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Res. Katalogtext: Description in Italian Paintings: Three Centuries of Collecting, Nationalmuseum, Stockholm, 2015, cat.no. 76: 

FORMER INV. NOS.: 394 (M. 1804); KM 478.

TECHNICAL NOTES: The support consists of two pieces of thin,
densely woven, plain-weave linen fabric, sewn together vertically.
The ground is red. The painting has been lined with glue, probably
at the Nationalmuseum, and then remounted on the Martelli
strainer. The paint layer is slightly abraded. The painting is in good
condition. Documented restorations: 1986: Consolidation of flaking
colour. Cleaning, retouching, varnish. 1992: Tears in the canvas
mended. Filling and retouching of paint losses.

PROVENANCE: Martelli 1804.

BIBLIOGRAPHY: NM Cat. 1867, p. 11 (as Romanelli); Sander 1872–
76, III, p. 130, p. 394; NM Cat. 1990, p. 307 (as Romanelli, his school).

A young Mars is sitting on a cloud, draped in a
yellow covering. He is wearing a plumed helmet
and holds a spear and sceptre. The god is seen
slightly from below, showing the soles of his
feet. This perspective makes it plausible that the
painting was originally intended for a ceiling
decoration. A similar representation of Mars is
found in a ceiling in the Galleria Davia at the
Palazzo Serafino in Bologna, executed by Carlo
Cignani in the 1660s.

There are no paintings listed under Romanelli
in the original catalogues. But in Masreliez’s
inventory from 1810, one painting by Romanelli is
listed as additional to the original catalogues.¹

According to the Documentation Archives of
the Nationalmuseum, the painting is reattributed
by Anthony M. Clark to Bartolomeo Schedoni
(1578–1615),² but in the 1990 Nationalmuseum
catalogue of European paintings the attribution
to Romanelli is maintained.³ Together with its
companion piece Vertumnus (NM 153, cat. no.
77), this painting is likely to have been part of a
larger ceiling decoration or possibly originally
a cartoon for a quadratura executed in fresco
technique.
JE

1 NM Archives, Kongl. Museum, F:1, Note des Tableaux
arrivée d’Italie et Deposée au Museum, 1810.
2 NM Archives, Dokumentationsarkivet, Giovanni
Francesco Romanelli.
3 NM Cat. 1990, p. 307. [End]

Foto: Erik Cornelius / Nationalmuseum 2010