(Bologna 1529–1592)
Saint Bartholomew,
oil on canvas, 143 x 80 cm, framed

Provenance:
sale, Porro, Milan, 12 May 2005, lot 9 (as Bartolomeo Passerotti); 
Private collection, Turin

Literature:
F. Biferali, Una ‘inesorabile esattezza di osservazione’. Un inedito ‘San Bartolomeo’ del Passarotti, in: Notizie da Palazzo Albani, XXXVI-XXXVII, 2007-2008, pp. 79-87

The present painting represents Saint Bartholomew standing full length and dressed in antique-style robes; in his left hand he holds his traditional attribute of a flaying knife, an allusion to his martyrdom, and in his right hand he holds a book. Its palette, registering cool metallic tones is a typical work of Bartolomeo Passerotti and owes it inheritance to the Tuscan-Roman school while its carefully studied anatomy and the sculptural tension that energises the figure of the saint derive from Michelangelo.

Saint Bartholomew appears to be advancing towards the spectator, with his head slightly inclined as if almost inviting the viewer into the sacred space. These details in the saint’s representation recall other works by Passerotti such as the Crucifixion between Saint Paul, Saint Francis and Donors in the Collezioni Comunali d’Arte di Bologna, as well as the painting of Saint Anthony of Padua in the church of Santa Caterina dei Cappuccini in Parma. This last work is datable to the 1570s and which, according to Biferali (see literature), was created in same period as the present painting. He has also drawn attention to the similarities between the present picture and the preparatory study for the composition of the saint which is conserved in the École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts, Paris (inv. no. 2372; see A. Ghirardi, Bartolomeo Passerotti pittore (1529-1592), Rimini 1990, pp. 230-231). In particular, he points out similarities in the rendering of the saint’s thick locks of hair and the folds of his mantle.

Passerotti had already represented the figure of Saint Bartholomew in an etching after a drawing by Taddeo Zuccari (see op. cit. Ghirardi, 1990, p. 30), which he probably made during his early formative sojourn in Rome in the 1550s. The saint is comparable to the figure in the present painting due to the sculptural quality of the figure, his all’ antica dress and the way in which he holds the knife.

Bartolomeo Passerotti spent most of his career in Bologna where he was widely celebrated for his abilities as a portraitist. His religious work was aligned with Mannerist principles and his interpretation adhered to the doctrine of the Council of Trent. In 1566 one of the most fervid supporters of Tridentine doctrine in relation to the figurative arts, Gabriele Paleotti, was appointed Bishop of Bologna. In his Discorso intorno alle immagini sacre et profane he stated, among other things, that painting should respond to the canon of realism, simplicity and iconographic clarity and that it should command intense colour – all qualities that are to be found in Passerotti’s oeuvre, including in the present picture.