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Catalogue raisonné: Description in Italian Paintings: Three Centuries of Collecting, Nationalmuseum, Stockholm, 2015, cat.no. 60: 

FORMER INV. NOS.: 396 (M. 1804); KM 246.

TECHNICAL NOTES: Labelled on verso: “Carlin Dolce (Guido
Reni?)”. The support consists of five pieces of plain-weave linen
fabric. The painting was probably originally octagonal; later, but
before it was shipped to Sweden, the corners were added, giving
the painting its present dimensions. The added corners are painted
on a more sparsely woven fabric than the central piece. The painting
has been glue-lined (in Sweden) and mounted on a non-original
stretcher. The left and right sides are cropped. The ground is red.
There are some old retouches. The painting is in fair condition.

PROVENANCE: Martelli 1804.

EXHIBITED: Musiken i konsten, Nationalmuseum, Stockholm,
2000–01; Musiken i barockkonsten, Läckö Slott, Lidköping,
2002. 5. St. Cecilia. Here is a painting that has been greatly
praised by all scholars, but not acknowledged by them all
as being by the same author. Most of them have thought
it a work by Guidi Reni; some by Domenichino, among
them the Chevalier Mengs. He based his opinion on the
grand expression of the Virgin, and the highly studied
attitudes that guided the painter’s thought, all characteristics
of Zampieri. In my opinion, all this, which ischaracteristic 
of the former, excludes Guido, since onlyDomenichino has 
created images with studied poses andsublime expressions. 
Such beauty is often found in other excellent painters’ 
pictures; but never have there been inany of Domenichino’s 
paintings such flourishing colour, such easy brushwork, 
such harmonious shades and such accord of the chiaroscuro
as we admire in our picture.

The beauty of Dom. never immediately strikes the
eye of the spectator, but requires long meditation. Our
picture, besides the fact that it discovers new concealed
beauties through the deceitful eyes of the Philosopher,
immediately touches both the ignorant and the scholar
of art, through its magical appearance. Together they
all exclaim: Divine! The critics tell us that the motif of
our protagonist is that of a virgin, an ecstatic saint; of
a young lady who is singing and directing her hymn to
God, and this is expressed by the right hand fixed on
the keyboard of the organ on which the final cadence
warbles, while with her left hand she puts away the
music, turning her eyes and her head to heaven in a sign
of dedication. Accordingly, R. Mengs once said that my
St Cecilia and that of the Borghese were two masterpieces,
but that the idea of the Borghese one was that of a
beautiful statue, that of mine, of a saint alive.¹

It is likely that Domenico Corvi and Stefano
Tofanelli, in their appraisal of the collection, refined
the attribution which the collector himself
had attempted and labelled the painting accordingly.
Despite its erroneous attribution, Martelli’s
analysis points directly to the characteristics of
the 17th-century Florentine school and, indeed,
to the art of Carlo Dolci: vivid colour, strong
expression and religious pathos.

At an unknown date, and with no support
from surviving records in the Nationalmuseum,
the painting was assigned to Agnese Dolci
(?–1689), Carlo’s daughter, of whom confirmed
autograph paintings are rare, if they exist at all.²
Technical examination of the work, which has
revealed that it was originally octagonal in shape,
has failed to provide further evidence as to the
identity of the author and thus cannot sustain
this attribution. Despite the painting’s close
affinity with the work of Carlo Dolci, in both
style and choice of subject, it is not convincing as
an autograph. Dolci had several pupils who very
closely followed their master’s style and emulated
his idiom after his death. Among these, Onorio
Marinari is a likely author of NM 83. As his
biographer Baldinucci confirms, Marinari, who
studied with Dolci in the 1640s, produced his
first paintings as regular copies of his master’s
work and learnt the idiom so well that it became
hard to distinguish their hands.³ Bruscoli rightly
underlines the importance of careful examination
of works attributed to Dolci from this particular
period.⁴ The present painting shows a close concordance
with Dolci’s predilection for religioussentiment and
 graceful femininity, but lacks hisdarker palette. 

The vivid colours seen in NM 83 are present 
throughout Marinari’s oeuvre, along with a 
particular interest in detailed garments
and objects.

It is true that Marinari’s dependence
on Dolci ceases during the 1650s. He remains
strongly attached, though, to the Florentine
tradition of Matteo Rosselli (1578–1650) and
Francesco Curradi (1570–1661).⁵ The latter is of
particular interest as regards the overall style of
the present painting, including the drapery of the
saint’s dress and the elegant and slightly Mannerist
movement of the hands.

sne
1 NM Archives, Kongl. Museum, F: 1. See Appendix 1.
2 McCorquodale 1987, vol. I, pp. 80–81.
3 Matteoli 1975, p. 5.
4 Bruscoli 1987, vol. I, pp. 112–113.
5 Ibid. [End]

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