(Milan 1623–1683)
Figures by a ruined temple with Pythagoras appearing from the cavern,
oil on canvas, 61.5 x 81.5 cm, framed

Provenance:
possibly collection of Pope Alexander VIII Ottoboni, Rome;
Cardinal Pietro Ottoboni (1667-1740), Palazzo della Cancelleria, Rome;
thence by descent, Palazzo Fiano, Rome;
Almagià collection, Palazzo Fiano-Almagià, Rome;
thence by descent to the present owner

Documentation:
Inventory of Cardinal Pietro Ottoboni, 1740, Rome, Archivio di Stato, De Caesaris Angelus Antoninus, Notai del tribunale dell’A.C uff 3 anno 1731-1747, prot. 1838: ‘Altri due da quattro p.mi scarsi per traverso rapp.ti Prospettive con figure, e cornice modello di Salvator Rosa dorato originale del Gisolfi stimato scudo ottanta’ (see Marshall in literature);
Almagià Archive, m.s. catalogue, circa 1937, no. 10: ‘Fiano no. 52’ as anonymous (see Spear in literature)

Literature:
R. E. Spear, Renaissance and Baroque Paintings from the Sciarra and Fiano Collections, Rome 1972, p. 52, no. 24 (as Giovanni Ghisolfi);
A. Busiri Vici, Andrea Locatelli e il paesaggio romano del settecento, Rome 1976, p. 23 and p. 27, fig. 27 (as Giovanni Ghisolfi);
L. Salerno, Pittori di paesaggio del Seicento a Roma, Rome 1976, vol. II, p. 680 (as Giovanni Ghisolfi);
L. Salerno, Pittori di paesaggio del Seicento a Roma / Landscape painters of the seventeenth century in Rome, Rome 1977-78, vol. II, p. 680 (as Giovanni Ghisolfi);
F. Arisi, Gian Paolo Panini e i fasti della Roma del ‘700, Rome 1986, p. 238, no. 43 (as Gian Paolo Panini);
A. Busiri Vici d’Arcevia, Giovanni Ghisolfi (1623-1683). Un pittore milanese di rovine romane, ed. by F. Cosmelli, Rome 1992, pp. 26-28 and p. 80, no. 33 (as Giovanni Ghisolfi);
D. Marshall, Early Panini Reconsidered: The Esztergom Preaching of an Apostle and the Relationship between Panini and Ghisolfi, in: Artibus et Historiae, 36, 1997, pp. 141-145 (as Giovanni Ghisolfi);
G. Sestieri, Il Capriccio architettonico in Italia nel XVII e XVIII secolo, Rome 2015, vol. II, p. 150, no. 46a (as Giovanni Ghisolfi)

The present painting is registered in the Fototeca Zeri (no. 51567) as Giovanni Ghisolfi.

This painting’s provenance leads back to the prestigious collection of the Ottoboni family, who until the close of the nineteenth century were the Dukes of Fiano. David Marshall has demonstrated that the painting belonged to the collection of Cardinal Pietro Ottoboni, Pope Alexander VIII’s grand-nephew (see literature). Paintings by Ghisolfi, whose measurements correspond to those of the present painting, are mentioned in several inventories and documents of Cardinal’s possessions (see Marshall in literature and E. J. Olszewski, The Inventory of Paintings of Cardinal Pietro Ottoboni [1667–1740], New York 2004).

Marshall has suggested that the painting was previously in the collection of Pope Alexander VIII, and entered it ‘between 1673 and 1690, perhaps in Ghisolfi’s lifetime’ (see op. cit. Marshall, 1997, p. 143). Following Cardinal Pietro Ottoboni’s death, the estate was inherited by Maria Boncompagni Ludovisi, Duchess of Fiano, widow of Marco Ottoboni. Her husband acquired in 1690 the present Palazzo Fiano, in Via del Corso, where the Cardinal’s paintings were moved after his death from Palazzo della Cancelleria and where the family collection would have been displayed during the 18th and 19th century.
In 1898 Palazzo Fiano was sold, along with all its contents, to Edoardo Almagià (see op. cit. Spear, 1972, pp. 8-9). Indeed, as reported by Spear, the present painting was included, without an attribution, in the manuscript inventory of the Almagià collection, compiled in the 1930s: here it is numbered “10”, and indeed the painting bears a corresponding tag on the back of the canvas. In this manuscript inventory, reference is also made to a second number, ‘Fiano 52’, which presumably corresponds with an earlier, untraced, inventory compiled by the Ottoboni-Fiano family. The present painting is the pendant to another canvas, also formerly in the Almagià collection, which represents Ancient ruins with the parable of the fish (see literature).

The attribution to Ghisolfi was first advanced by Spear, and it has been well received by art historians since, with the exception of Ferdinando Arisi, who while recognising its dependence on the style of Ghisolfi, believed it to be an early work by Giovanni Paolo Panini. Indeed, the latter artist was profoundly influenced by Giovanni Ghisolfi’s approach to the practice of depicting ruins, which made him one of the genre’s leading exponents during the eighteenth century. Moreover, Panini employed the composition of the present painting’s pendant to create his own work that is now in the Nelson-Atkins Museum in Kansas City, for which he also prepared a preparatory study that is notably very close to the work by Ghisolfi (see op. cit., Spear, 1972, p. 50).

The present painting is an example of Giovanni Ghisolfi’s softest and freest style of painting, which owes significant debts to the influence of Salvator Rosa, with whom the Milanese painter formed a close friendship during his Roman sojourn during the 1650s. Spear has tentatively dated the present work to these years and then in his monograph on the artist (see literature) Busiri Vici confirmed this chronology.

Represented on the left of the present painting are the ruins of an ancient temple which correspond to those of the Temple of Saturn when it existed in the Roman Forum. Meanwhile, Busiri Vici has identified that the foreground scene depicts Pythagoras appearing from the Cavern. Ghisolfi treated this subject on two other occasions: one version is in the Galleria Sabauda, Turin, and the other was formerly in a private collection in Rome (see op. cit. Busiri Vici, 1992, p. 69, no. 25 and p. 82, no. 35). It is additionally significant that Salvator Rosa also treated this subject, as he himself recounts in a letter from 1662 in which he asserts that he has made a canvas representing Pythagoras, who ‘dopo essere stato un anno in una sotterranea abitazione, alla fine d’esso, aspettato dalla sua setta, così d’huomini come di donne, uscì fuori’ [‘after having spent a year living underground, the time passed, his followers, both men and women, gathered to wait for him at his re-emergence’] (see op. cit. Busiri Vici, 1992, p. 28).

Provenance:
possibly collection of Pope Alexander VIII Ottoboni, Rome;
Cardinal Pietro Ottoboni (1667-1740), Palazzo della Cancelleria, Rome;
thence by descent, Palazzo Fiano, Rome;
Almagià collection, Palazzo Fiano-Almagià, Rome;
thence by descent to the present owner

Documentation:
Inventory of Cardinal Pietro Ottoboni, 1740, Rome, Archivio di Stato, De Caesaris Angelus Antoninus, Notai del tribunale dell’A.C uff 3 anno 1731-1747, prot. 1838: ‘Altri due da quattro p.mi scarsi per traverso rapp.ti Prospettive con figure, e cornice modello di Salvator Rosa dorato originale del Gisolfi stimato scudo ottanta’ (see Marshall in literature);
Almagià Archive, m.s. catalogue, circa 1937, no. 10: ‘Fiano no. 52’ as anonymous (see Spear in literature)

Literature:
R. E. Spear, Renaissance and Baroque Paintings from the Sciarra and Fiano Collections, Rome 1972, p. 52, no. 24 (as Giovanni Ghisolfi);
A. Busiri Vici, Andrea Locatelli e il paesaggio romano del settecento, Rome 1976, p. 23 and p. 27, fig. 27 (as Giovanni Ghisolfi);
L. Salerno, Pittori di paesaggio del Seicento a Roma, Rome 1976, vol. II, p. 680 (as Giovanni Ghisolfi);
L. Salerno, Pittori di paesaggio del Seicento a Roma / Landscape painters of the seventeenth century in Rome, Rome 1977-78, vol. II, p. 680 (as Giovanni Ghisolfi);
F. Arisi, Gian Paolo Panini e i fasti della Roma del ‘700, Rome 1986, p. 238, no. 43 (as Gian Paolo Panini);
A. Busiri Vici d’Arcevia, Giovanni Ghisolfi (1623-1683). Un pittore milanese di rovine romane, ed. by F. Cosmelli, Rome 1992, pp. 26-28 and p. 80, no. 33 (as Giovanni Ghisolfi);
D. Marshall, Early Panini Reconsidered: The Esztergom Preaching of an Apostle and the Relationship between Panini and Ghisolfi, in: Artibus et Historiae, 36, 1997, pp. 141-145 (as Giovanni Ghisolfi);
G. Sestieri, Il Capriccio architettonico in Italia nel XVII e XVIII secolo, Rome 2015, vol. II, p. 150, no. 46a (as Giovanni Ghisolfi)

The present painting is registered in the Fototeca Zeri (no. 51567) as Giovanni Ghisolfi.

This painting’s provenance leads back to the prestigious collection of the Ottoboni family, who until the close of the nineteenth century were the Dukes of Fiano. David Marshall has demonstrated that the painting belonged to the collection of Cardinal Pietro Ottoboni, Pope Alexander VIII’s grand-nephew (see literature). Paintings by Ghisolfi, whose measurements correspond to those of the present painting, are mentioned in several inventories and documents of Cardinal’s possessions (see Marshall in literature and E. J. Olszewski, The Inventory of Paintings of Cardinal Pietro Ottoboni [1667–1740], New York 2004).

Marshall has suggested that the painting was previously in the collection of Pope Alexander VIII, and entered it ‘between 1673 and 1690, perhaps in Ghisolfi’s lifetime’ (see op. cit. Marshall, 1997, p. 143). Following Cardinal Pietro Ottoboni’s death, the estate was inherited by Maria Boncompagni Ludovisi, Duchess of Fiano, widow of Marco Ottoboni. Her husband acquired in 1690 the present Palazzo Fiano, in Via del Corso, where the Cardinal’s paintings were moved after his death from Palazzo della Cancelleria and where the family collection would have been displayed during the 18th and 19th century.
In 1898 Palazzo Fiano was sold, along with all its contents, to Edoardo Almagià (see op. cit. Spear, 1972, pp. 8-9). Indeed, as reported by Spear, the present painting was included, without an attribution, in the manuscript inventory of the Almagià collection, compiled in the 1930s: here it is numbered “10”, and indeed the painting bears a corresponding tag on the back of the canvas. In this manuscript inventory, reference is also made to a second number, ‘Fiano 52’, which presumably corresponds with an earlier, untraced, inventory compiled by the Ottoboni-Fiano family. The present painting is the pendant to another canvas, also formerly in the Almagià collection, which represents Ancient ruins with the parable of the fish (see literature).

The attribution to Ghisolfi was first advanced by Spear, and it has been well received by art historians since, with the exception of Ferdinando Arisi, who while recognising its dependence on the style of Ghisolfi, believed it to be an early work by Giovanni Paolo Panini. Indeed, the latter artist was profoundly influenced by Giovanni Ghisolfi’s approach to the practice of depicting ruins, which made him one of the genre’s leading exponents during the seventeenth century. Moreover, Panini employed the composition of the present painting’s pendant to create his own work that is now in the Nelson-Atkins Museum in Kansas City, for which he also prepared a preparatory study that is notably very close to the work by Ghisolfi (see op. cit., Spear, 1972, p. 50).

The present painting is an example of Giovanni Ghisolfi’s softest and freest style of painting, which owes significant debts to the influence of Salvator Rosa, with whom the Milanese painter formed a close friendship during his Roman sojourn during the 1650s. Spear has tentatively dated the present work to these years and then in his monograph on the artist (see literature) Busiri Vici confirmed this chronology.

Represented on the left of the present painting are the ruins of an ancient temple which correspond to those of the Temple of Saturn when it existed in the Roman Forum. Meanwhile, Busiri Vici has identified that the foreground scene depicts Pythagoras appearing from the Cavern. Ghisolfi treated this subject on two other occasions: one version is in the Galleria Sabauda, Turin, and the other was formerly in a private collection in Rome (see op. cit. Busiri Vici, 1992, p. 69, no. 25 and p. 82, no. 35). It is additionally significant that Salvator Rosa also treated this subject, as he himself recounts in a letter from 1662 in which he asserts that he has made a canvas representing Pythagoras, who ‘dopo essere stato un anno in una sotterranea abitazione, alla fine d’esso, aspettato dalla sua setta, così d’huomini come di donne, uscì fuori’ [‘after having spent a year living underground, the time passed, his followers, both men and women, gathered to wait for him at his re-emergence’] (see op. cit. Busiri Vici, 1992, p. 28).