Picturing Rubens Picturing. Some Observations on Giordano's Allegory of Peace in the Prado

Originalveröffentlichung in: Gazette des Beaux-Arts , 139 (1997), S. 195-206

FIG. I. - Luca GIORDANO. Rubens Painting an Allegory of Peace. Madrid, Museo del Prado. Photo museum.

PICTURING RUBENS PICTURING. SOME OBSERVATIONS ON GIORDANO'S ALLEGORY OF PEACE IN THE PRADO

BY

ECKHARD LEUSCHNER

RT-historians have always accepted as of War in the Galleria Palatina1. But did Giordano self-evident that Luca Giordano's Prado even know this picture? picture Rubens Painting an Allegory of Judging from stylistic evidence, Giordano's Peace (fig. 1) reveals a thorough know­ Prado allegory cannot be dated much later than A 2 ledge of Rubens's art, especially of the Horrors the first years of the 1660's. Ferrari and Scavizzi 196 GAZETTE DES BEAUX-ARTS

located it about 1660. The picture's bombastic Dominici6. He reports a journey that the young composition shows the enormous talent of the Luca made to Venice in the early 1650's, which young painter, yet it looks a little unbalanced and ­ according to De Dominici ­ turned out to be - even for Giordano's standards - overloaded. an enormous success and resulted in a great The Prado allegory (and a related picture without number of commissions. Recent scholarship7 has the figure of Rubens in Genova3) is in fact closer cast serious doubts on this voyage ; it may never in style to Giordano's "Saint Nicolas" altarpiece have taken place. De Dominici appears to have in Santa Brigida of 1655 than to his Frankfurt Al­ confounded it with later stays of Giordano in legory of the Temptations of Youth4, which is signed Venice, using the young painter's way back from and dated "1664". Assuming a date of around or the north to account for all the artistic influences shortly before 1660 for the Prado picture, we will Giordano underwent in these years. It is in the turn to the question of Giordano's sources : Rubens context of this otherwise undocumented early painted his Allegory of War in 1638. He sent the journey that De Dominici mentions Giordano hav­ picture to his painter colleague Justus Sustermans ing come to Florence for the first time8. But the in Florence, who may have acted as intermediary question is : did he really arrive there so early, for the Medici; but the picture appears to have re­ that is : before his first stay in Florence in 1665 mained in the property of Sustermans until the mentioned by Francesco Saverio Baldinucci ? And 1690's, when it finally entered the collections of if he did so, could he have had an opportunity to Ferdinando de'Medici. Wherever Rubens's picture see Rubens's Horrors of War at all? was kept before the last years of the Seicento : it Considering these circumstances, it is by no must have been virtually inaccessible for a long means sure that Giordano had any personal know­ time; no graphic reproduction of it was available. ledge of the Pitti­Allegory when he painted Rubens Jaffe5 rightly asks : "What picture by a Florentine Painting an Allegory of Peace. It is moreover ab­ offers even a pale reflection of the heady lessons solutely impossible that he could have studied to be learned from The Horrors of War ?" Rubens's London Allegory of War that has never Our main source for Giordano's early career is left England9 ­ there was, as is also the case with the sometimes not very reliable Bernardo de the Pitti painting, no graphic reproduction of this

FIG. 2. - After RUBENS. The Horrors of War. Lon­ don, National Gallery. Pho- SOME OBSERVATIONS ON GIORDANO'S ALLEGORY OF PEACE IN THE PRADO 197

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FIG. 3. - Luca GIORDANO. Rubens Painting an Allegory of Peace (detail). Madrid. Musco del Prado. Photo museum.

allegory available. As far as pictures by Rubens give his picture the unmistakable air of a are concerned, Giordano may have had no other "Rubens" both in composition and style ­ he had source for his Prado painting than a small work­ certainly seen a number of genuine paintings by shop copy of one of these two Allegories of Peace the great Flemish master". On a closer inspection, (fig. 2) or a related allegory by one of Rubens's however, we find that in composing this work pupils10. Nevertheless, Giordano has managed to Giordano used a pictorial source that was much

m mm SS

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FIG. 4. ­ Giovanni Federico GREUTER after - Pietro da CORTONA. Hercules (from G. Teti, Aedes Barberinae, Rome, 1642). Co­ logne, Stadt­ und Universitatsbibliothek. Photo library. 198

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closer at hand : the ceiling paintings by Pietro da Cortona for the Salone Barberini in Rome (1633- ini ceiling. Cortona's woman with a child who 39). turns her head to these two figures probably in­ It is worthwhile tracing these (so far unrecog­ spired the posture of Giordano's Venus who tries nized) quotations from Cortona in Luca Gior­ to avert Mars; the painter has merely changed the 13 dano's Prado painting. Since 1642, graphic gesture of her right arm . The captured 'barbar­ reproductions'2 of the Barberini ceiling existed, ian' who lies on the ground between weapons and but, judging from the colours of the Prado paint­ firing canons in Giordano's painting is an inverted ing, Giordano may well have studied the original. copy of Cortona's chained "Furore" (fig. 5) whom His two stays in Rome (1650 and 1654) that "Mansuetudine", sitting amidst a comparable ac­ cumulation of weapons, holds on a string14. Even the personification of peace on the Barberini ceil­ ing, who tries to close the doors of the temple of war, may have influenced the figure on the ex­ treme right of Giordano's picture ; this woman who stretches out her hand to hold back Mars looks very much like "Pace". But Giordano was of course too excellent a painter to exhaust his art in merely copying Cor­ tona's inventions, whose way of painting he, no doubt, greatly admired. Giordano has based cer­ tain characteristics of his Prado ­painting on Cor­ tona's art, but he wanted (as we shall see) to achieve something else. One of Giordano's pupils, Paolo de Matteis, has brought the artistic attitude of his master to the point : "In his natural style, or as we say : manner, [Giordano] always fol­ lowed Pietro da Cortona. But when he wanted to enhance that manner, he imitated the greatest of all painters with such an ease, that he has often deceived even the most renowned connoisseurs'^' • Many are the anecdotes in De Dominici's vita of FIG. 5. - Cornells BLOF.MAF.RT after Pietro da CORTONA. Alle­ Giordano in which self­declared experts in paint­ gory of Peace (from G. Teti, Aedes Barberinae, Rome, 1642). Cologne, Stadt- und Universitalsbibliolhek. Photo library. ing mistake a Giordano for a Raphael or a Diirer. De Dominici even mentions a picture by Giordano painted in the manner of the "bizzarro maestro Francesco Saverio Baldinucci mentions are much della Scuola Fiammenga" in the possession of the 16 more in line with a biography one should expect Marchese del Carpio , the Spanish vice­king of than De Dominici's story about the 'triumphal en­ Naples since 1683. Even if that painting may not try' of the young genius in Venice at about the be identical with the Prado allegory, whose prove­ same time. The two flying female figures on the nance can only be traced back to 1711, this ref­ upper part of the Prado painting (fig. 3) quote a erence gives us an idea of what impressions detail of Cortona's "Hercules"­fresco (fig. 4) Giordano could provoke. Most of these works Giordano took over the postures, but turned Cor­ "alia maniera di...", however, were very probably 17 tona's "Felicita" into a Minerva, whose features not intended to be understood as forgeries . Gior­ he could borrow from another part of the Barber­ dano, one of the great painters of his time, simply longed to demonstrate his enormous abilities in SOME OBSERVATIONS ON GIORDANO'S ALLEGORY OF PEACE IN THE PR A DO 199

imitating and emulating the masters of the past. who contented themselves with smaller composi­ But Giordano stayed Giordano even in his imita­ tions and a reduced number of figures, the painter tions ; in most of the cases he has made it very Andrea Sacchi criticised Cortona's "grandi opere" clear whose 'brushwork' the beholder is looking as overloaded. True art, in his eyes, had to be sim­ at. ple and clearly arranged. Pietro da Cortona an­ We have registred the influence that Cortona's swered Sacchi by pointing out his concept of Barberini fresco exerted on the Prado picture. But "ricchezza", his idea of entertaining the spectator where does the art of Rubens come in, what role with 'grand' compositions that had to be looked do his Allegories of Peace play ? A closer com­ at as pictorial entities whose parts were not pri­ parison between Giordano's painting and Rubens's marily meant to be read in terms of literary mean­ Horror of War at the Palazzo Pitti (fig. 2) reveals ing. Cortona wanted his paintings to impress and a striking difference in the relation between Venus entertain the beholder by their rich pictorial and Mars. While Rubens, as he explains in his means. famous letter to Sustermans'8, shows Venus trying By turning to Cortona as his artistic model, to keep Mars from going to war, Giordano makes Giordano obviously made a decision to adopt this his voluptously seated Venus hold up her hand to 'pictorial' way of painting20. It is interesting to keep Mars from coming closer. Neither Rubens's see that a few years after the probable date of the concentration on a foreground action oriented to Prado allegory the 'classicist' Bellori published the right nor his choice of figures and attributes his 1672 vita of Rubens which mirrors many of is closely imitated by Giordano, who has built up the criticisms that had been brought up against a turbulent motion circling around the painter who the art of Cortona in the days of Sacchi and is sitting in the middle of the composition. The Poussin. Giordano did not by chance turn to Pietro Prado painting thus appears to be more of a para­ da Cortona in order to compose a 'Rubens'. Both phrasis of Rubens's Allegories of Peace than a artists offered to him a rich and colourful way of true and profound imitation. Giordano has repre­ painting that included the intensive use of alle­ sented Rubens sitting not on a chair, but on the gorical elements. What is more, Cortona himself Fury of War, who is 'tormented' by a putto with was influenced considerably by Rubens's art when her own torch. It is not by chance that a Fury of the Barberini ordered him to complete the tapestry this appearance can be seen both in Rubens's Hor­ series of representations from the life of Constan­ ror of War and in the "Hercules Scene" (fig. 4) tine they had purchased in Paris21. This commis­ of Cortona's Barberini ceiling. sion was finished shortly before the beginning of When Giordano (in the mid­fifties of the 17th the works on the Salone Barberini. Cortona's century) turned from the sombre manner of his painterly work there shows a new 'pictorial' man­ teacher Ribera to the colourful and lucid style of ner unknown to his earlier frescos. He had learned Pietro da Cortona, he opted for a particular type his Rubens lesson. of contemporary artistic practice. Pietro da Cor­ Giordano may thus have 'reconstructed' the tona represented the rich, the 'baroque' manner manner of Rubens by studying Pietro da Cortona's of painting that explicitly wanted to amaze the frescos. This can account for the many quotations spectator, to overwhelm him with opulent (Vene­ from the Salone Barberini in the Prado allegory. tian) colours and gigantic compositions. Cortona's Giordano, however, obviously felt that a bit more Barberini ceiling is the matrix for a great number 'Flemish' atmosphere should be added to his pic­ of paintings and frescos in the 'baroque' style all ture. Apart from the portrait of Rubens himself, over Europe. It was, in fact, the concept of the which was available in at least two printed ver­ Salone Barberini that is reported to have aroused sions22, he sought to implant a few other details a famous dispute in the Accademia di San Luca19. that were familiar to anyone who had a certain Speaking for the protagonists of a 'classical' art knowledge of northern art. An addition of this sort 200 GAZETTE DES BEAUX-ARTS

FIG. 6. - Luca GIORDANO. Rubens Painting an Allegory of Peace (detail). Madrid, Museo del Prado. Photo museum. is the still-life with two putti on the lower left composed of musical instruments, a globe, play­ (fig. 6) : Giordano has filled this part of his can­ ing cards and dice were meant to symbolise the vas with a "Vanitas"­composition which is very transitoriness of all worldly pleasures. One or two common in pictures of the Netherlandish type masks were sometimes added to these still­lifes24 "vanite a personnages" (as Mirimonde23 called it). in order to create an almost literary image for the Children blowing soapbubbles next to a still­life false appearance of the world : there is nothing

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FIG. 7. - Theodoor VAN THULDEN. Allegory •«S»- of Vanity. S'Herlogenbosch, Noordbrabants Museum. Photo museum. SOME OBSERVATIONS ON GIORDANO'S ALLEGORY OF PEACE IN THE PRADO 201

behind the attractive face of "Vrouw Werelt" the allegorical scene was intended as a tour de (fig. 7). While "Vanitas" still-lifes in the true force, a witty demonstration of his inventive pow­ sense of the word are altogether rare in Italian ers and creative energy. Paintings showing an art­ painting of the time, the mask that Giordano has ist at work with the object or model of his picture shown among the elements of his still-life is al­ included were rare in Italian art of the time. Al­ most unique to Italy25, ­ there cannot be any other most the only exception are depictions of Saint pictorial source for it than a Netherlandish paint­ Luke painting the Madonna. But if we look for ing. While Rubens had shown a number of musi­ painted scenes of contemporary artistic practice, cal instruments and books lying on the ground of i.e. a painter at his workshop depicted with his his Pitti picture to give an impression of how model, there is almost no Italian example for this Mars tends to destroy the arts26, Giordano used a type of representation before the 'bamboccianti',

FIG. 8. - Anthony VAN DYCK (attr. to). An- dries van Ertfeldt Picturing a Seascape. Mu­ nich, Bayerische Staatsgemaldesammlungen. Photo museum.

Netherlandish still­life of a type that contains a Netherlandish painters of genre­scenes, who ar­ moral warning against all worldly pleasures and rived in Rome at the time of Caravaggio. One of goods including the arts. their group, Michelangelo Cerquozzi, shows an It is not altogether clear whether Luca Gior­ (anonymous) painter at his easel whose model, an dano realized this different 'message' of the still­ old man, poses as a 'Saint Jerome' in the fore­ life that he chose to imitate and add to his Prado ground27. But Cerquozzi has not allowed us to painting. Neither can we be absolutely sure about look at the picture that is coming into being. The the reasons that induced Giordano to represent beholder is confronted with the back of the canvas Rubens himself sitting at his easel and painting that the painter is working on. Venus averting Mars, i.e. the scene that is taking Depictions of artists at work that show both the place on the right. Looking at the Prado picture object of imitation and the picture that is being from an artistic point of view, it is clear that Gior­ painted were in fact almost exclusively reserved dano's combination of the painter's portrait and to Netherlandish art. But even in Dutch or Flem­ 202 GAZETTE DES BEAUX-ARTS

ish art of the seventeenth century, there are very It is, of course, problematic to assume a purely few depictions (i.e. portraits) of an individual 'artistic' motivation for a painting of this kind and painter with both his picture and the subject of date3'. Would there have been anyone in the early his painting visible. One of these rare pictures is 166()'s who commissioned a picture measuring a painting attributed to Anthony van Dyck (fig. 8), 3.37 X 4.14 m for purely 'artistic' reasons? In that undoubtedly is a real portrait of a painter at order to give an acceptable explanation for the his easel ; according to tradition, the man depicted commission of the Prado painting, some scholars is the specialist of marine subjects Andries van have turned to the fact that Rubens during his life­ Ertveldt. The ship in stormy waves that he is paint­ time was active both as a painter and a diplomat32. ing is shown as his 'real' subject in the background He acted, among other duties, as an intermediator on the left. Pictures of this kind, and certainly not for a peace­treaty between Spain and England. 28 (as it has been suggested ) Velazquez' Las Meninas, Because the picture is first mentioned in a Spanish have to be considered as the stimulus for Giordano's inventory, Perez Sanchez has suggested that a inclusion of Rubens's portrait in his Prado compo­ Spanish citizen living at Naples ordered Giordano sition. This composition, it is true, is much more to paint this picture as a 'homage' to Rubens as advanced in character, because it shows the painter a peace­maker. This explanation is certainly a pos­ imitating an allegorical constellation, not a 'real' sibility. Giovanni Baglione in his 1642 vita of the subject. The combination, however, of the depiction Fleming already praises both the painter and the of a painter at his work and certain allegorical ele­ diplomat Rubens. But it should not be overlooked ments next to him was available to Giordano in the that 'artistic' qualities are decisive in the oeuvre print // lamento della pittura (fig. 9) by Cornelis Cort of a painter whose fame, in these years, was at which is based on a design of Federico Zuccaro; least in part based on imitating other artists. Gior­ Giordano often used engravings as sources for his dano's use of his brush, his enormous rapidity in 29 work , so he may well have turned to Zuccaro, the painting induced his later patrons, as De Dominici Roman precursor of Pietro da Cortona. This ambi­ reports33, to leave the subject of the paintings he tious print exhibits a comparably complicated struc­ was going to produce entirely in his own hands. ture of an artist working on an image that is in fact A similar explanation should be applied to our ­ 30 part of another image . picture : the Prado allegory is very probably meant

FIG. 9. - Cornelis CORT after Fe­ derico ZUCCARO. // Lamento della Pittura (lower part). Munich, Staatliche Graphische Sammlung. Photo museum. SOME OBSERVATIONS ON GIORDANO'S ALLEGORY OF PEACE IN THE PRADO 203

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FIG. 10. - Paolo DE MATTEIS. Allegory of Peace with Self-Portrait. Houston, Sarah Campbell Blatter Foundation. Photo Foundation. r

to celebrate Giordano's favorite manner of paint­ own allegorical inventory of the Flemish painter. ing. Many of these figures are quite unmistakably By representing Rubens at work, Luca Gior­ 'rubensian'35; in a way, Giordano's painting is dano depicted a famous artist who had died about thus an early example for the admiration of twenty years before. Giordano's preserved own Rubens as a 'modern classic', who, as an inde­ self­portraits are of a very modest scale. Unlike pendent genius, produced his admirable pictures his pupil Paolo de Matteis many years later, he out of his own, his autonomous creative powers never painted a self­portrait which placed his own ­ quite like Roger de Piles36 put it in 1684 : "Le person in the pompous surrounding of an allegori­ genie de Rubens etoit capable de produire lui cal composition. Allegorical elements of this kind seul, et sans I'aide d'aucuns preceptes, des choses were usually reserved for portraits of military extraordinaires ". leaders and members of the nobility. Even in the Luca Giordano's confrontation of the 'painter early Settecento contemporaries still considered it at his easel'­theme (which in Netherlandish paint­ an enormous offence against the 'decoro' when De ing often came close to a genre motif) and the Matteis inserted his self­portrait sitting at his noble Allegory of Peace is a remarkable contem­ easel into an Allegory of Peace34 whose compo­ porary of Vermeer's learned Allegory of Painting. sition is very close to Giordano's Prado picture Vermeer van Delft has depicted the artist in his (fig. 10). Keeping these circumstances in mind, we studio together with a young woman who is pos­ realize that Giordano's implantation of Rubens's ing as a 'Clio' ­ and Vermeer took great pains to portrait in his painting contained an element of make clear that she is nothing but a model of this controversial novelty. muse37. According to him, it is only on the One should not, however, forget that the alle­ painter's easel that the allegory of History comes gorical context of the painter at work on the Prado into being, and it is consequently only in the eye picture is of a very special kind : Giordano has of the beholder that this scene as a whole becomes shown Rubens amidst his own 'creatures', i.e. an Allegory of Painting. In contrast to this, Gior­ among the figures who are representatives of the dano has confronted his painter with an unprece­ 204 GAZETTE DES BEAUX-ARTS

dented mass of allegorical figures who (strangely enough) appear to belong to the same level of one and only common factor of the Prado picture reality as Rubens himself. This situation cannot as a whole : Giordano's painterly work. The picture's really be explained, it cannot be solved on the different elements, the portrait of Rubens, the quota­ level of what is represented. Looking for a me­ tions from Cortona, the quotations from Flemish art diator between these elements that simply do not ­ they are brought together by the unifying power of fit together, the beholder is forced to turn to the Giordano's brush. Pretending to picture Rubens pic­ turing, Giordano has glorified his own art.

NOTES

I wish to express my gratitude to Herbert L. Kessler and James McCowey for a critical look at the English of this paper, I, « Dans l'interpretation du sujet, Luca Giordano prouve du reste qu'il connait bien les Consequences de la guerre de ritorno alia patria per il camino di Fiorenza, ove resto ammi­ Florence » : D. BODART, « Rubens et la critique italienne an­ rato in vedere l'opere di tanti meravigliosi artefici di piu es­ cienne », in M. GREGORI (ed.), Rubens e Firenze, Florence, quisite et ottime facolta". 1983, p. 42. A similar opinion was expressed by R. BAUM­ 9. Cf. G. MARTIN, National Gallery Catalogues. The Flem- STARK, "Ikonographische Studien zu Rubens Kriegs­ und ish School circa 1600 - circa 1900, London, 1970, pp. 116­25. Friedensallegorien", Aachener Kunstblatter 45, 1974, p. 126. 10. Compare e.g. an Allegory of Peace by Erasmus Quel­ 2. O. FERRARI­G. SCAVIZZI, Luca Giordano, Naples, 1992, Imus in the Museo de San Carlos, Mexico City (exh. cat. "Pin­ pp. 263­64 (cat. no. A 88). GRISERI ("Luca Giordano 'alia tura y tapices flamencos", Mexico City, 1984, pp. 98­99, no. maniera di..."\ Arte antice e moderna, 1961, p. 430) once pro­ 43). posed the period between 1660 and 1670, but one can quite 11. The Seicento inventories of neapolitan private collec­ certainly exclude a date in the second half of the sixties. tions list quite a number of paintings attributed to Rubens, some of which Giordano is likely to have seen. Among them A 893.. O. FERRARI­G. SCAVIZZI, as in note 2, p. 264, cat. no. was a "quadro di 6 palmi di Venere e Marte di Pietro Paolo 4. For the Frankfurt picture cf. E. LEUSCHNER, "Giordanos Rubens" (mentioned in the inventory of Ferrante Spinelli of graphische Vorlagen. Uberlegungen zu Bildern in Frankfurt 1654 ; cf. G. LABROT, Collections of Paintings in Naples 1600- und Braunschweig", Pantheon 52, 1994, pp. 184­89. 1780, Munich, 1992, p. 96. no. 97). 5. M. JAFFE, Rubens and Italy, Oxford, 1977, p. 103. Even 12. Girolamo TETI, Aedes Barberinae ad Quirinalem, Giovanni BEI.LORI does not mention the Horrors of War in his Rome, 1642; cf. A. CALCAONI ABRAMI­L. CHIMIRRI (edd.), /»­ 1672 Vila of Rubens. cisori toscani del Seicento al servizio del libra illustrato, 6. B. DE DOMINICI, Vite de'Pittori, Scultori, ed Architetti Florence, 1987, pp. 42­43. Napoletani, vol. 3, Naples, 1743, pp. 394 sq. For a rather op­ 13. This figure of Cortona had already inspired the posture timistic attempt to defend De Dominici's reliability see T. WII. of a woman in the foreground of Giordanos "Nicolas" altar­ LETTE, "Bernardo De Dominici e le Vite de'pittori scultori ed piece at Santa Brigida : O. FERRARI­G. SCAVIZZI, as in note 2. architetti napoletani : contributo alia riabilitazione di una p. 258, cat. no. A 47. The gesture of Giordano's Venus was fonte", Ricerche sul '600 napoletano, Milan, 1986, pp. 255­73. probably influenced by Agostino Carracci's graphical repro­ 7. Cf. O. FERRARI­G. SCAVIZZI, as in note 2, pp. 16 sq. Cf. duclion of a composition by Jacopo Tintoretto : Minerva avert- also E. SCHLEIER, Luca Giordano variierl eine Komposition ing Mars (Illustrated BARTSCH, vol. 39, p. 160, no. 118­ID Tizians. Zu einem Bild der Berliner Gewaldegalerie, Jahrbuch which is inscribed "Sapientia Martem depellente Pax et Abun­ der Berliner Museen 36, 1994, p. 192. dantia cogaudent". 8. B. DE DOMINICI (as in note 4), p. 397 : "[...] di Vinegia 14. Cortona's image of "Fury" in chains is based on VER­ partiti, presero il cammino di Firenze. dove voile ammirare GIL'S "centum vinctus aenis" (Aeneid 1, 295); cf. M. A. LEE, l'opere magnifiche di tanti Artefici insigni, che vi aveano 'Hie Domus': The Decorative Programme of the Sala Bar- fiorito : Indi per la via di Livorno ritorno a Roma". In his berina in Rome, Baltimore, 1993, p. 123. earlier Zibaldone Baldinucciano (ed. B. SANTI, Florence, 1980, 15. 'Quanto al suo naturale stile (dtilae no (di adett noi adelt : Mania : Manierac ) p. 352), De Dominici wrote : "Onde [= Venice], dipingendo W accosto sempre a Pietro da Cortona; ma quando volea di luoco in luoco e facendo memoria di tutto il bello. fecero malzarla faceva, e contrafaceva con tanta facilita gli Uomini Piu grandi in Pittura, che spesso ha ingannato li piu inten­ SOME OBSERVATIONS ON GIORDANO'S ALLEGORY OF PEACE IN THE PRADO 205

denti". Paolo de Matteis' vita of Giordano is part of the DE ish allegories of vanitas see E. LEUSCHNER, Persona, Larva, MATTEis-chapter of DE DOMINICI, as in note 6, p. 542. Maske. Ikonologische Studien zum 16. bis friihen 18. Jahrhun­ 16. B. DE DOMINICI, as in note 6, pp. 417-418 : "Essendo dert, Frankfurt, 1997, pp. 221­64. poi venuto il Reggente |= the Duca di Diano] ad augurargli 25. Compare a still­life with two masks by Giordano's con­ l'anno nuovo felice, [the Marchese del Carpio] fecegli vedere temporary Giuseppe Recco in Rotterdam (exh. cat. "Van Titiaan un quadro di Luca Giordano dipinto sulla maniera del Rubens, tot Tiepolo. Italiaanse schilderkunst in Nederlands bezit", Rot­ e l'interrogo da qual pennello stimasse dipinto quel quadro? terdam, 1990, pp. 136­37, cat. no. 73); this picture, however, II Reggente che facea pompa d'intendere le maniere de' Pittori, should not be described as a Vanitas still­life proprio sensu. rispose, che l'opera era di bizzarro maestro della Scuola Fiam- 26. Rubens used a similar combination of instruments and menga, e che gli pareva del Rubens. Allora ripiglio il Vicere. books as attributes of the arts in his painting The Education che una simil tela stava dipingendo Luca per accompagnare of Maria de'Medici, cf. R. FORSYTH MILLEN­R.E. WOLF, He­ quella pittura". roic Deeds and Mystic Figures. A New Reading of Rubens' 17. Compare M. CAUSA PICONE, "Luca Giordano alia sua Life of Maria de'Medici, Princeton, 1989, pp. 47­48. maniera", Studi di storia dell'arte in onore di Mina Gregori, 27. F. ZERI, La Galleria Pallavicini in Roma. Catalogo dei Milan, 1994, pp. 289-94. dipinti, Rome, 1954, p. 87. 18. This letter is quoted and analysed by E.H. GOMBRICH, 28. C. KESSER, Las Meninas von Velazquez. Fine Wirkungs­ Symbolic Images, London, 1985, pp. 126-29. und Rezeptionsgeschichte, Berlin, 1994, pp. 41­44. 19. For the literary sources of this dispute that probably 29. Compare e.g. a genre­scene with an attribution to Gior­ took place in the mid-thirties cf. G. BRIGANTI, Pielro da Cor- dano ; it is based on a composition of Adriaen van Ostade en­ tona o della pittura barocca, Milan, 1982, pp. 88-92. J. MERZ. graved by Cornelis Vischer : G. DE VITO, "II viaggio di lavoro Pietro da Cortona. Der Aufstieg zum filhrenden Maler in Rom, di Luca Giordano a Venezia e alcune motivazioni per la scelta Tubingen, 1991, p. 258. H. LOCHER, "Das Staunen des Be- riberesca", Ricerche sul '600 Napoletano 10, 1991, pp. 33­122, trachters. Pietro da Cortonas Deckenfresko im Palazzo Bar- Tav. IX (Giordano) und fig. 66 (the engraving). berini", Werners Kunstgeschichte, 1990, pp. 1-46. 30. For a detailed analysis of the "Lamento" compare I. 20. R. WITTKOWER, Art and Architecture in Italy 1600- GERARDS­NELISSEN, "Federigo Zuccaro and the Lament of 1750, London, 1990, p. 266 : "Sacchi's position was taken up Painting", Simiolus 13, 1983, pp. 44­53. by his pupil Carlo Maratti, who handed on the classical gospel 31. Only a few years later, a number of patrons explicitly to the eighteenth century and ultimately to Mengs and to commissioned artistic 'self­reflections'. A famous example is Winckelmann, the real father of Neo-classicism and passionate the Marchese del Carpio himself, who has already been men­ enemy of all things Baroque. Pietro da Cortona, on the other tioned in connection with De Dominici's story about the two hand, must be regarded as the ancestor of the hedonistic trend 'Rubens' paintings Giordano made for him (cf. note 16). Ac­ which led via Luca Giordano to the masters of the French and cording to Bellori, the Marchese, during his stay at Rome, Italian Rococo". asked many artists to draw "soggetti [...] sopra la Pittura, las­ 21. Cf. S. ZURAWSKI, "Connections between Rubens and ciando a ciascuno libero l'arbitrio di eleggerlo a suo modo" the Barberini Legation in Paris, in 1625 and Their Influences (cf. O. KUTSCHERA­WOBORSKY, "Ein kunsttheoretisches Thesen­ on Roman Baroque Art", Revue Beige d'Archeologie et d'His- blatt Carlo Marattas und seine iisthetischen Anschauungen". Mit­ toire de I'Art, 58, 1989, pp. 23-50. See also J. BELDON SCOTT, tettungen der Gesellschaft fiir vervielfdltigende Kunsl, Beilage Images of Nepotism. The Painted Ceilings of Palazzo Barberi­ der Graphischen Kiinste, Vienna, 1919, no. 1­3, pp. 11­13). ni, Princeton, 1991, pp. 186-92. 32. Compare A.E. PEREZ SANCHEZ, exh. cat. "Pintura 22. A printed Rubens portrait had been published by napolitana de Caravaggio a Giordano", Madrid, 1985, S. 176 Raphael Custos (cf. R. BAUMSTARK, as in note L, p. 126), an­ and M. LEVEY, The Painter Depicted. Painters as a Subject other by Paulus Pontius (cf. M. JAFFE, "Rubens to Himself : in Painting, London, 1981, pp. 38­40. The Portraits Sent to Charles I and to N­C. Fabri De Peiresc", 33. B. DE DOMINICI, as in note 6, p. 406 : "Avendo sup­ M. GREGORI [ed.|, Rubens e Firenze, Florenz, 1983, pp. 19­32). plicato Sua Altezza [= the Grand­duke of Tuscany] a dirgli. 23. A. P. DE MIRIMONDE, « Les vanitas a personnages et a cosa comandava vi avesse dipinto, gli fu risposto, che dipin­ instruments de musique », Gazette des Beaux­Arts, ocl. 1978, gesse cio che piaccuto gli fusse, ma che primieramente si pon­ pp. 115­30. esse la berretta, e sedesse, poiche egli era venuto per vederlo 24. Autonomous Netherlandish still­lifes including masks dipingere". are much rarer than masks in still­life elements of bigger al­ 34. B. DE DOMINICI, as in note 6, p. 540 : "[Paolo] molte legorical compositions; one of the few examples for the volte ne' Soggetti Eroici introduceva concetti che avean del autonomous type is a picture attributed to Jacques de Claeuw basso : come appunto ei fece nel mentovato quadro da lui dipinto ­ cf. E. LEUSCHNER, "Ein unbekanntes Hauptwerk von Jacob in occasione della pace conchiusa fra la Spagna e la Francia, de Backer in Meiningen", Jaarboek van hel Koninklijk Mu­ con la Germania, e l'lnghilterra; Impercioche, dopo avervi seum voor Schone Kunsten Anlwerpen, 1994, pp. 51­63, fig. 4. dipinto molte belle figure allusive al nobile, e lieto soggetto, For a detailed analysis of ihe use of masks in Dutch and Flem­ vi situo la sua figura a sedere nel mezzo del quadro col Trep­ 206 GAZETTE DES BEAUX-ARTS

piedi davanti in atto di dipingere, ma col berretlino in testa not by chance place portraits of Rubens and Van Dyck in a e con veste da camera. Concetto certamente basso, e che fu bi- setting of allegorical figures (e.g. a snake-headed 'Invidia') asimato da tutti allorche il gran quadro fu esposto al monte de' which often occur in the works of both painters (cf. exh. cat. Poveri Vergognosi, ove molti anni prima cioe nel 1678 aveva "Verhaal van een metropool", Antwerp, 1993, p. 150, cat. no. Luca Giordano esposto il suo gran quadro, che fu una maraviglia 4). deH'Arte, e un incanto di tutti quei che lo videro; come si ri- 36. Quoted after G. POCHAT, Geschichte der Asthetik und cordavano i piu vecchi; poicche nel mezzo di quello aveva Luca Kunsttheorie, Cologne 1986, p. 355. situato il Marchese de los Velez su d'un Cavallo bianco, quasi 37. D. ARASSE, Lambition de Vermeer, Paris, 1993, p. 79 : l'Eroe dell'opera : come nella sua vita abbiamo detto". "A bien regarder, Vermeer s'est livre a un double jeu : il a 35. Theodor Boeyermans's Allegory of Antwerp as Nulri.x "derealise" (ou "alltjgorisd") le peintre et son atelier tout en Pictorum, a picture that was painted in 1665 to decorate the "desallegorisant" la figure allegorique, presentee sous les traits premises of the town's recently founded Academy of Art, does d'un reel modele de peintre".

RESUME. - Peindre Rubens en train de peindre. Quelaues remaraues Sur /'Allegoric de la Paix de Giordano au Prado.

de T'AWS tabl^U LUCa Giordano' Rubens P^'gnant une Allegorie de la Paix (au Prado), passe d'ordinaire pour s'inspirer LAUegorte de la Pan de Rubens (Florence). Mais on ne peut affirmer que Giordano avail vu ce tableau avant de peindre, OMS sa carnere, sa propre toile. En outre, une analyse atttentive du tableau du Prado revele que beaucoup d'elements sont en realite cop.es ou repns sur le plafond de Pierre de Cortone, au palais Barberini a Rome. Celebre pour ses copies et ses 2 Z'°"S' r°mpeUS,eS' d'autres arlistes (Pa™i lesquels on compte Ti.ien, Raphael, Rubens...), le ieune Giordano avail r I ," vu quelq«es ceuvres originales de Rubens a Rome ou a Naples. Alors pourquoi aurait-il introduit des elements Ham nH , T S°" « Rubens » 9 L'auteur emet l'idee que Giordano a voulu ici rendre un hommage a 1'artiste de Rub/ n C°Pier 'e P'af0nd Barberini P°" g'orifier le c6t<< opulent, que representait a ses yeux, la peinture n ne Ma S 6tam d nn6 13 te dance de r6 0£ ue de laisser au libre ch comm,nH- •, ° ' ' ° " P I oi" & Tartiste le theme de l'ceuvre un ZlTd Certam 16 tablCaU d" Prad0 r6sulte de la r6flexion artistiq"= ^ son auteur : Giordano voulait donner Sa SUpenont dans art de italien P, H v f| ^ '' ''imitation, et de sa capacite a meler differents styles et elements issus de I'art ttal.en et de I art flamand, tout en rendant evident le fait qu'il s'agit bien d'un « Giordano »,