Beskrivning: Johannes Döparen vilar under sin tid i ödemarken, där han sägs ha levt på vatten, gräshoppor och vildhonung. Dopskålen symboliserar att Jesus döptes av Johannes i Jordanfloden. Tekniska undersökningar har visat att detta är en samtida kopia av ett verk av Caravaggio och målningen följer originalet noga. Manfredi var starkt influerad av Caravaggios ljusdunkelmåleri och blev ledande i den grupp av konstnärer i Rom som kallades caravaggister.

Description: St John the Baptist is resting during his time in the wilderness, where he lived on water, locusts and honey. The bowl symbolises the baptism of Jesus in the river Jordan, performed by St John. Technical examinations have shown that this is a contemporary copy of a work by Caravaggio and that it follows the original closely. Manfredi was heavily influenced by the style of Caravaggio and by his use of dramatic light. He became the leading artist among the so-called Caravaggisti in Rome.

Catalogue raisonné: Description in Italian Paintings: Three Centuries of Collecting, Nationalmuseum, Stockholm, 2015, cat.no. 57: 

FORMER INV. NOS.: 116 (M. 1796–97); 164 (F. 1798); 246 (M. 1804);
KM 490.

TECHNICAL NOTES: The support is a single piece of coarse,
loosely woven, plain-weave fabric. It has been lined with glue
and mounted on a non-original stretcher. The tacking edges are
cropped. The ground is light brownish. The painting is badly damaged,
with one large area of losses in the middle and numerous
smaller losses all over the surface. The borders of the painting are
overpainted. The structure of the canvas has become visible due
to the lining and the paint layer is abraded. The varnish was thick
and yellowed before restoration in 2014. Documented restorations:
1816 unknown interventions; 1843: Restored several times
by Mlle Lundmark; 1926: Restored, large defects repaired. Varnish;
1947: Cleaned. Old repairs adjusted in colour. Varnish; 1975: Cleaned
of dirt and yellowed varnish. Fillings adjusted. Retouching. Varnish;
2012: Removal of varnish and overpaintings; 2013: Scientific analyses
carried out by Emmebi Diagnostica Artistica: macrophotography,
microphotography, UV fluorescence, IR reflectography (1700
nm), X-radiography, XRF analysis, cross-sections and SEM-EDX
analysis; 2014: Restored

PROVENANCE: Martelli 1804.

BIBLIOGRAPHY: NM Cat. 1867, p. 2 (as Caravaggio, school of);
Sander 1872–76, III, p. 115, no. 246 (as Caravaggio); NM Cat. 1958, p.
35 (as Caravaggio, copy after); NM Cat. 1990, p. 64 (as Caravaggio,
copy after).

This painting, labelled by Martelli as “San
Giovanni Battista. Caravaggio. Prima maniera”,
is the only known copy of the St John the Baptist
by Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio kept in the
collection of the Galleria Nazionale d’Arte Antica
in Palazzo Corsini in Rome.¹ Severely
damaged from restoration campaigns during
the 19th century, it was thoroughly examined by
Emmebi Diagnostica Artistica in December 2012.
The main aim of the scientific analyses was to
exclude the possibility of the painting being an
18th-century copy. Additional aims were to undertake
an extensive comparison with earlier investigations
of the Corsini painting and, ultimately, to
offer a plausible attribution as to authorship.²

From the analysis it is concluded that the canvas
is of a tela romana type, a single, simple cloth
in which each warp thread passes under one and
over one weft thread. This fabric was widespread
in Italy in the early 17th century. The preparatory
layers of the painting are very similar to those
used by Caravaggio and many of his followers:
two similar superimposed layers made up mainly
of earth pigments and calcite, containing a small
amount of lead white and characteristic trace
minerals such as pyrite. The IR reflectography
and X-ray results confirm that the present painting
clearly derives from another one, showing
neither changes in composition nor any superimposition
of forms. It thus, clearly differs from the
Corsini version, analysis of which reveals significant
variations in the underpainting and the specific
brush-stroke texture of alla prima painting.³
An important exception in the Nationalmuseum
painting, detected by IR reflectography, is the
main element of the saint’s expression, that is, the
gaze. In the Corsini painting, this part is simply
sketched within a deep shadow. By contrast,
the Stockholm version reflects a rejection of a
mechanical transfer, clearly showing the painter’s
independent choice of working up the position
of the eyes in order to balance the composition.
In this process, he moved the right eye closer
to the nose and modified its original outline. 
The composition is characterized by
subtle, dark underdrawing, clearly visible by IR
in both the figure and the landscape. A peculiar
feature of this underdrawing is the re-profiling
and the progressive definition of the volumes
of the figure. The IR image of the left arm and
elbow shows some parallel lines, representing
an enlargement that might have been chosen in
order to match the original painting. Even
more importantly, the definition of the figure is
widely underlined by dark brush-strokes, which
are particularly evident in IR. They appear as
a sort of painted exterior drawing that borders
the outlines and is laid on the surface to enhance
the contrasts i. e. This technical feature is used
to enhance the contrast between volumes and
background and can also be detected in the Corsini
version. This technique is often detectable in
Caravaggio’s and his close followers’ painting, in
particular Bartolomeo Manfredi’s.⁴

As to the drapery, the Stockholm version
evidences a careful study of the Corsini painting.
Nevertheless, the author of the Stockholm painting
slightly changes the movement and the chiaroscuro
of some of the folds. Apparently
the aim was to enhance the volume effect of the
mantle by darkening the shadows and stressing
the contrasts, as visible in the ring-like fold on the
upper part of the arm. Lighting is partly underlined
through clear read brush strokes which are
not visible in Caravaggio’s painting.

Samples taken from the saint’s drapery show
a dark under-layer, the matrix of which does not
include evident crystals. Furthermore,
SEM-EDX analysis detects the general presence
of copper in this layer, but without referring it
to specific grains. Since no green colour can be
seen in the layer, the presence of the copper can
be explained as an added metallic element. These
occurrences have been detected in several of Caravaggio’s
paintings, where a presence of copper,
not referable to specific grains, can be observed
in red and brown layers. This is the case with
the Madonna dei Palafrenieri (Galleria Borghese,
Rome), where copper occurs in a black underlayer
of a green area; in brown layers laid as shadows
in St Jerome (Galleria Borghese); and within red
layers, as in the St John the Baptist of the Galleria
Corsini. The XRF analyses carried out on the
Nationalmuseum painting and Corsini paintings
supply data that are fairly comparable. The
Corsini version shows a richer palette, but some
of the technical features of the two paintings
correspond. For instance, a copper-containing
pigment in the shadow of the red drapery, and
the cinnabar added to middle flesh tones, have
been detected in both versions.

The scientific analysis clearly shows that the
author of NM 15 was a gifted painter, and probably
one close to Caravaggio himself. In the light
of the technical research carried out by Marco
Cardinali and Maria Beatrice De Ruggieri on
Bacchus and a Drinker (Galleria Nazionale d’Arte
Antica di Palazzo Barberini, Rome) and Cain and
Abel (Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna), both
by Bartolomeo Manfredi, it is possible to assign
the present painting to that artist.

In order to sustain the attribution, it is important
to keep in mind the research undertaken
concerning the “doubles” of Caravaggio, of which
NM 15 is a previously unknown example.⁵ The
many instances of duplications of the artist’s
paintings constitute an unprecedented phenomenon
in the 17th century, a period which, based
on an increasingly scientific approach to painting,
developed partly new definitions of the concept
of the copy.⁶ A combination of technical investigations
and archival studies has proved fruitful
for a greater understanding of the materials and
social purposes of these specific paintings.⁷ The
scientific analysis carried out on NM 15 may
be compared with that performed on St John
the Baptist (Museo Nazionale di Capodimonte,
Naples), a copy of the original by Caravaggio in
the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City.
The Naples painting, which was acquired by the
Capodimonte Museum in 1802, was attributed at
that time to Bartolomeo Manfredi. Marco Cardinali
and Maria Beatrice De Ruggieri, who suggest
Manfredi as the author based on their technical
investigations on the paintings mentioned above,
have recently challenged a different suggestion
previously linking the Naples work to the oeuvre
of Orazio Riminaldi.⁸

The underdrawing of the Capodimonte painting,
shows similar contours and profiling traces
along the volumes and similar linear stress on
the profiles on the surface, i.e. lips, nails, fingers
etc. Significantly, in both the Stockholm and the
Naples work, the very same painting process has
been detected for the eyes hidden by shadows. In
the Naples painting, IR analysis clearly reveals
that the eyes were newly sketched and then veiled
to match the original. Furthermore, a comparison
between the preparatory layers of the two works
shows compatible mixtures, tones and compositions.
⁹ X-ray analysis confirms a similar use of
lead-white sketching (abbozzo), as well as the use
of the tela romana.

The role of Bartolomeo Manfredi in the
Caraveggesque context has recently been further
acknowledged.¹⁰ The lack of extensive archival
documentation of the painter’s presence and
commissions in Rome, constitutes a problem
that touches in particular upon the attempt to
place the Nationalmuseum painting in a specific
historical context. An interesting archival testimony
from the 1656 inventory of Francesco Triti,
published by Luigi Spezzaferro, establishes the
presence of a painting by Bartolomeo Manfredi
showing St John the Baptist, of the size of a “tela
d’imperatore”, which corresponds to the measurements
of NM 15.¹¹ However, the evidence
is too weak to link that work more firmly to the
present painting, even if it clearly underlines
the frequency of the subject and the presence of
paintings by Manfredi in Roman 17th-century
art collections.¹² On the other hand, the Corsini
painting represents an enigmatic part of Caravaggio’s
oeuvre. First mentioned in an inventory
from 1784 in the Corsini Archives in Florence, as:
“S. Giovanni Battista, stile del Caravaggio”, its
authorship has been successively questioned and
accepted by a number of scholars from Roberto
Longhi onwards.¹³ The lack of a provenance from
a 17th-century owner or a mention in Caravaggio’s
biographies, constitutes a problem, especially
as regards the question of the context of the copy.
It is clear that research on the copy has to be carried
out in parallel with that on the original.

The presence of a full-size copy of one of
Caravaggio’s paintings in the collection of Nicola
Martelli raises the interesting question of the
reception of the painter’s work in 18th-century
Rome.¹⁴ As Paolo Coen has pointed out, the issue
is not easily elucidated and is very much dependent
on the mechanics of the market in Rome at
the time. Although the idiom of classicism was
strongly upheld by the establishment, particularly
through the legacies of Carlo Maratti (1625–1713)
and Giovanni Pietro Bellori (1613–1696), the
presence of paintings by Caravaggio and his
followers in sale catalogues and dealers’ inventories
clearly demonstrates, if not a demand on the
part of the buyers, at least an interest in offering
the painting of naturalism for sale. Martelli’s own
labelling of the painting, including the words
“prima maniera” (first manner), indicates an
attempt to locate the work within the oeuvre of
the Lombardian master, clear evidence of the new
interest in Caravaggio’s work that was beginning
to emerge in 18th-century Rome.
MC, MBDR , SNE

1 Galleria Nazionale d’Arte Antica in Palazzo Corsini,
inv.433.
2 The results of the scientific analyses will be published
elsewhere. For the complete scientific file, see Emmebi
Diagnostica Artistica, “Caravaggio (after), Bartolomeo
Manfredi (attr.), Saint John the Baptist, Canvas, cm 97.5 ×
136.6. Stockholm, Nationalmuseum, NM 15”, NM Archives.
3 For the scientific analyses of the Corsini St John the Baptist,
see Gregori 1991, pp. 262–280, and Caravaggio, exh. cat.,
Madrid, 1999, 132–135.
4 Cardinali and De Ruggieri 2010, p. 109.
5 Vodret 2004, pp. 45–78; Harten and Marten 2006;
Cardinali and De Ruggieri 2010, pp. 99–126.
6 Cardinali and De Ruggieri 2010, p. 99.
7 On the importance of archival studies in this particular
field, see Terzaghi 2007, and “Le prime copie da Caravaggio,
quando e perchè attraverso nuovi documenti Costa”, in
Spezzaferro 2009, pp. 88–108.
8 Cardinali and De Ruggieri 2010, p. 109.
9 The ground of NM 15 consists of (a) silicon-aluminium,
(b) quartz, (c) calcite, (d) dolomite, (e) red, yellow and
brown ochre, (f) manganese, (g) charcoal black, (h) pyrite,
(i) bone brown, (j) earth containing titanium. The Naples
painting has an identical preparatory layer, with the
exception of the presence of bone black instead of bone
brown.
10 Vodret 2010, pp. 515–527; Papi 2013.
11 “Quattro quadri in tela d’imperatore nel primo vi è dipinto
S. Gio.Bapt.a a mano di Bartolomeo Manfreddi ...”.
Archivio del collezionismo romano/progetto diretto da
Luigi Spezzaferro, ed. A. Giammaria, Pisa, 2009, p. 520.
12 On this subject, see for instance Fratarcangeli 2009, pp.
135–147.
13 Papini 1998, p. 183.
14 Coen 2009, pp. 148–156. [End]

Foto: Cecilia Heisser / Nationalmuseum 2014

Foto: Erik Cornelius / Nationalmuseum 2011

Foto: Erik Cornelius / Nationalmuseum 2010

Johannes döparen