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Catalogue raisonné: Description in Italian Paintings: Three Centuries of Collecting, Nationalmuseum, Stockholm, 2015, cat.no. 52:

FORMER INV. NOS.: 179 (M. 1804); KM 861.

PROVENANCE: Martelli 1804.

BIBLIOGRAPHY: NM Cat. 1867, p. 15 (as anonymous), 
Sander 1872–76, III, p. 108, no. 179 (as Salvator Rosa); 
NM Cat. 1958, p. 233 (as anonymous, 17th century); 
NM Cat. 1990, p. 203 (as Locatelli). On the retained original 
paper label, this painting is described by Corvi and Tofanelli 
as a “Salvator Rosa. Campagna con Fuga”.
It can probably be identified with one of the paintings
listed under Rosa and described as “Paysage avec 
des figures” in Fredenheim’s catalogue.¹ 
The work was later attributed to Locatelli by 
Anthony M. Clark,an attribution which seems
to be correct.² This is evidenced by the execution 
of the landscape which, despite its Rosaesque feel, 
exhibits several traits typical of Locatelli. 
These include the quite strong pastose areas 
constituting the clouds, and the rock that creates 
a natural arch framing the Holy Family. 
Similarly rendered areas are found, for example, 
in other Locatelli paintings in thecollections of the 
Nationalmuseum, such as NMDrh 320 (cat. no. 54). 
Locatelli’s generally somewhat  looser handling of boughs,
branches and foliage is also present, as is a similarly 
lighter touch in the rendering of the background detail, 
such as the castle.

There is, however, another interesting attribution
of the painting, made by Federico Zeri
in the 1950s. Before that, the work had been
reattributed to Annibale Carracci, an attribution
which Zeri rejected, describing the landscape as
by a lesser, 18th-century artist.³ The description
“lesser” seems to be used with respect to, and in
comparison with, the attribution to Carracci. It
is perhaps surprising that Zeri never considered
Locatelli’s authorship of the landscape, since he
was instrumental in the early research on Locatelli
in the 1950s, correctly attributing to him a
series of paintings in the Pallavicini collection.⁴

The figures, however, Zeri was convinced were
painted by Giovanni Battista Gaulli (called il
Baciccio, 1639–1709). Zeri seems to have been
quite certain of this, though his only argument
for the attribution to Gaulli was the similarity
between the figures of the Nationalmuseum
painting and those of Gaulli’s bozzetto in the
Palazzo Spada for the ceiling of the Gesù.⁵ It is
true that the figures in the present painting are
particularly well realized, with clear outlines and
purpose of motion, brightly highlighted by the
rays of the sun breaking through in the top left
corner of the picture. In this, one can see why
Zeri drew parallels to Gaulli’s bozzetto. Yet it
must be kept in mind that Zeri only saw a blackand-
white photograph of the painting and was
considering its attribution in relation to its then
misleading attribution to Carracci. When Clark
attributed the painting, he had had the opportunity
to examine it while in Stockholm in the early
1960s to study the drawings for artists’ portraits
commissioned by Nicola Pio.⁶

Had Zeri recognized the landscape as being
by Locatelli, he would possibly have come to the
same conclusion as Clark: that landscape and
figures were by the same artist. Indeed, it is revealing,
and paradoxical, that Zeri should single
out the figures with a specific attribution to an
acknowledged master of figure painting such as
Gaulli, since the quality of Locatelli’s own figure
painting was such that it set him apart from other
18th-century Roman landscape painters. There
are a few known instances of Locatelli collaborating
with artists who painted the figures in his
landscapes, such as the Frenchman Pierre Subleyras,
Pompeo Batoni, Giuseppe Tommasi, and
perhaps even Francesco Trevisani (1656–1746),
who must have been in his sixties when a supposed
collaboration took place.⁷ Yet Locatelli developed
a great mastery of figure painting himself,
integrating figures perfectly into his landscapes.
Early biographers such as Luigi Lanzi singled out
this skill of Locatelli’s for special praise. Indeed,
an artist such as Placido Costanzi (1702–1759),
who frequently painted figures for the landscapes
of Jan Frans van Bloemen (1662–1749), was probably
influenced by Locatelli’s figure painting.⁸

Again, Clark, who had himself earlier ascribed
figures in some of Locatelli’s landscapes to other
artists such as Batoni and Corrado Giaquinto
(1703–1765), as in the case of the Landscape with
Tobias and the Angel in the Ralph Dutton Collection,
made no exception for the figures when
he attributed the Nationalmuseum painting.⁹ If
there was another hand behind them, it would
seem peculiar that Clark did not recognize it.
However, their fullness and their firm delineation
suggest that in this case, as Busiri Vici
claims for the Ralph Dutton painting, Locatelli
had assimilated another artist’s style for the
figures, to suit them to the specific composition
and its subject.¹⁰ Here, Gaulli is a very reasonable
suggestion, and if not Gaulli, then Giaquinto,
who worked in the “airy, frothy ‘Settecento’ style”
and tradition of which the former was such a
great exponent.¹¹
dp

1 NM Archives, Kongl. Museum, F:1, Catalogue du Cabinet
de Martelli (à Rome).
2 NM Archives, Dokumentationsarkivet, Andrea Locatelli,
NM 227.
3 Ibid.
4 Busiri Vici 1976a, p. 273, fig. 177; Zeri 1959, cat. no. 277.
5 NM Archives, Dokumentationsarkivet, Andrea Locatelli,
NM 227.
6 Clark 1967, vol. V, no. 1, pp. 3–23, pls. 1–16.
7 Busiri Vici 1976a, pp. 277–283.
8 Ibid., p. 268–269.
9 Ibid., p. 283; Clark 1970, cat. no. 83.
10 Busiri Vici 1976a, p. 283, cat. no. 65, fig. 225.
11 Ibid., p. 272. [End]

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