Lot 41: Orazio Farinati

Orazio Farinati
Verona 1559 - after 1616
the entombment
indistinctly dated lower right: mdcviii(?)
oil on slate
49 by 38.5 cm.; 19 1/4 by 15 1/4 in.
Orazio Farinati was an engraver and a painter like his father, Paolo. They worked closely together, especially from the 1590s until Paolo's death in 1606, with Orazio often borrowing motifs from his father's work. It seems that Paolo began painting on slate during the 1590s, and his son clearly followed suit as this support was particularly successful for themes such as the Deposition and Entombment, both of which were often shown in tenebrous settings.
This particular painting is directly related to an invention of Paolo's: the central group holding the limp body of Christ derives from Paolo's canvas in a private collection, though the latter is of horizontal format (see G. Baldissin Molli, 'Paolo e Orazio Farinati a confronto sul tema della
Deposizione', in Pittura Veneziana da Quattrocento al Settecento: Studi di storia dell'arte in onore di Egidio Martini, Venice 1999, reproduced p. 81). The four background figures are also borrowed from the same painting, though they are brought closer together, whilst the single figure, probably Mary Magdalene, at the far left of the composition seems to be Orazio's own invention. Paolo repeated the main group of four figures a second time in a painting on slate, which almost certainly served as the model for Orazio's reinvention of the subject, since both show the group modified to suit an upright format (private collection; op. cit., reproduced p. 80). The indistinct date (1608) on the present painting places it after Paolo's death, making an attribution to Orazio more than likely; an attribution which has been confirmed by Terence Mullaly upon firsthand inspection of the picture.