(Brescia 1480 ca. – post 1548)
A Couple, Gli amanti,
oil on canvas, 55 x 53 cm, framed

Inventory number 476, lower right.

Provenance:
probably Prince Maffeo Barberini , Rome (circa 1672);
Dr. Giovanni Rasini collection, Milan (1939);
European private collection

Exhibition:
Brescia, La Pittura bresciana del Rinascimento, May – September 1939, No. 164 (as Savoldo?)

Literature:
W. Suida, “Giovanni Girolamo Savoldo”, in Pantheon, XIX, 1937, pp. 48-56, p. 55, ill.(as Savoldo);
La Pittura Bresciana del Rinascimento, Exhibition catalogue, May–September 1939, p. 310, no. 164 (as Savoldo?);
A. Boschetto, Giovan Gerolamo Savoldo, Milano 1963, p. 226 (as tentatively attributed to Paris Bordone);
C. E. Gilbert., The works of Girolamo Savoldo. The 1955 dissertation, with a Review of Research, 1955-85, New York-London 1986, pp. 476-477 (as anonymous painter active around 1600);
M. Aronberg Lavin, Seventeenth-Century Barberini Documents and Inventories of Art, New York 1975, p. 370 (The inventory from the collection of Prince Maffeo Barberini, 1672: “Un quadro di un giovane con la Beretta Rossa in Capo con una Giovanetta a conto Quadrato p. ogni verso di due Palmi con Cornicetta liscia dorata mano di______”)
E. M. Dal Pozzolo, Il fantasma di Giorgione, Stregonerie pittoriche di Pietro della Vecchia nella Venezia falsofila del ‘600, Treviso 2011, p. 68, fig. 62 (as Pietro della Vecchia)

The present painting has a complex critical history. It was attributed to Giovanni Girolamo Savoldo by Antonio Morassi in around 1930, whilst it was in the collection of Giovanni Rasini (see provenance). This attribution was later endorsed by Wilhelm Suida, who published it in 1937, placing it in the late period of the artist´s work. A tentative attribution to Paris Bordone was suggested by Antonio Boschetto in 1963, and Creighton Gilbert considered it to be by an anonymous artist active around 1600, inspired by the manner of Giorgione and Dosso Dossi (see literature).

Mauro Lucco has suggested an alternative attribution for the present painting to Giovanni Cariani, with later adaptations by Pietro Muttoni, Pietro della Vecchia (written communication in photocopy). According to Lucco, the painting, particularly the face of the woman, can be stylistically associated with works by Giovanni Cariani, such as Saint Apollonia in the altarpiece of Saint Gotthard, Pinacoteca di Brera, Milan, or the Portrait of a young Lady, Accademia Carrara, Bergamo. This hypothesis is based on the analysis of an X-ray image (see ill.) that gives evidence of a different original composition, with the man in a frontal position. According to Lucco, the painting could have been restored and modified around 1674 by Pietro della Vecchia, when The Lovers was probably in the collection of Prince Maffeo Barberini. Della Vecchia was renowned for his ability to imitate the style of 16th Century masters.

Piervirgilio Bagni Redona has suggested an attribution to Giovanni Girolamo Savoldo, circa 1525 (written communication in photocopy).

additional picture:
X-ray (detail)