(Wijk bij Duurstede, near Utrecht circa 1592/93–1624 Utrecht)
Christ Driving the Money Changers from the Temple,
oil on canvas, 170 x 217 cm, framed

Provenance:
possibly Manzitti Collection, Genoa;
sale, Christie’s, Rome, 7 April 1987, lot 130 (as Nicolas Tournier, with wrong measurements);
art market, Spoleto;
Private European collection;
where acquired by the present owner

Literature:
M. Bonzi, Un quadro del Palazzo Mari, in: Il Raccoglitore Ligure, 30 April 1934, p. 1, illustrated (as possibly by Valentin de Boulogne, according to Wayne Franits 2013);
B. Nicolson, Caravaggism in Europe, Turin 1989, vol. I, p. 93, vol. III, fig. 1029 (as an unknown South Netherlandish Caravaggist painter, between Rombouts and Baburen);
L. J. Slatkes, Bringing Ter Brugghen and Baburen up-to-date, in: Bulletin du Musée National de Varsovie, no. 37, 1996, p. 204, note 29, p. 205 (as Baburen, earlier variant);
N. Hartje, Bartolomeo Manfredi (1582-1622): Ein Nachfolger Caravaggios und seine europäische Wirkung. Monographie und Werkverzeichnis, Weimar 2004, p. 153, mentioned under note 582 (as Baburen);
L. J. Slatkes, W. Franits, The Paintings of Hendrick ter Brugghen 1588-1629, Amsterdam/Philadelphia 2007, mentioned p. 165 (as Baburen);
W. Franits, The Paintings of Dirck van Baburen ca. 1592/93–1624. Catalogue Raisonné, Amsterdam/Philadelphia 2013, pp. 28–31, 95–96, cat. no. A5, p. 97, note 5, p. 105, mentioned under note 7, p. 111, note 1, illustrated p. 276, pl. 5 (as Baburen);
G. Capitelli, Dutch Caravaggists in Rome, in: G. J. van der Sman (ed.), Caravaggio and the Painters of the North, exhibition catalogue, Madrid 2016, p. 37 (as possibly a mélange drawn from the oeuvre of Baburen and Ribera, and therefore possibly the work of a more modest master);
S. Hoppe, in: B. Ebert, L. M. Helmus (eds.), Utrecht, Caravaggio und Europa, exhibition catalogue, Munich 2018, p. 184, note 5, p. 186 (as Baburen, first version circa 1618)

This painting is registered in the RKD database under no. 1001692753 (as Dirck van Baburen).

The present canvas is one of Dirck van Baburen’s most significant compositions. The artist focuses on the climax of the Biblical episode: an energetic Christ points upwards to heaven with one hand, while wielding a whip with his other. He is about to strike a fleeing man, whose arm is also raised. To the right, another figure recoils in alarm, grasping his money bag and raising his other arm to protect himself. His fellow merchants also react, with one adjusting his pince-nez as if to get a better look at the event unfolding before him. Only one figure in Baburen’s composition stands passively aloof: a woman at the right edge of the painting with a basket of doves on her head, who gazes directly at the viewer.

Van Baburen executed the present painting around 1618, during his Italian sojourn, and displays the rich influence of the complex and dynamic artistic milieu of early seventeenth-century Rome. Specifically, it reveals the artist’s familiarity with an earlier version of the same subject by Bartolomeo Manfredi, at the time probably in the Verospi collection, and now in the Musée des Beaux-Arts et d’Archéologie de Libourne. Baburen must have studied the composition of the Italian master closely, and recognised its derivation from Caravaggio’s celebrated Calling of Saint Matthew, which he most assuredly knew.

Dirck van Baburen was born near Utrecht around 1592–1593 . He trained with Paulus Moreelse, a portraitist and history painter. Around 1612 he departed for Italy, where he spent most of his time in Rome, establishing a solid reputation and working for patrons including the Spanish diplomat Pietro Cussida and Marchese Vicenzo Giustiniani. Baburen was particularly influenced by the art of Caravaggio and his followers, including Ribera and Manfredi. In 1620 or 1621 the painter returned to Utrecht, where he died in 1624.