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Catalogue raisonné: Description in Italian Paintings: Three Centuries of Collecting, Nationalmuseum, Stockholm, 2015, cat.no. 102:

FORMER INV. NOS.: 227 (B. 1830s); KM 1064.

TECHNICAL NOTES: The support consists of a single hardwood
(poplar) board. It has been glued onto a thin wooden panel that
has been provided with a cradle. The ground is white. The motif
is circular, with black painted corners (hidden by the frame).
The painted corners have large paint losses and cracks. There are
some discoloured retouches. The painting is in fair condition. Documented
restoration: 1925: Provided with a cradle. Overpaintings
removed. Repair. Varnish.

PROVENANCE: Byström 1852.

BIBLIOGRAPHY: NM Cat. 1867, p. 13 (as Garofalo); Sander 1872–
76, IV, p. 111, no. 13 (as Garofalo); Göthe 1910, p. 347; NM Cat. 1927,
pp. 16–17; NM Cat. 1953, p. 77 (as Garofalo); NM Cat. 1990, p. 355
(as Garofalo).

This small roundel depicts God the Father
blessing the earth with his uplifted right hand.
The old man’s face, with white brushed-back hair
and long beard, is framed by the triangular halo
of the Trinity, with the letters of the Father, the
Son and the Holy Spirit written in its corners.
God the Father proceeds through a cloudy blue
sky with great authority, indicated by the globus
cruciger, the cross-bearing orb, on which he rests
his left hand. He wears a blue robe and, on top of
it, a bright red mantle that seems to flutter in the
wind.

According to the catalogue there were three
paintings presumed to be by Garofalo in
Byström’s collection: the other two were a
Madonna Surrounded by Angels and a Visitation,
¹both of much greater value than the panel God
the Father that was finally selected for the
Nationalmuseum.

From the Byström Collection catalogue onwards,
the roundel has always been referred to
the Ferrarese artist Benvenuto Tisi, known as il
Garofalo. It presumably originates from the Ferrara
area and was most probably a sort of cymatium
placed on top of an altarpiece, in an elaborate
artwork created as a single artistic entity.² The
phenomenon of small roundels depicting God
the Father created to crown an altarpiece is quite
common in Garofalo’s art. The 1838 catalogue of
the Costabili Collection records five small images
of God the Father that probably all served as
cymatia.³ That collection was mainly formed in
Ferrara during the same period as the Byström
Collection in Rome, in the wake of Napoleon’s
dispersion of the Italian cultural heritage, especially
its ecclesiastical elements. The collecting
intention of its owner Giambattista Costabili
was, apart from a desire to increase his social
prestige and a genuine artistic interest, to prevent
this depredation of the city of Ferrara.⁴

It would be of great significance to be able
to trace the original altarpiece to which the
Nationalmuseum panel belonged. A possible
connection could be with Garofalo’s Lamentation
of Christ, today at the Pinacoteca di Brera.
⁵
That altarpiece is signed and dated 1527 by
the artist and originates from the Benedictine
abbey of Sant’Antonio in Polesine in Ferrara,
where it adorned the main altar. Early writers
describe how an architectural frame originally
embellished Garofalo’s altarpiece, with a circular-
shaped cymatium by the same artist depicting
God the Father blessing the earth.⁶ This roundel
is today considered to be lost.⁷ In 1811, during
the requisitions ordered by Napoleon, selected
Ferrarese artworks were sent to Milan and the
Pinacoteca di Brera. Garofalo’s Lamentation of
Christ in Sant’Antonio was one of these paintings,
but it was sent to the Brera without its cymatium.
The latter was considered worthy of preservation,
however, and at the time of the Napoleonic
confiscations it was kept in the church’s sacristy,
where it was described in a document by Boccolari,
appointed by the republican government
to select the pictures to send to Milan, as: “The
Eternal Father intent to bless, round figure with
gilded frame”.⁸ The cymatium from Sant’Antonio
could have reached the Roman art market shortly
after the altarpiece of the same church was taken
to the Pinacoteca di Brera, and could later have
been purchased by Byström, possibly through an
intermediary.

se
1 RA, E I a: 280 Finansdep. Konseljakt, ärende nr. II,
1852-05-26, Katalog öfver framlidne Professor J. N.
Byströms Tafvel-Samling, no. 227 “Gud Fader af Garofalo,
75 Rdr Banco”; NM Archives, Kongl. Museum, G: 3,
“Redogörelse för statsanslaget till Kongl. Museum,
1844–1854”; NM Archives, Kongl. Museum, D: 1, “Inventarier
över Kongl. Museum, 1803–1857”; RA, E I a: 280
Finansdep. Konseljakt, ärende nr. II, 1852-05-26, Katalog
öfver framlidne Professor J. N. Byströms Tafvel-Samling,
no. 38 “Elisabeth besökande Maria, af Garofalo 800 Rdr
Banco”, no. 94 “Madonnan omgifven av Englar, af Garofalo
300 Rdr Banco”.
2 I wish to thank Anna Maria Fioravanti Baraldi for
recognizing on stylistic grounds the roundel’s affinity to
Garofalo’s works, and for her valuable information
regarding its function and composition.
3 Laderchi 1838, no. 141, p. 18; Mattaliano 1998, nos. 156–160,
pp. 75–77.
4 Benini 1977, pp. 79–96; Mattaliano 1998, pp. 17–29.
5 Benvenuto Tisi da Garofalo, Lamentation of Christ, oil on
panel, 300 × 166, Pinacoteca di Brera, Milan, inv. no. 438;
Fioravanti Baraldi 1993, no. 129, p. 195; Daffra 1998.
6 Novelli 1991 (Brisighella 1704), pp. 370–371; Barotti 1770, p.
139; Scalabrini 1773, p. 280; Frizzi 1787, p. 138.
7 Novelli 1991 (Brisighella 1704), no. 371; Daffra 1998, p. 13,
no. 20.
8 Daffra 1998, p. 13, nos. 19, 20. [End]

Foto: Erik Cornelius / Nationalmuseum 2012

Foto: Erik Cornelius / Nationalmuseum 1985

Gud Fader välsignande jordklotet