Beskrivning: Bröstbild med stark vridning, huvudet fas vänster, kroppen fas höger, höger arm utsträckt. Ljust lockigt hår. Iklädd ljust blå dräkt. Gul-brun helhetston med mörka skuggor. Mörkbrun bakgrund.

Se beskrivning i den engelska versionen.

Res. Katalogtext: Description in Italian Paintings: Three Centuries of Collecting, Nationalmuseum, Stockholm, 2015, cat.no. 36: 


FORMER INV. NOS.: 191(M. 1796–97); 133 (F. 1798); 192 (M. 1804);
KM 530.

TECHNICAL NOTES: Labelled on verso: “Coreggio Angelo”. The
support is a coarse, plain-weave linen fabric. A red-brown ground
covers the whole of it, and the paint layers are thinly applied. The
painting has been lined, probably in Italy before shipping to Sweden,
and is mounted with staples on a Martelli strainer. The paint
layers are abraded, with numerous old retouches. IR reflectography
reveals underdrawing, probably done with a pencil and a thin,
fluid paint. The varnish is yellowed. Documented restorations:
1836: Restored by Heideken; 1933: Restored.

PROVENANCE: Martelli 1804.

BIBLIOGRAPHY: Sander 1872–76, III, p. 110, no. 192 (as Correggio).
Nicola Martelli praised the present painting in
the unfinished classification of his collection:
9. Half figure of an Angel (by the same Ant. Allegri).
The grand style of the form, the spacious volumes linked
by the chiaroscuro, the happy movement of the shortening
[of the arm], the colour of the hearty palette, and the
magic depth of the painting, all announce the excellent
trade mark of an artist of that calibre. Perhaps this is
one of the preliminary studies he made for the Cupola
in Parma.¹ The defect of such a beautiful picture is that
it has been retouched with little skill: for instance, they
have darkened and oppressed some of the dark shades
with bitumen.²

Martelli was wrong about the original context
of the painting, which is a copy made of one of
the angels standing on the right hand side behind
St John the Evangelist in Correggio’s Coronation
of the Virgin (1522) in the church of San Giovanni
Evangelista in Parma. Placed in the apse, that
work was destroyed in 1587 when the building was
extended. The painter Cesare Aretusi (1549–1612)
was commissioned to copy Correggio’s work and
eventually reproduce it on the walls of the new
apse. In 1587, Aretusi was able to complete this
commission, which was based on large-scale copies
on canvas. It is a well-known fact that Malvasia,
in his Vita of Annibale (1678), stated that Aretusi
laid his hands on copies that had been made by
the Carracci brothers shortly before the demolition.
³ Correggio’s importance for the artistic
development of the Carracci brothers, and especially
Annibale, is well-established. By copying the
master, they honed their own skill and stylistic
sensitivity, but they also found a new market for
this kind of artwork.⁴

Two sets of copies of different details of the
Coronation of the Virgin are preserved in Italian
collections, namely in Naples and Parma.⁵ As for
the group of angels of which NMDrh 268 consti-
tutes a part, Leone de Castris and Utili mention
the existence of several copies in European museum
collections, namely in London (National
Gallery), Budapest (Szépművészeti Múzeum)
and Chambéry (Musée des Beaux-Arts).⁶ Interestingly,
the London copy originally belonged to
Queen Christina of Sweden and was listed as a
work by Correggio himself in an inventory taken
in 1662 ⁷

Scholars are not entirely agreed on the Carracci
authorship of all these copies.⁸ As for the angel
represented in NMDrh 268, it shares the same
poor state of preservation as that indicated for
the London version, a fact which decidedly limits
any serious discussion of its authorship. Martelli’s
own technical remarks offer some insight into
the painting’s condition at the end of the 18th
century when, apparently, it was not at its best.
It is a fact, though, that the underdrawing is of
good quality.

The painting’s status as a preliminary work fits
into the collecting of Nicola Martelli, whose purchases
were guided by an interest in the materials
and genesis of artworks.
SNE

1 Here Martelli is referring to Correggio’s famous fresco in
the cupola of Parma Cathedral, the Assumption of the
Virgin (1524–30).
2 NM Archives, Kongl. Museum, F:1: 9. Mezza figura
d’Angiolo (del sud.o Ant. Allegri). Il carattere grandioso delle
forme, le masse spaziose legate del chiaro-oscuro, la felice mossa
dello scorcio, la tinta della carnosa tavolozza, e il magico rilievo
della dipintura, tutto annuncia l’eccellenza privativa di un
tanto artista. Forse questo è uno studio di quelli ch’egli fece per
la cupola di Parma. Il difetto di così bel quadro è di essere stato
ritoccato non con molta maestria: per esempio hanno
coll’Aspalto annerito e rese pesanti alcune tinte degli scuri.
See Appendix 1.
3 Leone de Castris and Utili 1994, p. 113; Malvasia 1841, vol. I,
pp. 250 f.
4 Robertson 2008, p. 48.
5 Leone de Castris and Utili 1994, pp. 115–116 with further
bibliography; Robertson 2008, p. 48.
6 Leone de Castris and Utili 1994, p. 116.
7 Cristina di Svezia. Le collezioni reali, exh. cat., Rome, 2003,
pp. 171–172 with further bibliography.
8 See, for instance, Leone de Castris and Utili 1994 and
Robertson 2008. [End]

Änglahuvud