(Genoa circa 1635–1676 Venice)
A philosopher,
oil on canvas, 78 x 64 cm, framed

Provenance:
art market, UK;
Private European collection

We are grateful to Enrico Lucchese for confirming the attribution of the present painting.

The figure represented, seen half-length and in profile, is identifiable as a philosopher on account of the two large books before him. The naturalness of his gestures is striking, as well as the subject’s thoughtful expression, the artist’s attention to anatomical detail, the rendering of the red mantle that contrasts with the dark ground and the luminous lingering brushstrokes depicting the pages of the book. These elements reveal a pictorial quality typical of Langetti.

Although the chronology of Langetti’s career is poorly documented, a sure reference is supplied by two canvases from the church of Sant’Agostino, Padua, depicting Saint Peter and Saint Paul, executed in 1675. The present work has stylistic affinities with the Archimedes in Ludwigsburg Castle, Stuttgart, and with the Philosopher with an open book in the Narodowe Museum, Poznan, Poland (see M. Stefani Mantovanelli, Giovanni Battista Langetti. Il principe dei tenebrosi, Soncino 2011, p. 229, cat. no. 143 and p. 241, cat. no. 163).

Giovanni Battista Langetti’s earliest training occurred in his native city of Genoa while he completed his apprenticeship in Rome in the studio of Pietro da Cortona. He travelled to Naples where he came in contact with various painters influenced by Caravaggio, most notably Jusepe de Ribera. From the latter half of the 1650s he established himself definitively in Venice without loosing contact with his native Genoese ambient. Boschini described the painter as ‘a tenebrist and dark genius’ (see M. Boschini, La Carta del Navegar pitoresco, 1660, ed. by A. Pallucchini, Venice and Rome 1966, p. 577) on account of his painterly style, which drew him into association with other painters active in Venice at the time whose work is characterised by extreme naturalism and a dramatically violent deployment of light and shade.