(Florence 1622–1717 Rome)
Portrait of Cardinal Girolamo Buonvisi,
oil on canvas, 37.7 x 31 cm, framed

Provenance:
Anonymous Sale, Christie’s, London, 15 December 1978, lot 48 (as Giovanni Battista Gaulli, called il Baciccio);
Anonymous Sale, Sotheby’s, London, 3 July 1991, lot 198 (as Giovanni Battista Gaulli, called il Baciccio);
European private collection

Literature:
F. Petrucci, ‘Sull’attività ritrattistica di Giovanni Maria Morandi’, in: Labyrinthos. Ermeneutica delle arti figurative dal medioevo al novecento, 33/34,1998, pp. 131–174, p. 154, fig. 12;
F. Petrucci, Pittura di Ritratto a Roma. Il Seicento, vol. II, Rome 2008, p. 682, fig. 505

According to Francesco Petrucci, the present painting, which appeared on the art market in 1978 and again in 1991 with an attribution to Baccicio, is an important work by the Florentine artist Giovanni Maria Morandi (see literature). The comparison with a print by Testana engraved by De Rossi not only delivers confirmation of Morandi’s authorship, but also helps identify the sitter as Cardinal Girolamo Buonvisi (1657–1677). The intense expressivity make this painting an important document of Morandi’s Florentine training.

While the artist painted both large-sized altarpieces and small-sized paintings on copper, his was mainly a portraitist. Since Carlo Maratta, the leading portrait painter of the 1650s, was increasingly entrusted with larger commissions, the Chigi family, from whose members the pope was chosen since Alexander VII in 1655, also engaged other painters, including primarily Giovanni Maria Morandi.

Morandi’s treatment of the figures with his compact manner of painting and the emphasis of form clearly betrays his apprenticeship in Florence.
In both Florence and Bologna, an interest in naturalistic drawing had been rekindled in the early 17th century. It cannot be excluded that Morandi initially based his portraits on drawings. In Florence, Morandi was able to study works by Tiberio Titi and Sustermans.