(Lucca 1682–1752)
The Adoration of the Shepherds,
oil on canvas, 151.5 x 114 cm, framed

Provenance:
possibly collection of Cardinal Orazio Filippo Spada (1659–1724), Lucca (a monogram O.F.S. on the stretcher and back of the frame), 1716;
possibly thence by descent;
Private European collection

Documented:
possibly Nota di quadri esistenti in casa dello spet.le Luigi Spada ricavata da una nota originale del Card: Orazio Filippo Spada che dice così 1716 Inventario di quadri di autori diversi appartenenti al Card.le Orazio Filippo Spada lasciati da esso in Lucca nelle mani dei suoi Sigg:ri Fratelli Ab:e Bartol:o, e Gio: Batt.a Spada, 1716, no. 79: ‘Una natività del Sig:re del Lombardi con molte figurine’ (see P. Betti, Giovan Domenico Lombardi e gli Spada tra Lucca e Osimo, in: Predella journal of visual arts, vol. 34, 2014, p. 64)

Literature:
A. Crispo, Itinerari di Giovanni Domenico Lombardi tra Lucca, Roma e il settentrione, in: Nuovi Studi. Rivista di Arte antica e moderna, vol. 10, 2004, p. 221, no. 241 (as Giovanni Domenico Lombardi)

The painter Giovanni Domenico Lombardi, called l’Omino, is an only recently rediscovered artist. Apprenticed to Andrea Marracci in Lucca, it is likely that made a formative journey to Emilia where, it is thought, he came under the influence of the works of Giovanni Francesco Barbieri, il Guercino and Guido Reni. It is also likely that he was also aware of the work of Giovanni Lanfranco.

During the early years of the eighteenth century the artist probably spent some time in Venice where he would have been able to study the great classics of the sixteenth century (above all Veronese, Titian and Tintoretto) and to see the works of Sebastiano Ricci and the first productions of Giovanni Battista Piazzetta as well as Giovanni Battista Pittoni. The Adoration of the Magi from the church of San Nicolao, Lucca, now in Villa Guinigi, is witness to this moment, specifically referencing the works of Paolo Veronese.

It is possible that l’Omino also lived and worked in Rome, as is suggested by the existence on the art market of various paintings representing still lifes with putti, in which the passages depicting fruit are the work of Spadino while the figures can be attributed to Lombardi. It is thought that Spadino never left Rome, so it is likely that it was his colleague from Lucca, Giovanni Domenico Lombardi, who joined him in the Eternal City.

From 1706, the year he was married, Giovanni Domenico Lombardi is again documented in Lucca, where he dedicated himself both to sacred and genre painting, producing works inspired by the Caravaggist tradition, including scenes of gallantry, soldiers, gamers, concert scenes and allegories of the arts and senses. In this genre the artist took particular inspiration from the works of Pietro Paolini, who was also a native of Lucca, achieving such close similarity as to mislead scholars into attributing l’Omino’s works to Paolini.

The present Adoration of the Shepherds fits into Lombardi’s production of Venetian inspiration, mentioned above: here his primary point of reference are the compositions of Jacopo Bassano. This is apparent in the architectural setting of the scene within a classically inspired building in ruin, and by the rendering of the sky and the landscape beyond. In addition, the choice of pallette and the pose of the figures, and especially that of the shepherd in the foreground with his back turned to the viewer, is reminiscent of a recurrent motif in the paintings of the Bassano.

The powerful Spada family were among l’Omino’s principal patrons, and especially Orazio Filippo Spada (1659–1724) who was Archbishop of Lucca and then of Osimo. In an inventory of works belonging to the cardinal drawn up in 1716 there are several paintings by the artist among which was ‘una natività del Signore del Lombardi con molte figurine’ [‘a nativity of Our Lord by Lombardi with many figures’] (P. Betti, Giovan Domenico Lombardi e gli Spada tra Lucca e Osimo, in: Predella journal of visual arts, no. 34, 2014, p. 64). The presence of the initials ‘O.F.S’ inscribed with the brush on the stretcher and the back of the frame of the present painting, suggest that this work may be identified with that described in the inventory of 1716.