Lot 23: GIUSEPPE VERMIGLIO

GIUSEPPE VERMIGLIO ALESSANDRIA CIRCA 1585 - AFTER 1635 PENITENT SAINT PETER oil on canvas 29 by 22 3/4 in.; 73.2 by 57.7 cm.

B. Nicolson, under "Current and Forthcoming Exhibitions," in The Burlington Magazine, No. 842, Vol. CXV, May 1973, p. 135, reproduced fig. 97;
M. Gregori, "Il Sacrificio di Isacco: un inedito e considerazioni su una fase savoldesca del Caravaggio," in Artibus et Historiae, 1989, 20, p. 140, under note 16;
A. Morandotti, "Giuseppe Vermiglio, naturalista, accademico e diligente," in G. Romano, ed., Percorsi caravaggeschi tra Roma e Piemonte, Turin 1999, p. 258, note 104, reproduced;
F. Frangi, in Giuseppe Vermiglio, Un pittore caravaggesco tra Roma e la Lombardia, exhibition catalogue, Campione d'Italia 2000, p. 65, reproduced, p. 76. note 28.

Probably Count Giuseppe Archinto, Milan;
His deceased sale, Paris, Hôtel Drouot, 18 May 1863, lot 61;
With Gallery Lasson, London circa 1973;
Purchased by the present owner from a deceased's estate in 1973.

This painting, along with several other male figures by Vermiglio, clearly shows the artist's awareness of and reaction to the works by his Bolognese contemporaries, such as Guido Reni. In fact, early art historians, such as Luigi Lanzi noticed this connection.υ1 Mina Gregori was the first to associate the present St. Peter with Vermiglio by deciphering an old inscription or signature with the artist's name that was on the original canvas (the painting was subsequently relined) when the painting was with Gallery Lasson in 1973. The composition is closely related to another St. Peter in the Uffizi (Inv. P1448) formerly called Bolognese School, 17υth century and correctly identified by Gregori as another in the series of male figures by Vermiglio.υ2 In the 2000 exhibition on the artist, Francesco Frangi notes that the soft Reni-like modeling, typical of these figures which were painted by Vermiglio during his Lombard years, is most evident in the Uffizi picture and the present example (see Literature).

Morandotti suggests that this painting is very likely the one formerly in the celebrated Milanese collection of Count Guseppe Archinto (see Literature). That painting, of same subject and size as the present work, was sold at auction in Paris in 1863 and listed as by "le chevalier de Vermiglio."

1. See L. Lanzi, Storia Pittorica della Italia, Milan 1823, vol. V, p. 408.
2. Francesco Frangi has since assigned another male figure of St. Peter to this group, sold New York, Sotheby's, 11 October 1990, lot 141, where it was called Milanese School, 17υth Century (see Literature, p. 76, under footnote 28).