Berenice, oil on canvas, 86.5 x 71 cm, framed

Provenance:
Private collection, Vienna

We are grateful to Professor Camillo Manzitti for confirming the attribution of the present painting on the basis of a digital photograph. Professor Manzitti has been unable to include the present work in his forthcoming monograph on Bernardo Strozzi, as his manuscript had already gone to print before he was aware of this painting.

The present work shows one of Strozzi’s favourite subjects, which he revisited on other occasions, including a version conserved in the Castello Sforzesco in Milan. There are further autograph variants are in Los Angeles, Munich, Bologna, El Paso, and Stuttgart. The Milan version has been dated to the period around 1615, due to its pronounced Flemish character. Camillo Manzitti considers the present painting to be a fully autograph replica of the composition in the Castello Sforzesco and dates it to Strozzi’s last years in Venice.

Bernardo Strozzi was one of the most important painters active in Genoa during the 17th Century. Starting out as a pupil and collaborator of Pietro Sorri, he entered the Capuchin order in 1598 and subsequently painted mainly devotional pictures. As well as being influenced by Sorri, Strozzi’s early works drew inspiration from Tuscan Mannerism and from Tuscan painters living in Genoa, such as Ventura Salimbeni and Aurelio Lomi. This is particularly evident in the elegant and rhythmic poses of his figures, and in his dynamic palette.

In the 1610s and 1620s Strozzi adopted a vivid naturalism under the impact of Caravaggio’s style, which had spread to Genoa via Domenico Fiasella. Simultaneously, he started to develop a more powerful manner of painting and began to use warmer colours. Strozzi also absorbed the stylistic influence of Rubens and other Flemish painters who had come to Genoa, which at that time was an important artistic centre with prominent patrons. Light and shadow played a crucial role in Strozzi’s oeuvre, since the artist increasingly employed contrasting light to define his painterly forms, together with a brushwork that was increasingly characterized by a strong use of impasto.

Around 1630, Bernardo Strozzi moved to Venice, where he, known as “Il prete Genovese” and acquired an important artistic reputation. His interest in Venetian art is reflected in his works from this period, and his familiarity with Veronese’s work encouraged him to choose more brilliant colours, while Rubens’ influence remained consistent. According to Manzitti, the present painting shows the typical characteristics of Strozzi‘s painting during this period.

Berenice was a Syrian Queen who lived in the third Century B.C. When her husband, the Egyptian King Ptolemy III, was drafted to join a military campaign to Syria, Berenice sacrificed a lock of her hair for the king’s safe return. This very moment is illustrated in the present picture. Legend has it that the lock mysteriously disappeared from the temple to reappear in the sky as the stellar constellation of Coma Berenices. Catullus and other poets praised Berenice as an example of martial devotion.