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Catalogue raisonné: Description in Italian Paintings: Three Centuries of Collecting, Nationalmuseum, Stockholm, 2015, cat.no. 112: 

FORMER INV. NOS.: 263 (B. 1830s); KM 1065.

TECHNICAL NOTES: The support is a single piece of mediumcoarse,
twill(?)-weave linen fabric. It has been glue-lined and
mounted on a non-original stretcher. There are numerous old, discoloured
retouches. The varnish is thick and yellowed.

PROVENANCE: Byström 1852.

BIBLIOGRAPHY: NM Cat. 1867, p. 6 (as Caletti); Sander 1872–76,
IV, p. 111, no. 14 (as Caletti); NM Cat. 1958, p. 33 (as Caletti); NM Cat.
1990, p. 326 (as Scarsella, attributed to).

The present work is not mentioned in Angela
Maria Novelli’s 2008 catalogue raisonné on
Scarsellino, not even among rejected attributions.
The attribution of the painting to Scarsellino
was made by Roberto Longhi.¹ In the Byström
catalogue from the 1830s the work is attributed to
Caletti Ferrarese, which without doubt refers to
Giuseppe Caletti (c. 1600–1660), called il Cremonese,
who was mainly active in Ferrara and Cremona.
² The attribution to Caletti actually seems
quite sound. In many respects the style of the
two artists is quite close: Caletti’s paintings are
characterized by a very similar kind of chromatic
accent and, like Scarsellino, he was influenced by
for example Dosso Dossi, fusing Venetian and
Ferrarese influences in a similar manner.³

However, the drawing of figures and faces can
be quite different in the two artists’ work, and
in the present picture the infant St John and St
Elizabeth seem closer to Caletti than to Scarsellino.
These two figures share a similar kind
of idiosyncratic sullenness, characterized by the
somewhat wrinkled eyebrows and pouting lips,
which is frequently found in Caletti’s depiction
of faces, for example in several of his paintings of
David – a favourite subject of his – such as the
David with the Head of Goliath in the Birmingham
Museum and Art Gallery.⁴

Considering Longhi’s attribution of the painting,
one should perhaps be particularly cautious
in again attributing the present work to Caletti,
and yet, as the descriptions of paintings found in
the earliest catalogues of the Byström Collection
have often been shown to contain assessments
that remain valid, especially concerning the Ferrarese
presence in the collection, the attribution
to Caletti should at least be seriously considered.
dp

1 I have been unable to find any information concerning this
attribution by Longhi in the Nationalmuseum archives,
however it is listed as attributed to Scarsellino by Roberto
Longhi in the Fondazione Federico Zeri photographic
database. Fondazione Federico Zeri, Università di Bologna,
Catalogo Fototeca, Ippolito Scarsella (Scarsellino),
Madonna con Bambino, sant’Elisabetta e san Giovannino,
Stoccolma, Nationalmuseum, numero scheda: 56454,
numero busta: 0554.
2 G. Bolaffi, ed., Dizionario Enciclopedico Bolaffi dei Pittori e
degli Incisori Italiani dall’XI al XX secolo, Turin, 1972, vol. II
(Bellosio–Cantarini), pp. 387–388, Caletti, Giuseppe, detto
Cremonese (Cremona o Ferrara intorno al 1600–Ferrara 1660).
3 Ibid.
4 Ibid.; Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery, attributed to
Giuseppe Caletti, David with [End]

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Ippolito Scarsella | Maria med barnet, Elisabet och den lille Johannes | Nationalmuseum