This work by an unknown 17th-century Italian painter beautifully unfolds the message of unmerited grace offered to mankind by a holy God.
Tag Archives: oil on canvas
In this lovely Adoration of the Shepherds we see one of the worshipers playing a musical instrument–an instrument used for village celebrations during the painter’s lifetime.
The Triumph of David
Oil on canvas, c. 1630s
Jacopo Vignali
Florentine, 1592-1664
Italian art scholar Howard Hibbard once observed, “Florentine seventeenth-century art has a fascination and beauty worthy of our attention: it is a sensuously colorful and romantic school of painting, sometimes even magical or mystical.” The Museum & Gallery’s Triumph of David by Jacopo Vignali is a case in point. Described as one the most “poetic and sensitive” of the Florentine painters, Vignali began his career at 13 under the tutelage of Matteo Rosselli. In his early twenties he joined several other noteworthy artists in the decoration of the Casa Buonarotti—the most important commission in Florence at that time. By his early thirties, he was not only a member of the Academy but also one of the leading artists in Florence.
Rosselli’s superb tutelage provided Vignali with the technical and artistic skills necessary for his later success. However, as Vignali’s style matured, he became more eclectic, incorporating Counter-Mannerism with the grandeur, drama, and emotional intensity of the emerging Baroque aesthetic. This diversity is clearly apparent in The Triumph of David.
Seventeenth-century paintings on the life of David had been prevalent since the 15th century when the innovative, stunning sculptures of Donatello, Verrocchio, and later Michelangelo elevated this biblical figure into a civic symbol. Interestingly, our M&G painting was originally attributed to Vignali’s teacher Rosselli. Joan Nissman notes: “The answer to this problem of attribution, as Del Bravo suggests, seems to be that it is an early work painted while Vignali was still under the influence of his master. Vignali, in this painting, shares his master’s solid and smooth technique as well as his concern for details of costume.” However, a comparison of Rosselli’s treatment of the subject [fig. 1] with Vignali’s highlights why Carlo del Bravo’s attribution of the work to Vignali (rather than Rosselli) has now won general acceptance.
fig. 1 THE TRIUMPH OF DAVID, Matteo Rosselli
Notice that in Rosselli’s rendering we see the coloration, composition, and scale indicative of the classical Baroque style popularized by the Carracci. In contrast, Vignali’s more dynamic composition, vivid coloration, and careful use of scale reflect his mature style which favored the integration of Counter-Mannerist techniques with the dramatic realism of Baroque naturalism. For example, High Mannerist paintings were often characterized by strained poses, distortion of the human form, crowded compositions, garish coloration, and unusual (sometimes bizarre) elements of scale.
In this scene, however, Vignali manipulates these common characteristics to create a “restrained” but equally dramatic effect. For example, the composition is “crowded” but the poses elegant, the figures without distortion. The coloration is vivid but not garish, carefully integrated to create focus and highlight the triumphant mood of the scene (e.g., David’s bright red stockings draw the eye to Goliath’s head while the bright red sleeves of the woman’s costume create an implied horizontal line that guides the viewer’s eye back to the hero’s face).
Vignali also carefully manipulates scale. The extreme elongation of the sword and the enormous head of Goliath subtly serve to reinforce the power of the biblical narrative. Scripture notes that Goliath was about 9 feet tall, and although we are not told specifically how much his sword weighed, we do know that the head of his spear weighed about 15 pounds! In addition, the soft modeling of the faces, the contemporary dress, and the morbidly gruesome severed head highlight Baroque naturalism’s penchant not just for realism but also for the “bizarre and strident” (David Steel).
Although Vignali’s contributions to the early Baroque period are significant, he remains less well-known than either his teacher Matteo Rosselli or his most famous student Carlo Dolci. Joan Nissman attributes this lack of name recognition to the fact that, unlike Roselli and Dolci, the great seventeenth-century Florentine biographer, Filippo Baldinucci, did not write of Vignali’s life. Regardless, this work has long been praised as one of the finest treatments of The Triumph of David ever produced.
Donnalynn Hess, Director of Education
Works Cited:
Steel, David, Baroque Paintings from the Bob Jones University Collection. North Carolina Museum of Art.1984.
Hibbard, Howard and Nissman, Joan, Florentine Baroque Art from American Collections. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. 1969.
Published 2025
The Trial of Queen Catherine
Oil on canvas, 1880; signed lower left
Laslett John Pott, RBA
English, 1837–1898
The Victorian period is known for its diverse richness as an era of scientific and technological innovation, industry, the development of the novel, the rise of the middle class, incredible social reforms, the expansion of the British empire, and . . . the golden age of English painting.
For us to appreciate the breadth and influence of art during the time, Denys Brook-Hart writes, “the galaxy of artistic talent and endeavour which rose to its peak in the 19th century in Britain had not previously been rivalled in any other country or period. For proof of sheer quantity one needs only to mention the 25,000 professional artists who exhibited in London alone. For quality it is amply sufficient to quote the names of Turner and Constable in their places at the head of a long list of distinguished and truly marvellous artists, many of whom had the rank of genius.”
While being a member and/or an exhibitor of the Royal Academy (founded during King George III’s reign) was considered the height of honor, many other art societies developed before and during Victoria’s rule to train and exhibit artists. Approved by King George IV in 1824, the Royal Society of British Artists (RBA) was organized and began to exhibit annually. Painter Laslett John Pott later became an elected member.
Pott was a child prodigy. Biographers Clare Erskine Clement and Laurence Hutton relate that he “drew cleverly when not more than five years old.” His skill, particularly as a history painter, gave him opportunity to exhibit at least 40 paintings at London’s Royal Academy, beginning in 1860 when he was only twenty-three and including M&G’s painting, The Trial of Queen Catherine in 1880.
Here, Pott conflates two parts of the historical telling into one scene. According to the eyewitness account of Cardinal Wolsey’s gentleman-usher and biographer George Cavendish, Catherine was called to appear before the Legatine Court at Blackfriars where Henry sat upon a canopied dais to watch. Rather than addressing the court, which she felt would legitimize their purpose, she made a rational and impassioned appeal on knee to her seated husband only, then arose, curtsied to the king, and left the hall. The council summoned her to return, but she refused on the grounds that they had already decided against her. Cavendish recounts that later Wolsey met with Catherine for further discussion; however, she strongly and loudly rebuked him for his action motivated by political ambition.
The painting dramatizes the nobility of Catherine of Aragon. She holds her skirt as if she has just risen from kneeling and is preparing to leave after she finishes confronting those from church and state who would declare her marriage of twenty-four years to Henry VIII void—namely, Cardinal Wolsey (standing at the table) and the pope’s emissary, Cardinal Lorenzo Campeggio (seated).
Catherine, the youngest daughter of King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella of Spain, had married Arthur, heir to England’s throne, when she was fifteen. Four months later she was a widow. When she married the next heir to the throne, Henry, she was twenty-three, he only eighteen. Her primary duty as queen, to produce a male heir, was tragically unsuccessful; although she bore six children, none except Mary lived longer than a few months.
Henry argued that the marriage was null since he had violated church law by marrying his brother’s widow, although the pope had granted approval for the marriage. Now desperate for a male heir and enamored with the young Anne Boleyn, the king pressured Wolsey and Campeggio to convince Catherine to agree to their demands. After her refusal, Henry took matters into his own hands and declared himself, not the pope, head of the Church in England, annulled the marriage, and married Anne (who only produced a daughter—Elizabeth). Of course, Henry in pursuit of a male heir found reasons to escape his marriage to Anne, then Jane Seymour, and three subsequent wives.
Erin R. Jones, Executive Director
Sources:
Johnson, Jane. Works Exhibited at the Royal Academy of British Artists 1824-1893 and the New English Art Club 1888-1917w: An Antique Collectors’ Club Research Project. 1974
Erskine, Clara and Hutton, Laurence. Artists of the Nineteenth Century and Their Works. A Handbook Containing Two Thousand and Fifty Biographical Sketches. Boston, 1875
Graves, Algernon. A Dictionary of Artists Who Have Exhibited Works in the Principal London Exhibitions of Oil Paintings from 1760 to 1880. 1884.
Published 2025
St. Anthony of Padua
Oil on Canvas, 1658
Giovanni Francesco Barbieri, called Il Guercino
Cento, 1591–1666
Long before social media, opinions were influential. And, in art history, opinions have affected perspectives toward artists and their work for entire generations. One example of this is the brilliant philosopher of the Victorian era, John Ruskin, who was an art critic that championed JMW Turner, Britain’s greatest landscape painter. Ruskin preferred and praised the contemporary artists of his day such as Turner and the Pre-Raphaelites, the art prior to Raphael, and the Gothic style.
In contrast, Ruskin’s opinion about the Italian Baroque period can essentially be summed up by his reaction to one painting in the Brera Gallery in Milan by Guercino, “partly despicable, partly disgusting, partly ridiculous” (Ruskin, p.203). He classified many of the great seventeenth-century painters within what he labeled “the School of Errors and Vices” (Ruskin, pp.144-45). Such strong views influenced the collecting habits of collectors and museums in Europe and America for several decades. Consequently, Baroque artists are still recovering from the stigma; their names are not as well-known as the Renaissance masters even though their skill is of equal quality.
Giovanni Francesco Barbieri, called Il Guercino was one of the most important and talented painters of the Italian Baroque period. He hails from the region of Emilia-Romagna, born in the small town of Cento, which is close in proximity to the artistic centers in Ferrara and Bologna. He was largely self-taught (influenced by works of Ludovico Carracci and Caravaggio), although he studied with local artists Paolo Zagnani and Benedetto Gennari.
Guercino’s nickname means squint-eyed or cross-eyed possibly due to an eye condition, yet this disability didn’t seem to affect his work. Ludovico Carracci praised him in Bologna, and his “genius was recognized by the Bolognese canon Padre Antonio Mirandola, who became his earliest protector and obtained the artist’s first Bolognese commission in 1613” which established his career. “He was then patronized by the papal legate to Ferrara, Cardinal Jacopo Serra,” Duke of Mantua Ferdinando Gonzaga, and the Bolognese cardinal Alessandro Ludovisi, who later become Pope Gregory XV— summoning Guercino to Rome in 1621 (de Grazia, p.157).
Guercino study of St. Anthony of Padua from Glasgow Museums
Following the pope’s death in 1623, Guercino returned home to Cento to work, painting a wide range of subjects and drawing countless distinctive studies in red chalk and ink. As an artist, he was truly inventive, a real creative. He would put his ideas to paper very quickly and spontaneously—something his biographer Malvasia described as guizzanti, meaning “dart with a flick of a tail, as fishes” (Brooks, p.12).
Among other requests, he was asked to become official painter to the courts of England (1626) and France (1629 and 1639). After the death of his archrival Guido Reni in 1642 he moved his studio to Bologna. By the 1650s, his European patronage had tapered to more local commissions, which is when M&G’s painting was made.
St. Anthony of Padua features the thirteenth-century Doctor of the Church, who was born in Lisbon. He joined the Franciscan Order (represented by the dark brown robe and tonsure haircut) and became a close friend and follower of Francis of Assisi. He had a vast knowledge of scripture and was a gifted preacher, serving in France and Italy including Bologna and Padua, where he died. After his death, he was made the patron saint of Padua.
In art, Anthony is depicted in various scenes describing events from his life. M&G’s subject is the vision of the Virgin and infant Christ—a common theme during the Counter Reformation. The vision came while Anthony was in his room, and he is portrayed with a book (which identifies his learning), lilies (representing his purity), and a crucifix (in the shadows above the lilies).
At the time of acquisition in 1973, M&G’s founder knew that this painting was referenced in the artist’s account books—it was one of two St. Anthony altarpieces recorded. The great Guercino and Baroque specialist, Sir Denis Mahon wrote Dr. Bob, “I have no doubt whatsoever from studying the painting itself that it is an authentic late work by Guercino…. It was the lower half of a picture which had been very much bigger…. It follows that the picture is likely to have originally been a full-size altarpiece” (M&G files).
In the 1990s, Richard Townsend found that of the two St. Anthony altarpieces referenced in Guercino’s account books, one was still in Verona and the other cut in two and sold. This work remained a mystery, until recent years when Italian art historian Enrico Ghetti pieced together the history based on the confusing details in Guercino’s Book of Accounts and Malvasia’s biography. M&G’s painting was once called the Madonna and Child with Saint Anthony of Padua and paid for in 1658 by Pier Luigi Peccana (from Verona) most likely on behalf of the Marquis Gaspare Gherardini. The altarpiece used to hang in the Chapel of Saint Antony at the Capuchin church of Verona.
Ghetti Reconstruction
Ghetti suggested the painting, Madonna with Child, which was formerly in the Sgarbi collection in Italy is most likely the upper portion of our work; he has proposed a reconstruction of the dismembered altarpiece as seen here.
M&G’s painting reveals some of the standard matters art historians encounter regularly: the influence of art critics like John Ruskin, the connoisseurship of art specialists like Sir Denis Mahon, dismembered altarpieces, and confusing primary records for art scholars like Enrico Ghetti to ferret out. More importantly, this interesting work represents one of the most notable and innovative Italian painters of the seventeenth century.
Erin R. Jones, Executive Director
Bibliography
Brooks, Julian. “Characterizing Guercino’s Draftsmanship.” Guercino: Mind to Paper. Getty Publications: Los Angeles, 2006.
De Grazia, Diane. “Giovanni Francesco Barbieri, Called Il Guercino.” Italian Paintings of the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries: The Collections of the National Gallery of Art Systematic Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington: New York, 1996.
Ghetti, Enrico. 2020. “La ricostruzione di una pala del Guercino: la Madonna col Bambino e sant’Antonio d Padova per i Cappuccini di Verona,” Storia dell’ Arte 153, Nuova Serie 1.
Ruskin, John. Modern Painters (vol. ii), ed. Edward T. Cook and Alexander Wedderburn. George Allen: London, 1903.
Ruskin, John. Ruskin in Italy: Letters to His Parents, 1845, ed Harold I. Shapiro. Clarendon Press: Oxford, 1972.
Published 2025
Victorian artist, Eyre Crowe does a masterful job of recreating that moment in the town of Wittenberg, Germany that set in motion the Protestant Reformation.
