(Camerano 1625–1713 Rome)
An Allegory of Vigilance,
oil on panel, 51.5 x 26.5 cm, unframed

Inscribed on the reverse: Carlo · mara f.

Provenance:
probably Altieri family, Rome;
Private European collection

We are grateful to Francesco Petrucci for confirming the attribution of the present painting on the basis of a photograph.

The present painting was probably part of a boiserie and it was executed by Carlo Maratta during the time he was employed by the Altieri family in Rome, as is suggested by the eight-pointed stars in the corners of the panel, which are the heraldic emblem of the family. During the pontificate of Clement X Altieri (1670–76) the family palace in Piazza del Gesù, Rome, was enlarged and redecorated. Maratta was commissioned to decorate the palace between 1674 and 1677, but only the fresco that fills the long narrow central section of the vault of the Sala della Clemenza was executed. The parts of the vault that remained undecorated were intended to contain allegories of the cardinal virtues, of the continents and of the rivers (see W. Vitzthum, Drawings by Carlo Maratta for the Altieri Palace in Rome, in: The Burlington Magazine, 1963, pp. 365–369).

Maratta’s classicism represents the culmination of a long stylistic tradition, initiated by Raphael and reinvigorated by the expressive realism of Annibale Carracci, by the compositional clarity and drama of Domenichino and by the refinement of Andrea Sacchi. However, it is clear that in the present composition Maratta was already moving beyond his teacher, Sacchi, and was looking to his contemporaries: indeed, the rendering of the drapery for example, recalls the sculptures of Gian Lorenzo Bernini.