St Catherine Imploring Gregory XI to Return from Avignon
Artist/Maker
Material / Technique
Dimensionsh x w: Mått 87 x 73 cm
Inventory numberNM 98
AcqusitionTransferred 1866 from Kongl. Museum (Martelli 1804)
Other titlesTitle (sv): Sankta Katarina söker övertala påven att flytta från Avignon till Rom Title (en): St Catherine Imploring Gregory XI to Return from Avignon Previous: St Catherine Trying to persuade the Pope to move from Avignon to Rome
DescriptionCatalogue raisonné: Description in Italian Paintings: Three Centuries of Collecting, Nationalmuseum, Stockholm, 2015, cat.no. 7: FORMER INV. NOS.: 145 (M. 1796–97); 21 (F. 1798); 420 (M. 1804); KM 463. PROVENANCE: Martelli 1804. BIBLIOGRAPHY: NM Cat. 1867, p. (as Benedetto Luti); Sander 1872–76, III, p. 133, no. 419 (as Benedetto Luti); Göthe 1887, p. 143 (as Benedetto Luti, attributed to); Macco et al. 1981, pp. 416–417; Clark 1981, p. 6, fig. 12; NM Cat. 1990, p. 84 (as Sebastiano Conca). This canvas, attributed to Sebastiano Conca by Antony Morris Clark in the 1980s and never considered again by that critic, is an important addition to Marco Benefial’s oeuvre: the new attribution to that artist, based on stylistic evidence, is confirmed by a preparatory drawing for the drapery of the angel at the top left of the canvas and for the two allegorical figures.¹ The work is characterized by a pathos as well as a realism that is rarely found in contemporary Roman painting: the scene is set on sloping ground, like the stage of a theatre – an approach typical of Benefial in this kind of representation – and captures the characters in a passionate dialogue of gestures and looks. The depiction is ordered by diagonals: the rendering of the space is highly complex, with a perspective that extends beyond the limits of the picture, giving a sense of magniloquence and grandeur. The fluidity of the brushstrokes and the rapidity in the depiction of details suggest that this painting is a modello for a larger work, yet to be discovered.² St Catherine is the protagonist of the image: she is persuading the Pope to return to Rome to end the “Avignon Papacy” (the period when Avignon was the capital of the papal state); the Eternal City appears as a vision on the horizon.³ The Holy Spirit also appears from the clouds, surrounded by angels, symbolizing the divine inspiration of the saint’s proposal. Gregory XI, marked by finely characterized features, is portrayed with a hand on his chest, looking down, in the act of making a solemn resolution before the cardinals in the background, who are also incisively characterized (which is never the case in Sebastiano Conca’s oeuvre, where we find a more idealized rendering of facial features). Clark suggests that two of these figures, behind the Pope, can be identified as Anton Felice Zondadari and Melchior de Polignac.⁴ A crowd of people is trying to enter the palace, and an allegorical depiction (possibly to be identified as Wisdom overcoming Ignorance) closes the image to the left.⁵ The result is a very original illustration of this important event both in the life of St Catherine and in the history of the Church: Marco Benefial, as always in his work, does not depict it as a history far off in time and space and distant from the spectator, but in a more familiar way, as a sort of tranche de vie, as if Gregory XI’s solemn decision is being taken before our very eyes and the scene is being played out as we look at the picture. Benefial thus treats a religious painting as a historical one, with an absolutely modern idiom, inviting people to re-experience the event depicted, which speaks to both the intellect and the heart. This outcome is surprising, given the rarity of the subject and the few precedents that the artist could have drawn on as examples: apart from a Francesco Vanni painting – preparatory to images in a volume on the saint’s life – and an engraving by Bernard Van Rantwick, only a painting by Sebastiano Conca, which we can date to 1731, has the same subject.⁶ The canvas now in Stockholm is probably earlier, and may be dated around 1720: a comparison with The Vision of St Philip Neri (1721, Cambridge, Fitzwilliam Museum) is enlightening for the detail of the people in the background – some faces are almost the same as in the Stockholm canvas – and that of the celestial glory, where both the robust proportions and the distinguished facial features bring the divine apparitions to life.⁷ In addition, the elongated and animated folds of the drapery and the slender proportions of the figures, such as those of St Catherine and the Pope, as well as the brushwork in the rendering of the angels’ hair, recall very closely works such as San Saturnino rifiuta di adorare il simulacro di Apollo (1716, Rome, Basilica dei Santi Giovanni e Paolo) or L’Addolorata con gli angeli che reggono gli strumenti della passione (1721, Rome, Convent of Santa Maria dei Sette dolori), confirming once again the proposed chronology.⁸ AA 1 Clark 1981, p. 6, fig. 12. A photograph of the preparatory drawing, with no reference to its location, is to be found in the photographic archive of Giorgio Falcidia. I am most grateful to Liliana Barroero, who gave me the opportunity to consult the photographs. Regarding Marco Benefial, the most recent and important bibliographical references are: Barroero 2005, and the following articles: Agresti 2007; Van Dooren 2008; Celeste Cola 2012. 2 Clark considered the picture preparatory to Sebastiano Conca’s altarpiece of the same subject, now in the house of St Catherine of Siena. That work differs in many ways from the Stockholm canvas, and is also chronologically later, as I will demonstrate. 3 For a description of the event, see Jungmayr 2004, vol. I, pp. 218 ff.; for the historical importance of the end of the “Avignon Papacy” (and its reflections in the pictorial art of the period), see Bianco 2001, in particular the essays of Cavallini 2001, pp. 1–12; Nardi 2001, pp. 49–66; Giunta 2001, pp. 119–149. 4 This hypothesis is still credible, in spite of the changed attribution: Benefial painted numerous rooms in the Chigi-Zondadari Palace in Siena in the fourth decade of the 18th century, undertaking the most significant part of that work. For reasons still unknown, the artist could have met Anton Felice Zondadari some years before starting on the decoration of the palace. 5 Wisdom wears a crown of laurel (symbol of culture and power) and a torch (symbol of enlightenment), while the second allegorical figure covers her ears (to indicate her rejection of teaching and knowledge). 6 For the iconography of the saint, see Bianchi and Giunta 1988. See also the articles mentioned in note 1; Catherine de Sienne, exh. cat., 1992, pp. 228, 282. 7 Barroero 2000, pp. 321–322. 8 Barroero 2005, pp. 10–11, figs. [end]
Motif categoryReligion/Mythology
Collection
TechniquePainting
Object category
Keyword