastelli, Catalogo dei quadri della Galleria Borghese in Archivio Galleria Borghese,1891, p. 265;
- A. Venturi, Il Museo e la Galleria Borghese, Roma 1893, p. 219;
- R. Longhi, Precisioni nelle Gallerie Italiane, I, R. Galleria Borghese, Roma, 1928, p. 223;
- R. Buscaroli, La pittura di paesaggio in Italia, Bologna 1935, p. 325;
- P. Della Pergola, Galleria Borghese. I dipinti, II, Roma 1959, p. 55, n. 79;
- P. Della Pergola, Gli Inventari Aldobrandini, in “Arte antica e moderna”, XII, 1960, p. 430;
- Á. Czobor, Un tableau d’Antonio Tempesta récemment identifié, in « Bulletin du Musée Hongrois des Beaux-Arts », XX, 1962, p. 60;
- P. Della Pergola, L’Inventario Borghese del 1693 (III), in “Arte antica e moderna”, XXX, 1965, p. 208;
- S. Staccioli, in Opere in mosaico, intarsi e pietra paesina. Catalogo, catalogo della mostra (Roma, Galleria Borghese, 1971-1972), Roma 1971, p. 32, n. 16;
- L. Laureati, Le pietre dipinte: oggetti o quadri? Alcuni esempi di collezionismo romano, in Pietra dipinta. Tesori nascosti del ’500 e del ’600 da una collezione privata milanese, catalogo della mostra (Milano, Palazzo Reale, 2000-2001) a cura di Marco Bona Castellotti, Milano, 2000, p. 93;
- A. L. Collomb, La peinture sur pierre en Italie 1530-1630, tesi di dottorato, Lyon, Université de Genève et Université Lumière, 2006, pp. 102, 269-270, n. 65;
- 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. 161;
- A. L. Collomb, Dall’ardesia alle pietre semipreziose. La pittura su pietra in Italia nel XVI e XVII secolo, in Lapislazzuli. Magia del blu, catalogo della mostra (Firenze, Palazzo Pitti, Museo degli Argenti-Museo di Storia Naturale dell’Università di Firenze “La Specola”, 2015), a cura di M. Sframeli et al., Livorno 2015, p. 203;
- J. B. Lohff, Malerei auf Stein. Antonio Tempestas Bilder auf Stein im Kontext der Kunst- und Naturtheorie seiner Zeit, München 2015, pp. 198-199, n. 5.2;
- J. B. Lohff, Antonio Tempesta’s Paintings on Stone and the Development of a Genre in 17th-Century Italy, in Almost Eternal: Painting on Stone and Material Innovation in Early Modern Europe, atti del simposio (Roma, British School, 2016) a cura di P. Baker-Bates ed E. M. Calvillo, Boston 2018, p. 195;
- E. Settimi, in Meraviglia senza tempo. Pittura su pietra a Roma tra Cinquecento e Seicento, catalogo della mostra (Roma, Galleria Borghese, 2022-2023) a cura di F. Cappelletti, P. Cavazzini, Milano 2022, pp. 226-227, n. VI.3.
