Beyond the Fringe: Painting for the Market in 17th-Century Italy

‘Still Life with Melon, Watermelon, Pomegranate, Grapes and Other Fruits’ ranks among the finest early Caravaggesque still lifes painted in Italy in the 1610s. Another still life by the artist in the National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C. was thought to be its pendant.

Inspired by Caravaggio’s 1602 treatment in San Luigi dei Francesi, Régnier painted Saint Matthew and the Angel several times, one of which was in the collection of Marchese Vincenzo Giustiniani, Caravaggio’s former patron.

Formerly owned by Anna Ottani Cavina, author of the 1968 monograph on Carlo Saraceni, this painting of Saint Jerome by Saraceni’s elusive Lodger exemplifies the artist’s softer, restrained approach to Caravaggism, notably in the still life detail.

Long considered to be an autograph work by Caravaggio, The Sacrifice of Isaac offers a sublime display of painterly bravura that places the Viterbese artist at the pinnacle of the Caravaggesque movement in the 1610s.

Likely depicting Saint Augustine or Saint Ambrose, ‘A Doctor of the Church’ is an important work by the Utrecht Caravaggisti, painted circa 1618-19 in Rome, possibly for the Spanish collector Pietro Cussida.

Seen for the first time since its recent conservation, this intriguing portrait was acquired by the Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art as an authentic Caravaggio in the 1930s.

This shimmering capriccio on silvered copper depicts the Campo Vaccino with Castel Sant’Angelo beyond. Painted by the Utrecht-born artist nicknamed ‘Satyr’, it is a popular composition of which two other versions are in the Musée du Louvre.

This intimate oil on copper depicts the idyllic landscape of the Roman Campagna, which was popular among collectors like Gaspar Roomer in Naples. The Cologne-born artist worked in Rome, Naples, and Genoa, but few of his works have been traced.

This luscious head of a young soldier, signed and dated 1624, by the leading Flemish painter of the Caravaggeseque movement exemplifies the taste for such single-figure compositions in the seicento art market.

‘Midas, Pan and Shepherds’ combines Ovidian eroticism with the poetry of Giambattista Marino (1569-1625), one of Poussin’s first supporters. This canvas ranks among the artist’s earliest works painted in Rome, possibly for the Genoese picture dealer Giovanni Stefano Roccatagliata.

‘Salvator Mundi’ is an important rediscovery by the Pisan master, who trained in Rome with Orazio Gentileschi and is thought to have been summoned to Paris around 1626-27 when this refined copper was painted.

Painted with Strozzi’s distinctive textured brushstrokes, ‘A Pair of Still Lifes’ attest to the Genoese artist’s wide-ranging talents and response to the new taste for still lifes on the market.

‘A Huntsman Taking a Refreshmen’ is a recent discovery by Bamboccio. Painted soon after his arrival in Rome, this glistening landscape on copper would have appealed to locals and collectors in his home country alike.

This charming oil on copper is possibly Claude’s earliest topographical landscape. Painted circa 1629 soon after the artist settled in Rome, the work reveals his fidelity to nature and admiration for Adam Elsheimer.

‘Madonna and Child with Saint Anna’ is a painting datable to Caroselli’s final years in Rome, between 1624-30, in response to the demand for classicizing religious subjects painted with graceful naturalism.

Painted on slate, this Allegory of Love was painted by a skillful artist affiliated with Angelo Caroselli. His distinctive oeuvre consists of wildly popular theatrical subjects, scenes of sorcery and necromancy, which spawned copyists, together known as the ‘Pseudo–Caroselli’.

This recent discovery is one of the finest versions of Strozzi’s most popular subject, the Supper at Emmaus. The vibrant impasto, earth-tone palette, and variegated background are consistent with his style, circa 1635, soon after moving to Venice.

‘Tavern Scene by Candlelight’ is among the most significant works by the Candlelight Master, an important artist in the Rome in the 1630s and a favorite of the Pamphilj family, who own several of his candlelit single-figure pictures.

Showing ‘Two Heads of Soldiers’ on one side and ‘Designs for a Frame’ on the other, this double-sided panel by Rosa has been kept in the same family since the 17th century. Dating to circa 1639-41, it is a very early example of Rosa’s experimental work on wood using pencil, ink, and white lead.

The Slaves’ Meal is a rare depiction of enslaved men, likely Muslims of Turkish and Moorish origins, in Genoa by the Flemish painter, engraver and art dealer Cornelis de Wael.

Rosa’s finest witchcraft scenes date to his Florentine period, to which this intimate work on copper belongs. ‘Stregoneria’ is recorded in the 1683 inventory of the Florentine banker Carlo De Rossi, alongside Rosa’s ‘Witches at their Incantations’, now at the National Gallery, London.

‘A Game of Backgammon’ is an ambitious work by Sweerts in Rome painted around the same time as the Rijksmuseum ‘Painter’s Studio’. It is one of five paintings by the artist depicting men playing games, and the only one in private hands.

Susanna and the Elders is the single most prevalent subject in Artemisia Gentileschi’s oeuvre. Dating to circa 1644-48, during the artist’s second stay in Naples, this interpretation is one of two representations of Susanna evading the Elders’ explicitly aggressive gesture—the other being the newly discovered picture in the British Royal Colection.

Once belonging to Cardinal Giacomo Filippo Nini (1629-1680), this small tondo on slate is typical of the late work of Cerquozzi. It depicts an old beggar with a dog with a strong naturalistic feel and an intense immediacy.

Painted on a thick sheet of copper, ‘The Martyrdom of Saint Lawrence’ belongs to a group of religious pictures by Miel intended for a market of sophisticated Roman collectors with a taste for small cabinet pictures executed in precious materials.

Recorded in the 1713 inventory of Duke Gaetano Sforza Cesarini in Rome, ‘Portrait of a Young Man in Oriental Dress’ is an important recent addition to the oeuvre of Salvator Rosa. It was painted between 1650-60 in Rome when the artist increasingly turned to painting testacce, or character studies.

Fusing a hunting scene with a bucolic one, the two landscape paintings by the Danzig-born Pandolfo Reschi speak to the taste propelled by the Medician court in the late 1660s.