Nativity
(Arezzo 1511 - Florence 1574)
This panel was first documented as forming part of the Borghese Collection in 1650, when Iacomo Manilli described it as a work by Giorgio Vasari. This is probably the same Nativity mentioned by the artist in his autobiography, which some critics believe to be the version from Cardinal Salviati’s collection, while others identify it with the work held by Pierantonio Bandini. Whatever its actual provenance, it is certain that the painting was warmly received by Vasari’s contemporaries, admired for its high stylistic quality and the lighting effects.
Object details
Inventory
Location
Date
Classification
Period
Medium
Dimensions
Frame
Salvator Rosa, 119.5 x 85.5 x 7 cm
Provenance
Rome, Borghese Collection, 1650 (Manilli 1650; Della Pergola 1959); Inv. 1693, room IX, no. 27; Inventario Fidecommissario 1833, p. 16; purchased by Italian state, 1902.
Conservation and Diagnostic
- 1903 - Luigi Bartolucci (support);
- 1907 - Luigi Bartolucci (support);
- 1951 - Augusto Cecconi Principi;
- 1963 - Alvaro Esposti.
Commentary
The provenance of this painting is still uncertain. It was first cited in connection with the Borghese Collection in 1650, when Iacomo Manilli recorded it among the works held at the Casino di Porta Pinciana, rightly attributing it to Giorgio Vasari. The hypothesis that the panel was among the works listed in the 1682 inventory of the elder Olimpia Aldobrandini is not tenable, as the work is cited shortly thereafter – in 1693 – among the belongings of the Borghese family in their city residence (Inv. 1693). It would indeed be difficult to imagine that the painting, in possession of the Borghese in 1650, could have entered the Aldobrandini collection and then have been transferred back to its original owners.
Regarding the artist of the work, in spite of Manilli’s correct identification the painting quickly lost its proper attribution, beginning with the inventory of 1693. The 1833 Inventario Fidecommissario listed it as a work by Gerrit van Hontorst, a name accepted by Adolfo Venturi (1893), albeit with reservations. Voss (1913) was the first critic to revive the attribution to Vasari, noting the work’s similarities to one with the same subject by Pierantonio Bandini, which Vasari in fact cited in his Lives: ‘a Nativity of Jesus by Pierantonio Bandini, an illuminated night scene with various innovations’ (Vasari 1565, ed. 1881). In line with this hypothesis, Voss claimed that the work was executed in Rome shortly after 1553; his proposal was accepted by a number of critics (Longhi 1928; Venturi 1933; Della Pergola 1959).
Yet not all writers have concurred: Paola Barocchi (1964) rejected its connection with Bandini’s work, identifying the Borghese panel with the ‘Nativity [...] placed in a nocturnal setting’ commissioned by Cardinal Salviati and executed by Vasari around 1546. Her opinion was upheld by Laura Corti (1989) but has not been evaluated by critics since.
Antonio Iommelli
Bibliography
- G. Vasari, Vite de’ più eccellenti architetti, pittori, et scultori italiani, da Cimabue a’ tempi nostri, Firenze 1550, ed. a cura G. Milanesi, VII, Firenze 1881, p. 695;
- I. Manilli, Villa Borghese fuori di Porta Pinciana, Roma 1650, p. 97;
- F. W. B. von Ramdohr, Ueber Malherei und Bildhauerarbeit in Rom für Liebhaber des Schönen in der Kunst, I, Leipzig 1787, p. 305;
- G. Piancastelli, Catalogo dei quadri della Galleria Borghese, in Archivio Galleria Borghese, 1891, p. 403;
- A. Venturi, Il Museo e la Galleria Borghese, Roma 1893, p. 142;
- H. Voss, Über einige Gemälde irnd Zeichnungen von Meistern aus dem Kreise Michelangelos, in “Jahrbuch der Königlich. Preussischen Kunstsammlungen”, XXXIV, 1913, pp. 306, 313;
- H. Voss, Die Molerei der Spätrenaissance in Rom und Florenz, I, Berlin 1920, p. 278;
- R. Longhi, Precisioni nelle Gallerie Italiane, I, La R. Galleria Borghese, Roma 1928, p. 201;
- A. Venturi, Storia dell'Arte Italiana, IX, Roma 1933, p. 374 (nota);
- P. della Pergola, La Galleria Borghese in Roma, Roma 1951, p. 22;
- P. della Pergola, La Galleria Borghese. I Dipinti, II, Roma 1959, p. 57, n. 83;
- P. della Pergola, Gli Inventari Salviati, in “Arte antica e moderna”, X, 1960, pp. 197-198;
- P. Barocchi, Vasari pittore, Firenze 1964, p. 30;
- E. Rud, Giorgio Vasari Vater des europaischen Kunstgeschichte, Stuttgart 1964, p. 57;
- E. Bénezit, Dictionaire critique et documentaire des peintres, sculpteurs, dessinateurs et graveurs, Paris 1976, p. 404;
- L. Corti, Vasari. Catalogo completo dei dipinti, Firenze 1989, p. 67;
- C. Stefani, in P. Moreno, C. Stefani, Galleria Borghese, Milano 2000, p. 344;
- 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. 91.
