(Rome 1623–1694)
Angelica and Medoro; and
Rinaldo and Armida,
oil on copper, each 18.5 x 25.5 cm, framed, a pair (2)

Provenance:
Private European collection

We are grateful to Nicholas Turner for confirming the attribution on the basis of a photograph.

The episode depicting Angelica and Medoro is taken from the epic chivalric poem by Ludovico Ariosto published in 1516, Orlando Furioso (XIX, 17-42). Here the lovers are shown inscribing their names on the trunk of a tree, watched by two putti in the sky above. The discovery of their love was to set loose the rage of Orlando.

The second composition shows Rinaldo and Armida, protagonists of the epic poem Gerusalemme Liberata by Torquato Tasso (XVI, 17-35), a favourite subject among artists of the Baroque era. Here Rinaldo fixes his gaze on his love, catching his own glance in Armida’s eyes through her effigy reflected in the mirror he holds.

The atmosphere of silent enchantment within charmed gardens is the salient quality characterising these works by Filippo Lauri. They are fine examples of the painter’s small format work, reflecting the taste and tone of his idyllic cabinet paintings, which anticipate the art of the eighteenth century. As well as producing small scale cabinet paintings, Lauri also worked on large scale decorative projects, such as that of the Palaz-zo del Quirinale, under the direction of Pietro da Cortona.

In his Vita di Filippo Lauri of 1725-30, Filippo Baldinucci reports his precocious propensity for small scale works of various kinds of subject, noting that Lauri’s work achieved international success. His partiality for sacred, literary and mythological themes is exemplified in his works such as the Apollo and Marsyas formerly with Colnaghi, and the Triumph of Bacchus and the Erminia among the Shepherds also both formerly on the art market (see G. Sestieri, Repertorio della Pittura romana della fine del Seicento e del Settecento, Rome 1994, vol. 3, figs. 616-618).

Lauri’s small works on canvas, and his rarer copper paintings such as the present works, were much sought after by the leading Italian and international collectors, and they were extremely costly. The Rinaldo and Armida was inspired by a composition painted by Annibale Carracci conserved in the Museo di Capodimonte, Naples, while the Angelica and Medoro had its point of reference in a lost work by Guercino (see N. Turner, The paintings of Guercino: a revised and expanded catalogue raisonné, Rome 2017, cat. no. 344).

Filippo Lauri initially trained under his father, the Flemish painter Balthasar Lauwers (1578–1645) whose name was Italianised to Lauri, subsequently continuing his studies in the studio of his father’s brother-in-law, Angelo Caroselli. His work preserves something of a northern aesthetic derived from Flemish mannerism, which is revealed in the plasticism and grace of his figures. He was a fine draughtsman, and he was influenced by Pietro da Cortona and his collaboration with Gaspard Dughet. Lauri’s small works, executed with a swift painterly touch, interpreting elegant, vaguely pagan subjects, are an important anticipation of eighteenth-century Arcadian taste.