SIMONE CANTARINI (, 1612 – , 1648)

Portrait of a Youth, c. 1640 Oil on canvas, 22 7⁄16 x 18 7⁄8 in.

This enchanting portrait can unquestionably be attributed to the Pesarese artist , certainly the most original of the many painters who had occasion to frequent the workshop of . In his case one cannot speak of a proper appren- ticeship, since when he moved to Bologna from his native Pesaro in about 1635 he was already in his maturity. His training had taken place in with the Veronese painter (1560-1644), although from the very beginning the language he adopted from that master was distinguished by a singular intellec- tual curiosity which prompted his interest in other, varied idioms present in the at that time: the Venetian manner of Pal- ma Giovane, the classicism of Domenichino and the naturalism of Giovanni Francesco Guerrieri da . But it was the appearance of works

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by Reni in (1626) and Pesaro (1630) that determined the path followed by the young artist, and his style seems to be perfectly established in the altarpiece with the Madonna in Glory with Saints Barbara and Florian, formerly in the church of San Cassiano in Pesaro (Milan, Brera Gallery) and in other works he painted in his homeland before moving to Bologna.

There he placed himself under the aegis of Guido, but in the years that followed their interactions were not always harmonious, their characters being equally strong-willed and both introverted. The naturalism Cantarini learned from the Marchigian works of and Giovanni Francesco Guerrieri, mellowed somewhat by an opalescent, Reni-inspired handling, can be seen in the emphatic lighting of the Transfiguration painted for the Forte Urbano in Castelfranco (, Vatican Picture Gallery), which was a source of disagreement with his master; this became stronger after a second period in the Marches, documented in 1639 (Saint Peter Healing the Cripple, Fano, San Pietro in Valle). Another deci- sive moment came during a sojourn in Rome, which has remained undocumented but is recorded in all the early sources. Indeed it was within the Barberini circle and through contact with Andrea Sacchi that Simone’s naturalism – that of an elevated, strictly neo-Venetian kind – matured, as seen in his last works: the char- acteristic masterpieces of this final period are his Rest on the Flight into Egypt now in the Brera Gallery and the Adoration of the Magi formerly in the Salina-Amorini collection (Bologna, Unicredit). His career, prematurely cut short in Verona in 1648 – he may possibly have died from poisoning – is marked by a substantial number of pictures painted for both public and private patronage [sia pubblica sia profana: sic?] , and by a wealth of drawings, not to mention numerous etchings. As was the case with other artists of Cantarini’s time, portrait painting – at that time a genre mostly entrusted to specialists – was not a regular part of his oeuvre, though it had its peaks, as in the beautiful unfinished Self- MAURIZIO NOBILE BOLOGNA

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portrait and the Portrait of junior (both in Rome, Galleria Nazionale d’arte antica, Palazzo Corsini), a version of the latter, larger but still autograph (private collection), the Portrait of Guido Reni (Bologna, Pinacoteca Nazionale), and the extraordinary Portrait of an Old Couple (Bo- logna, Fondazione Carisbo), which would deserve a place in any catalogue of the finest seventeenth-century European portraiture.

Having to portray a youth on the cusp of adolescence, Simone gives a pronounced evenness to his features, which express some- thing of the effects of Reni’s idealism, yet without impeding the beholder from empathizing with the pensive, melancholy tempera- ment of the sitter. He looks as though he might be the young scion of one of the many noble families frequented by Cantarini during his short life, although he must remain unidentified for the time being.

The almost perfect oval of the face, emphasised by the round- ness of the cheek, and the hint of a smile, can be seen in a number of figures, especially female ones, painted by Simone in his altar- pieces or swiftly sketched among his many drawings; but the vivid gaze, set under the arches of the young man’s eyebrows, and the deliberately casual hairstyle, with locks falling in soft curls onto the right shoulder, speak of a specific character study. At the same time, the gently shaded description of the sitter, animated by vibrant brushstrokes (witness the beautiful handling of reflections on the lace collar), succeeds in conveying a tangible physical presence, so that his look of expectancy takes on the burden of an existential question. These qualities – mental, not just pictorial – suggest the picture was painted in a period subsequent to the break with Reni, per- haps close to that of the Saint Dominic in the two canvases with Pairs of Saints once in the church of San Tommaso del Mercato in Bologna (now in the Pinacoteca Nazionale there); the latter, de- spite the absence of secure points of reference, which makes it so hard to establish Cantarini’s

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chronology, are generally dated to the early 1640s.

Daniele Benati

MAURIZIO NOBILE BOLOGNA

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