(Rocchette in Sabina 1637 - after 1710 Rome)
Saint Francis Xavier,
oil on canvas, 101.6 x 88.6 cm, framed

Provenance:
Xavier Desparmet Fitz-Gerald (1861–1941), Paris, 1928;
By inheritance to Madame Desparmet Fitz-Gerald, until 1968

Exhibited:
The Hague, Pulchri Studio; Amsterdam, Stedelijk Museum, Catalogue supplémentaire de l’exposition d’art espagnol (peinture et sculpture), 3 December 1928 – 13 January 1929, no. 25;
Bordeaux, Musée de Peinture et de Sculpture, Goya, 16 May – 30 June 1951, no. 1 (as Goya);
Paris, Musée Jacquemart-André, Francisco Goya y Lucientes, 1746–1828, December 1961 – February 1962, no. 8, fig. 8 (as Goya, depicting Saint Christopher).

Literature:
X. Desparmet Fitz-Gerald, L’Oeuvre peint de Goya, Paris 1928–1950, vol. I, p. 110, cat. no. 49, vol. II, p. 299, no. 49, with ill., vol. I, pl. 44 (as Goya);
X. Desparmet Fitz-Gerald, Goya, Paris 1956, p. 31/32, colour plate XII;
J. A. Gaya Nuño, La Pintura español fuera de Espagña, Madrid 1958, p. 156, cat. no. 864;
X. de Salas, ‘Goya in Paris’, in: Burlington Magazine, CIV, no. 708, March 1962, p. 105;
J. Gudiol, Goya: biographie, analyse critique et catalogue des peintures (transl. by L. Miriisch), Paris 1970, vol. I, p. 377 (as “Roman”)

We are grateful to Francesco Petrucci, who in his comprehensive certificate convincingly suggests an attribution of the present painting to Troppa. The present painting, formerly in the renowned Fitz-Gerald Collection in Paris, was long considered an autograph work by Goya and was also published as such. Francesco Petrucci identified the painting as a work by Girolamo Troppa. Troppa was initially a follower of Pier Francesco Mola and was also influenced by Giovanni Battista Gaulli, for whom he worked as an assistant in the decoration of the Roman Church of Santa Maria. His later works also reveal the influence of Maratta. Troppa’s artistic output, which includes frescoes, altarpieces and gallery paintings, has been described in recent contributions by Petrucci (cf. F. Petrucci, Considerazioni su Girolamo Troppa un ‘tenebrista’ del tardo Seicento romano, in: Prospettiva: rivista di storia dell’arte antica e moderna, no. 146, 2012 p. 88–102).