Visitation
(Antwerp? Notizie between 1631 and 1649-50)
Part of the Borghese Collection since 1819, this painting was purchased by Prince Camillo on the antiques market. In the 19th century the panel was attributed to Pieter Paul Rubens; yet following a cleaning operation the signature of Marten Mandekens was revealed, a little-known student of Hendrick van Balen the Elder active in Antwerp in the first half of the 17th century. In a style quite close to that of Rubens, here the artist depicted the Virgin Mary: having received the announcement of the future birth of Jesus, Mary visits her relative Elizabeth, who is pregnant with John the Baptist, as the Gospel of Luke narrates (1:40-45). The scene is here transposed to modern times, as is seen by the contemporary mode of dress of the figures.
Object details
Inventory
Location
Date
Classification
Period
Medium
Dimensions
Frame
Salvator Rosa, 118.2 x 96 x 7 cm
Provenance
Rome, purchased by Camillo Borghese, 11 August 1819 (G. Piancastelli in Galleria Borghese Archive, AIV-4; reprinted in Tarissi De Jacobis 2003); Inventario Fidecommissario Borghese 1833, p. 22. Purchased by Italian state, 1902.
Inscriptions
Dated and signed: "M. MANDEKENS. ANTWERPIAE INVENIT (A)C. FECIT. 1638."
Conservation and Diagnostic
- 1907 Luigi Bartolucci (pest control)
- 1946 Carlo Matteucci (cleaning)
- 1957 Gilda Diotallevi
- 1963 Alvaro Esposti
- 2009-10 Maria Francesca Tizzani, Laura Ferretti
Commentary
As a handwritten note by Giovanni Piancastelli reveals (in the Galleria Borghese archive, AIV-4; reprinted in Tarissi De Jacobis 2003), this panel entered the Borghese Collection in 1819, when Prince Camillo purchased it for his own gallery on the antiques market. The work was initially attributed to Pieter Paul Rubens (Inv. Fid. 1833); Marcel Reymond (1891) indeed believed it to be a sort of first version of the wing of The Descent from the Cross of the Cathedral of Our Lady in Antwerp by the famous master. For his part, Adolfo Venturi (1893) accepted this theory, albeit with reservations, judging the work in question to be ‘simpler’ than the painting in Antwerp; he dated it to 1610. Earlier, Platner (1842) had published the Borghese panel as a copy after Rubens. Similarly, Roberto Longhi (1928) unhesitatingly rejected the possibility that the work was by the Flemish master. In the meantime, however, both Rosenberg (1905) and Vanzype (1926) had argued that it was a Rubens autograph, dating the painting to 1606-08 and 1598-1600, respectively.
A restoration operation conducted in 1946 put an end to this diatribe. Careful cleaning by Carlo Matteucci brought to light the signature and the date (‘M. VAN DEN END(EN) INV. ET PIN. ANT/VERPIAE 1638.’; see Hoogerwerff 1942-1943). While critics readily accepted the stated year of its execution, they gave different interpretations of the name of the painter: some believed it referred to the engraver Maarten van den Enden (Hoogerwerff 1942-1943) and others to Theodor van Thulden (Glück 1933). Only in 1959 did Paola della Pergola solve the mystery, rightly maintaining that the signature was that of Marten Mandekens, a little-known student of Hendrick van Balen the Elder active in Antwerp from the 1630s. Her view has been accepted by all subsequent critics (C. Stefani in Galleria Borghese 2000; Herrmann Fiore 2006), including the present writer.
Antonio Iommelli
Bibliography
- A. Nibby, Roma nell’anno 1838, Roma 1841, p. 600;
- E. e C. Platner, Beschreibung der Stadt Rom, III-I, Stuttgart 1842, p. 289;
- X. Barbier de Montault, Les Musées et Galeries de Rome, Rome 1870, p. 363;
- M. Rooses, L’Oeuvre de P. P. Rubens, II, Anvers 1888, p. 110;
- M. Reymond, Opere di Rubens a Roma, in “Archivio Storico dell’Arte”, IV, 1891, p. 158;
- A. Venturi, Il Museo e la Galleria Borghese, Roma 1893, p. 144;
- A. Rosenberg, Pieter Paul Rubens, Stuttgart-Leipzig 1905, pp. 39, 465;
- J. A. Rusconi, La Villa, il Museo e la Galleria Borghese, Bergamo 1906, p. 88;
- A. Muñoz, La Galleria Borghese in Roma, Roma 1909, pp. 5-8;
- F. Pellati, I Musei e le Gallerie d’Italia, Roma 1922, p. 317;
- G. Vanzype, Pieter Paul Rubens – L’homme et l’oeuvre, Bruxelles-Paris 1926, p. 102;
- R. Longhi, Precisioni nelle Gallerie Italiane, I, La R. Galleria Borghese, Roma 1928, pp. 201-3;
- P. Rombauts, T. van Lerius, De Liggeren en andere historische Archieven der Antwerpsche Sint-Lucasgilde, Dea Haag 1872, pp. 27, 29, 49, 56, 211;
- M. Rooses, Rubens, sa vie et ses ouvres, Paris s. d. 1928, p. 94;
- G. Glück, Rubens, Van Dyck und ihr Kreis, Wien 1933, p. 158;
- G. J. Hoogewerff, Martinus van den Ende als Schilder en Navolger van Rubens, in “Bulletin de l’Institut Belge de Rome”, XXII, 1942-1943, p. 312 ss.;
- P. Della Pergola, La Galleria Borghese in Roma, Milano 1950, p. 55;
- L. van Puyvelde, La Peinture Flamande à Rome, Bruxelles 1950, p. 155;
- P. della Pergola, La Galleria Borghese in Roma, Roma 1951, pp. 49-50;
- P. della Pergola, La Galleria Borghese. I Dipinti, II, Roma 1959, pp. 173-174, n. 256;
- C. Stefani in P. Moreno, C. Stefani, Galleria Borghese, Milano 2000, p. 370;
- S. Tarissi De Jacobis, in Villa Borghese. I principi, le arti, la città dal Settecento all'Ottocento, catalogo della mostra (Roma, Villa Poniatowski, 2003-2004), a cura di A. Campitelli, Ginevra 2003, p. 107;
- 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. 92.
