Pietro Paolini

Exhibited by Maurizio Nobile Fine Art

Material Oil on canvas

Dimensions 97 x 74 cm

Place of Creation Italy

Price Price available upon inquiry

Status Vetted

About the Work

Rare painter, of "great eccentricity and noble invention" as defined by Filippo Baldinucci, Pietro Paolini is an artist who declined Caravaggio's lesson in a personal recipe of extremely high tenor, marked by the preciousness of the palette and the complexity of the depicted subjects; veritable puzzles that, implying multiple levels of interpretation, still challenge even the wittiest exegetes.

Such is the case with this fascinating, yet cryptic _Allegorical Portrait_. A woman, with her gaze fixed on the observer, firmly squeezing her breast with her right hand while holding with her left one a bird, perhaps a young pigeon? Is it about Lesbia? The woman unhappily loved by Catullus, celebrated by the poet and with whom, according to some authors, should be identified Clodia, sister of Publius Clodius Pulcher, rejected by Lucullus because of her excessively libertine customs, second wife of Quintus Caecilius Metellus Caelere.

Show moreless

Provenance

Bordeaux (FR), Briscadieu, 18 October 2003, lot no. 11 (attributed to Angelo Caroselli);
Milan (IT), Koelliker Collection, inv. LK1109 (as by Pietro Paolini).

Literature

F. PALIAGA in _Luce e ombra : caravaggismo e naturalismo nella pittura toscana del Seicento_, exhibition catalogue of Pontedera - Museo Piaggio (18 March - 12 June 2005) - edited by P. CAROFANO, Pisa 2005, n. 53, p. 168 (as Pietro Paolini);
G. PAPI in _La "schola" del Caravaggio : dipinti della Collezione Koelliker_, exhibition catalogue of Ariccia - Palazzo Chigi (13 October 2006 - 11 February 2007) - edited by G. PAPI, Milan 2006, n. 44, pp. 162-165 (as by Pietro Paolini);
G. PAPI in _I tesori nascosti. Tino di Camaino, Caravaggio, Gemito_, exhibition catalogue of Naples - Santa Maria Maggiore alla Pietrasanta (6 December 2016 - 28 May 2017) - edited by V. Sgarbi, Santarcangelo di Romagna 2016, n. 37, p. 112, rip. p. 213 (as by Pietro Paolini);
N. DE VERNEJOUL, _Paolini et Caroselli - Influences réciproques_ in "ArtItalies", n. 26, 2020, pp. 72-83, p. 77, rip. fig. n. 7 (as by Pietro Paolini);
M. ROSSETTI, _Angelo Caroselli maestro di Pietro Paolini a Roma : legami toscani, tracce inglesi e un aggiornamento al catalogo per il pittore romano_ in I_ pittori della luce : da Caravaggio a Paolini_, exhibition catalogue of Lucca - Cavallerizza (8 December - 2 October 2022) - edited by V. Sgarbi, Laurenzana 2022 (2nd ed.), pp. 116-131, cit. p. 122 (as by Paolini o Caroselli);
N. DE VERNEJOUL, _Pietro Paolini: un caravaggesco bizzarro_ in _I pittori della luce : da Caravaggio a Paolini_, exhition catalogue, Lucca - Cavallerizza (8 December 2021-2 October 2022) - edited by V. Sgarbi, Laurenzana 2021 (1a ed.), pp. 45-59, cit. p. 54, rip. p. 55 (as by Pietro Paolini);
N. DE VERNEJOUL, _Pietro Paolini : 1603-1681 : peintre caravagesque de l'étrange_, Paris 2024, P. 13, p. 183, ripr. pp. 40, 57 (with previous literatures).