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Catalogue raisonné: Description in Italian Paintings: Three Centuries of Collecting, Nationalmuseum, Stockholm, 2015, cat.no. 37: 

FORMER INV. NOS.: 190 (M. 1796–97); 8 (F. 1798); 477 (M. 1804);
KM 216.

TECHNICAL NOTES: The support consists of a single piece of
densely woven, plain-weave linen fabric. The painting was probably
lined in Italy before it was sent to Sweden. In 1961 the Italian
lining was removed and the painting was glue-lined at the Nationalmuseum.
The old Martelli strainer was retained, as was the
old lining canvas, which was loose-lined on the verso. IR reflectography
reveals that the upper part of the painting was originally
semicircular. The size was probably changed in Italy, as the Martelli
strainer has the present size. The paint layer has some retouches.
Some of the outlines of the figures are reinforced, but otherwise
the paint layer is in good condition. Documented restoration: 1961,
Schiller: Removal of the old lining canvas. New lining, mounting on
the old strainer. Cleaning of the painting, filling of paint losses with
gesso, and retouching. New varnish.

PROVENANCE: Martelli 1804.

BIBLIOGRAPHY: NM Cat. 1867, p. 2 (as Pietro da Cortona); Sander
1872–76, III, p. 138, no. 477 (as Pietro da Cortona); NM Cat. 1990, p.
427 (as anonymous, 18th century).

In Fredenheim’s catalogue, this painting is
referred to as “L’Eté” and is attributed to “Pierre
Berrettine de Cortone”.¹ On the original Martelli
verso paper label, it is attributed to Cortona by
Corvi and Tofanelli as well, and described as a
“Campagna. Mietitura”.

In the Philadelphia Museum of Art there is a
lunette-shaped drawing (PAFA 240) that directly
corresponds to the Nationalmuseum painting. 
The drawing is attributed to Cortona’s
foremost student and collaborator Ciro Ferri (c.
1634–1689), an attribution which has recently
been challenged.² Ferri’s work for Cortona includes
decorations in the Quirinal Palace, Rome,
as well as in the Pitti Palace, Florence. He also
superseded his master in decorating the Chapel
of the Pietà in St Peter’s, Rome. Independently,
he is famous for a series of frescoes in the Basilica
Santa Maria Maggiore, Bergamo.³

It has earlier been suggested that the Philadelphia
drawing is a study for a fresco representing
autumn, executed by Ferri in 1680 for the Villa
Falconieri at Frascati.⁴ This theory cannot be
proven, however: the frescoes, which represented
a cycle of three of the seasons, were repainted
between 1850 and 1910, and there is no evidence of
decorations in the form of lunettes for the villa.
Elements exhibited in the drawing have, however,
prompted a dating of it to the same period as
the Frascati frescoes. “The spatial recession of
parallel planes and the concentration of action
on the frontal plane”, found in the Philadelphia
drawing, became more pronounced in Ferri’s
work in general during this period, perhaps due
to the influence of Carlo Maratta (1625–1713).⁵
Ferri had, though, shown great aptitude early
on for landscape backgrounds and was wont to
draw them in detail in his preparatory studies. A
similar landscape is for example found in a brush
and wash drawing in the Metropolitan Museum
of Art, New York (1880.3.266).⁶

On the basis of the heavy, Cortona-type female
figures in the foreground, an alternative earlier
date of around 1660 has also been suggested for
the drawing, mainly because the influence of Cortona’s
figure painting was more pronounced in
Ferri’s earlier years.⁷ Coincidentally, a drawing by
Ferri from this period, Papal Insignia Supported
by Allegorical Figures, in the Philadelphia Museum
of Art and with the same provenance, shows
two very similar female figures lifting a heavy
object high between them.⁸

It has been suggested, by both Nicholas
Turner and Jörg Martin Merz, that the drawing
related to the Nationalmuseum painting
is actually a work by Cortona himself.⁹ Merz
connects the Philadelphia drawing to three other
lunette-shaped drawings attributed to Cortona
and postulates that their shared format and
high degree of finish are evidence “that they were
intended for a specific commission, about which
nothing is known yet”.¹⁰

The existence of the Nationalmuseum painting
would confirm the use of the Philadelphia
drawing as a study for a lunette-shaped painting,
but not necessarily for a fresco. In execution, the
painting follows the drawing very closely, and indeed
it was originally also of the same
shape: it has been relined, and closer
study shows that the upper parts were
added later to create a square composition.
The additions are expertly executed
and it cannot be ruled out that they
were done by the same hand as the rest
of the painting. Even though the painting
based on the drawing is executed
in oil on canvas, it could of course
still have been used as decoration in a
manner similar to a fresco. The canvas
could easily have been let into a lunette frame
as part of the interior decorations of a palace or
villa, although there is no evidence to that effect.

The attribution of the Philadelphia drawing
to Cortona by Turner and Merz is of course
highly interesting, given the firm attribution of
the Nationalmuseum painting to that artist both
by Martelli and by Corvi and Tofanelli. On the
other hand, Ciro Ferri was of course famous for
his particular ability to emulate his master’s hand,
perhaps best described by Pascoli: “Niun altro
discepolo più di Ciro imitò la maniera del maestro
Cortona; e niun altro più di lui s’accostò alle
sue belle idee, e bizarre invenzioni. Niun altro lo
superò nel disegno, e niuno ardì di mettere mano,
e di terminare l’opere lasciate imperfette da lui.”¹¹
As Bruce William Davis has pointed out, Ferri
was proud of this ability and had perhaps willingly
let himself be a tool of Cortona’s artistic legacy.
As a consequence, he adapted to Cortona’s mould
to a great extent and became his “ablest and most
faithful imitator”.¹²

Davis firmly rejects the proposed association of
the Philadelphia drawing with the decorations of
the villa at Frascati, mainly because none of Ferri’s
other landscape drawings can be associated
with a painting or a fresco. Davis writes: “Unlike
Cortona, Ferri did not paint pure landscapes;
at least none have been attributed to him.”¹³
Considering this fact, and that the Philadelphia
drawing’s attribution to Ferri has recently been
questioned in favour of Cortona, there is a strong
case for attributing the Nationalmuseum painting
to Cortona as well.

A few of Martelli’s – and Corvi and Tofanelli’s
– other attributions to Cortona in the collection
have been shown to bear closer scrutiny. These
concern the five original cartoons for the mosaics
of the cupolas of the Chapel of St Sebastian and
the Chapel of the Sacrament in St Peter’s, Rome
(NM 7208–NM 7212, cat. nos. 38–42). In Fredenheim’s
catalogue they are described as “Les
Originaux des Mosaïques de la Chapelle du St.
Sacrement dans St. Pierre au Vatican”, and there
is no question as to the accuracy of their attribution.
Some characteristics of the present painting
point to its execution around the middle of the
17th century, a period directly following Cortona’s
completion of his commission for St Peter’s:
the heavy and calm, almost statuesque, movement
of the figures, for example, lending to the
feeling of serenity conveyed in the composition.
The painting’s probable execution date, in close
proximity to the other works by Cortona in the
Martelli Collection, possibly points to a shared
earlier provenance.

All the evidence suggests that the confident attribution
of the painting to Cortona by Martelli,
Corvi and Tofanelli should be upheld.
DP

1 NM Archives, Kongl. Museum, F:1, Catalogue du Cabinet
de Martelli (à Rome), 1798.
2 Davis 1985, p. 251, pl. 86; Percy and Cazort 2004, cat. no. 18.
3 Davis 1985, pp. 1–64.
4 Westin and Westin 1975, p. 29, cat. no. 12, fig. 13.
5 Percy and Cazort 2004, cat. no. 18.
6 Davis 1985, p. 232, pl. 85.
7 Percy and Cazort 2004, cat. no. 18.
8 Ibid., p. 44, fig. XXXI.
9 Turner and Eitel-Porter 1999, vol. 1, p. 47, no. 68; Merz
2004, pp. 137–139; Percy and Cazort 2004, pl. XXXI.
Correspondence: Nicholas Turner to Ann Percy (Philadelphia
Museum of Art), 23 January 1985; Jörg Martin Merz in
conversation with Ann Percy (Philadelphia Museum of
Art), 15 April 2003.
10 Merz 2004, pp. 137–139.
11 Davis 1985, p. 3.
12 Ibid., pp. 3–6.
13 Ibid., p. 96.
[End]

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