(Rome 1691–1758) The prayer of the Holy Father, Gregory the Great, oil on canvas, 184 x 115 cm, framed

We are grateful to Prof Erich Schleier, Berlin, and Prof Daniele Benati, Bologna, for their assistance in cataloguing this painting, as well as to Prof Giancarlo Sestieri, Rome, who has identified it as the work of Agostino Masucci (letter dated July 2009). Agostino Masucci is one of the last great exponents of the school of Roman-Bolognese classicism in the tradition of Carracci, reaching a late and impressive flowering in his style. Trained at first in the workshop of Andrea Procaccino, he was active in his early years in the flourishing workshop of Carlo Maratta. Since he had already proven to be an overt classicist conscious of tradition, who strived in his work towards the ‘idea del bello’ of Bellori, the Accademia di S. Luca, which had admitted him in 1726, elected him as its ‘Principe’ in 1736. He was on friendly terms with Filippo Juvara and Luigi Vanvitelli and through them he came into contact with the court in Turin, for which he painted several cycles of history paintings and altarpieces. These commissions brought him to the notice of King Joaos V of Portugal, for whom he produced several altar paintings, including the main altar in the Cathedral at Evora and the preparatory drawings for the mosaic panels in the Igreja de Sao Roque in Lisbon, which for a long time was the most opulent and most expensive chapel in Europe. These commissions secured his reputation among the European aristocracy. He produced a much-admired copy of Reni’s ‘Aurora’ for the Duke of Northumberland in 1754. However, Masucci primarily specialised in the decoration of Roman chapels, for which he made numerous altar paintings. It is within this context that the present painting should be placed. Masucci based this work on a lost altarpiece by Annibale Carracci, which was in one of the chapels in San Gregorio al Celio, before being sold to the Earl of Ellesmore and being lost in a fire in 1942 at Bridgewater House in London. Gregory the Great is depicted with an impressive frontality. The viewer is thus directly confronted as a witness with the transcendental experience of an early medieval prince of the church. Masucci’s style is above all based on his treatment of physiognomy and changes to the composition, while in other respects it can be seen to be oriented towards his great precedent, feted at the time of its creation. Since many preparatory drawings were made for the original commission, it was supposed that this painting was a workshop study by Carracci. The present painting is, however, an independent work by Masucci, who taught Stefano Pozzi, Pompeo Batoni and Johann Zoffany, and is a lovely example of the continuance of Roman classicism in the work of its last important exponent.