(Rome 1574–1616)
Christ among the doctors,
oil on canvas, 117.5 x 162.5 cm, framed

Provenance:
Private collection

We are grateful to Gianni Papi for suggesting the attribution and for his help in cataloguing the present painting.

Orazio Borgianni replicated this popular subject on various occasions throughout his career. Another version of Christ Amongst the Doctors probably belonged to Juan de Lezcano, secretary to the Conte de Castro, Viceroy of Naples. It was formerly in the Almagià collection and was sold recently at Sotheby’s London, 4th July 2012, lot 30 (see: G. Papi, Orazio Borgianni, Soncino 1993, pp. 117-118).

Several other versions of this subject have also been the subject of scholarly debate over their status as fully autograph works, autograph works made with the aid of assistants, or copies.

The present painting is a new, unpublished, version of Christ Amongst the Doctors. Its dimensions are considerably larger than those of the Lezcano-Almagià painting, which measures 78.2 x 104.6 cm. Over time it has suffered a little surface abrasion, leading it to appear a little worn in places. As a result of this, in Papi’s opinion, certain passages of the painting appear a little discordant, but it is possible that this is due to the presence, alongside Orazio, of an assistant who may have completed the work.

Whilst remaining faithful to the composition and to the number of figures present in the prototype, the present version differs from it in many aspects: firstly in the decidedly larger scale of the figures owing to the greater size of the canvas, as well as in the altered colour of the clothes worn by the protagonists, most notably the scarlet tunic of Christ has been changed to purple in the new painting. The features of the surrounding figures and their spatial relationships are also altered. Small noses are made hooked (or vice-versa) and their apparent age (as in the doctor on the left) is changed.

The figure in the background leaning forward between the two doctors behind Christ is more clearly visible in the new version and is positioned higher, so that now his whole nose can be seen. The mantle that rests over the head of the doctor to the left wearing eyeglasses, is arranged differently in each painting and, in general, the fall of drapery in each painting shows subtle changes. The depiction of the faces and of the turbans (especially the two red ones with white bindings) of the doctors behind Christ, and of the figure on the right, are of a high quality. This would be even more evident, were it not for the surface abrasions mentioned above. According to Papi this quality clearly reveals the direct intervention of Borgianni; the delicacy of the colouring and the soft lighting are typical of his work. In other parts of the painting the pictorial force seems attenuated, and we might think of the intervention of a collaborator. Such is the case in the yellow mantle of the figure to the right, or in Christ’s tunic, while the overly bright white in the eye of Christ is more likely due to the loss of surface varnishes, which moreover are clearly visible in this passage and generally throughout the whole surface of the Sotheby’s painting.

The exceptionally large dimensions of the present painting, the largest of all the versions of this subject, make it hard to identify this with a Christ Amongst the Doctors cited in the documents.

Papi believes the present canvas should be dated to later than the Almagià canvas, to Borgianni’s last period.