The Cessation of the Schism of Anacletus
Artist/Maker
Material / Technique
Dimensionsh x w: Mått 97 x 62 cm h x w x d: Ram 115,5 x 81,5 x 12 cm
Inventory numberNM 1
AcqusitionTransferred 1866 from Kongl. Museum (Martelli 1804)
Other titlesTitle (sv): Upphörandet av Anacletus schism Title (en): The Cessation of the Schism of Anacletus
DescriptionCatalogue raisonné: Description in Italian Paintings: Three Centuries of Collecting, Nationalmuseum, Stockholm, 2015, cat.no. 70: FORMER INV. NOS.: 144 (M. 1796–97); 185 (F. 1798); 421 (M. 1804); KM 462. PROVENANCE: Martelli 1804. BIBLIOGRAPHY: NM Cat. 1867, p. 1 (as Francesco Albani, John of God) Sander 1872–76, IV, p. 133, no. 421 (as Francesco Albani, St Romuald), Göthe 1887, p. 2 (as Albani, school of); NM Cat. 1958, p.114 (as Benedetto Luti, St Romuald Healing a Possessed Woman); NM Cat. 1990, p. 90 (as Placido Costanzi, St Romuald Healing a Possessed Woman). In the 18th-century inventory of the Martelli Collection, this painting was assigned to Francesco Albani and the subject identified as a deed performed by St Romuald. As confirmed by their close numbers in the original inventory, it was presumed to be a companion piece to St Catherine (NM 98, cat. no. 7).¹ A later attribution proposed Benedetto Luti as its author. This was probably because Luti was originally regarded as the author of the presumed companion piece NM 98, and would accordingly have been considered to have painted both. When Anthony Clark visited the Nationalmuseum in the mid 1960s for his research on the Nicola Pio portrait collection, he probably saw NM 1 and assigned it instead to Placido Costanzi.² As for NM 98, he rightly questioned the Luti attribution.³ In 1995, the present painting was recognized by Dieter Graf as an alternative version of a work by Antonio Pietro De Pietri, now in the Museé des Beaux-Arts, Dijon [Fig. 1].⁴ Two preparatory drawings are preserved, one at Windsor Castle and the other at Holkham Hall.⁵ The work was originally intended for the Abbey of Cîteaux, where it hung as a companion piece to Giuseppe Passeri’s St Bernard Received into Cîteaux.⁶ Indeed, the present painting, like the Dijon version, shows a particular episode in the life of that saint: his interference in the dispute regarding the simultaneous election of two popes, Anacletus II and Innocent II. St Bernard, who was firmly convinced of the rightful claim of Innocent II, is here shown next to the Pope, whilst Anacletus’s successor, the antipope Victor IV, pays his submissive respects. Marguerite Guillaume has noted that the scene is set in Milan, as shown by the presence of the standard of the city, the crowned cross. Milan was indeed one of the last cities to surrender to the authority of Innocent II, which makes it a proper context for this allegorical summit of the schism. The Dijon version and the present painting differ greatly in composition, although these differences are certainly more formal than content-related. The Allegory of Blasphemy, represented by the woman turning her eyes and showing her tongue, is placed on the left- and the right-hand sides of the paintings, respectively. Furthermore, in the Stockholm version, the Pope is wearing his mitre, a detail lacking in the Dijon painting. Other compositional details and the reversed placement of the figures distinguish the two paintings and stress the fact that these are two independent versions of the same subject. SNE 1 NM Archives, Kongl. Museum, F :1, Catalogue du Cabinet de Martelli (à Rome). Recorded under the name of Benedetto Luti is: Ste Catherine pendent de No 144 par Albane. The latter is NM 1. 2 Bjurström 1995, p. 7. 3 See entry no. 6 in the present catalogue. 4 NM Archives, Dokumentationsarkivet, “Pietro Antonio De Pietri”; Guillaume 1980, cat. no. 95, pp. 61–62. 5 Blunt and Cooke 1960, no. [End]
Motif categoryReligion/Mythology
Collection
MaterialDuk
Object category
Keyword