The Mystic Marriage of Saint Catherine, oil on canvas, 112 x 99.2 cm, framed

Provenance:
Acqua Collection, Italy, 18th Century;
European private collection

We are grateful to Dr. Ursula Verena Fischer Pace for confirming the attribution after examining the present painting in the original (written communication).

Giacinto Gimignani, who studied with Pietro da Cortona, was primarily active in Rome, apart from a brief period in the 1650s spent in Florence. From the 1640s onwards, Gimignani displayed a classicist streak, almost purist in style, which, together with the use of brilliant colouring, characterized his work. His typical combinations of colour used in 1640s are visible in the present painting. The reduced dimensions of the canvas indicate its destination for private devotion. Fischer Pace has suggested that Gimignani also painted recordi of his larger paintings.

Two drawings related to the present composition exist. Fischer Pace refers to a study in a Spanish collection (Tudanca, Cantabria, Collezione Cossio; see E. Schaar, H. Hohl, Kupferstichkabinett, Erwerbungen von 1991 bis 1993, in: Im Blickfeld, Jahrbuch der Hamburger Kunsthalle, I, 1994, p. 258) and in particular to a Study of Saint Catherine (Hamburg, Hamburger Kunsthalle – Kupferstichkabinett, Inv. N. 1991–9) (see fig.1.) which is a typical example of artistic production of the 1640s. The present painting can be Gimignani compared to Gimignani’s altarpiece The Madonna of the Rosary (Prato Sesto, Church of San Bernardo da Mentone, see D. Trionfatrice. Arte di corte nel Piemonte del Seicento, edited by M. di Macco/G. Romano, Turin 1989, text 257, pp. 233/34), probably executed between 1646 and 1652. The present painting may also be compared to a canvas depicting Saint Catherine of Siena Receiving the Rosary from the Madonna (oil on canvas, 95.6 x 133.7 cm; Sotheby’s New York, 16 May 1996, lot 180).

The composition of the present painting was also the subject of an etching dedicated to the Dominican Raimondo Capizucchi and dated 1649.

We are grateful to Dr. Ursula Verena Fischer Pace for her assistance in cataloguing.