(Ostiano 1582–1622 Rome)
Ecce Homo,
oil on canvas, 98.5 x 73.5 cm, framed

Provenance:
Private European collection

Exhibited:
Campione, Galleria Civica San Zenone, L’impronta di Caravaggio, 7 July – 21 August 2011 (as Bartolomeo Manfredi)

Literature:
G. Papi, Bartolomeo Manfredi, Soncino 2013, pp. 128, 183-4, no. 48, pl. LXX (as Bartolomeo Manfredi)

The present painting has been dated by Gianni Papi to the late 1610s (see literature) and it can be compared with other paintings by Manfredi including the Ecce Homo, conserved in the Memphis Brooks Museum of Art, Memphis (inv. no. 89.12), and The Crowning of Thorns, in the Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence (see G. Papi, Bartolomeo Manfredi, Soncino 2013, cat. no. 36). When compared to the Memphis painting, Christ here appears to be older. In the Uffizi painting, Christ’s features and expression, as well as his crown of thorns, appear very similar to the those in the present painting. The polished flesh tones, the melancholic eyes, as well as the pale cheeks with highlights on the tip and side of the nose are typical elements of Manfredi’s works. The high quality of the present picture makes it a significant addition to Manfredi’s oeuvre.

This composition relates to another painting attributed by Stefano Causa to Battistello Caracciolo, although this attribution is subject to an ongoing debate by scholars (see S. Causa, Battistello, in: F. Bologna [ed.], Caracciolo e il primo naturalismo a Napoli, exhibition catalogue, Naples 1991, p. 187, fig. 7).

Bartolomeo Manfredi was one of the most significant followers of Caravaggio, whose realism and innovative compositions influenced numerous artists working in Rome during the seventeenth century. Manfredi is known for having developed what Joachim von Sandrart called, the ‘Manfrediana methodus’, a style which encompasses and revisits the works of Caravaggio.