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Simone Cantarini

Saint Matthew and the Angel, c. 1645/1648

Not on View

Medium

oil on canvas

Dimensions

overall: 116.8 x 90.8 cm (46 x 35 3/4 in.)

framed: 146.1 x 119.4 x 8.3 cm (57 1/2 x 47 x 3 1/4 in.)

Credit Line

Gift of James Belden in memory of Evelyn Berry Belden

Accession Number

1972.44.1

Artists / Makers

Simone Cantarini (artist) Pesarese, 1612 - 1648

Image Use

This image is in the public domain.
Read our full Open Access policy for images .

Provenance

Hagström, Stockholm, by 1937.[1] (sale, Christie, Manson & Woods, London, 11 December 1959, no. 108, as by Guercino); James O. Belden, Paris and Washington; gift 1972 to NGA.

[1] According to Fern Rusk Shapley, Catalogue of Italian Paintings, 2 vols., Washington, 1979: 1:110.

Associated Names

Belden, James O.
Christie, Manson & Woods, Ltd.
Hagström

Exhibition History

1996: Obras Maestras de la National Gallery of Art de Washington, Museo Nacional de Antropología, Mexico City, 1996-1997, unnumbered catalogue, 62-63, color repro.

Technical Summary

The support consists of two pieces of fabric joined by a vertical seam about 22 cm from the left edge. The red-brown ground is extremely thin. The composition was laid out with broad strokes of black and white paint that are more evident in infrared photographs than to the naked eye. The stroke of white visible in the saint's right sleeve is one of these initial strokes and was covered over by the now abraded red of the sleeve. Other such strokes are visible in the saint's shoulders and elsewhere. The image was finished with fluid paint rich with medium and blended on the surface, often without brushmarks. The pigments are coarse and granular.

The tacking margins have been removed, but cusping is present along all sides. The paint is badly abraded throughout and the surface texture has been altered through excessive heat and pressure in a past lining. Inpainting is concentrated along the seam, at the edges, and around the heads and shoulders of the figures. The varnish is considerably discolored. The painting, which was lined at an unknown date, has not been treated since acquisition.

Bibliography

1975: Borea, Evelina. Pittori bolognesi del seicento nelle gallerie di Firenze. Exh. cat. Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence, 1975: 66.

1975: European Paintings: An Illustrated Summary Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1975: 54, repro.

1975: Mancigotti, Mario. Simone Cantarini, il Pesarese. Pesaro, 1975: 136.

1979: Shapley, Fern Rusk. Catalogue of the Italian Paintings. 2 vols. Washington, 1979: 1:110-111; 2:pl. 76.

1980: Ferretti Colombo, Anna. "Simone Cantarini: Dalla marca baroccesca alla bassa padana." Bollettino d'Arte 67 (1980): 28.

1980: Ragghianti, Carlo L. “Galleria di Washington.” Critica d'Arte n.s. 45/172-174 (1980): 217-220.

1985: European Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1985: 74, repro.

1986: Mazza, Angelo. In The Age of Correggio and the Carracci: Emilian Painting of the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries. Exh. cat. Pinacoteca Nazionale, Bologna; National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.; The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1986-1987. Washington, D.C., 1986: 398.

1992: Colombi Ferretti, Anna. "Simone Cantarini." In La scuola di Guido Reni. Edited by Emilio Negro and Massimo Pirondini. Modena, 1992: 119, 126, color pl. 121.

1996: De Grazia, Diane, and Eric Garberson, with Edgar Peters Bowron, Peter M. Lukehart, and Mitchell Merling. Italian Paintings of the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries. The Collections of the National Gallery of Art Systematic Catalogue. Washington, D.C., 1996: 41-42, repro. 43.