(Porto Maurizio 1644–1726 Genoa)
Caritas Romana,
oil on canvas, 184 x 246 cm, unframed

Provenance:
possibly collection of Marchese Giuseppe Maria Durazzo (1685–1770), Genoa;
Private collection, Turin;
acquired by the present owner in the 1970s

We are grateful to Anna Orlando for suggesting the attribution for the present painting and for her help in cataloguing the present lot.

This present canvas represents the episode of Roman Charity recounted in the Factorum et dictorum memorabilium libri IX of the Roman historian Valerius Maximus. According to this story, the old man Cimon was imprisoned and condemned to death by starvation, but was secretly fed by his daughter Pero who managed to keep him alive until she could convince the guards, who were moved by pity, to free him. Included by Giovanni Boccaccio in his Decameron in the 14th century, the story attained renewed popularity in the seventeenth century, in part thanks to the altarpiece created by Caravaggio depicting the Seven works of Charity for the Pio Monte della Misericodia, Naples (1606–1607) which included this subject.

Gregorio de Ferrari’s style is characterised, both in his works on canvas and in fresco, by a freedom of form and pallette which demonstrates that he was the first great exponent of Genoese Rococo. In the present Roman Charity, which belongs to the early years of de Ferrari’s activity, the figures of Cimon and Pero are extremely elongated, which suggests that the painting may have been devised by the painter to be seen from below and therefore located on the upper part of a high wall. The pyramidal composition and the sinuous fall of the drapery, outlined with particularly dense coloured impasto, further contribute to the construction of this bold spatial composition.

It may be possible to identify the present painting as the one documented in 1719 in the collection of the Genoese nobleman, Giuseppe Maria Durazzo (1685–1770). In the inventory of furnishings of the Villa di San Bartolomeo degli Armeni, a ‘Roman Charity by Gregorio de Ferrari’ is listed – a version of this subject exists, albeit of smaller dimensions, which has hitherto been assumed to be the work included in the inventory (M. Newcome Schleier, Gregorio de Ferrari, Turin 1998, cat. no. 73, pp. 95-96). However, its considerable value, of, as recorded in the inventory, 50 lira, suggests a decidedly more monumental painting, such as that presented here.

The young Gregorio de Ferrari arrived in Genoa to study law, but soon changed course deciding to dedicate himself to painting. He entered the studio of Domenico Fiasella called il Sarzana in 1664. Towards the close of the 1660s he made a journey to Parma where he studied and copied the works of Correggio. On his return to Genoa in 1671 the artist began a long and productive collaboration with Domenico Piola whose daughter he also married; alongside his father-in-law, Gregorio was active on the principal decorative projects of the era in Genoa, working both for churches and in noble palaces. Among the most substantial works executed by the two painters, staring in 1686, are the fresco decorations of the piano nobile of the palace of Giovanni Francesco I Brignole-Sale, now called Palazzo Rosso.