(Villa Basilica 1638–1709 Florence)
The Immaculate Conception,
oil on canvas, 84 x 64.5 cm, framed

We are grateful to Sandro Bellesi for confirming the attribution of the present painting on the basis of a photograph and for his help in cataloguing this lot.

The present canvas was most probably conceived for private devotion as is suggested by its reduced scale; it represents the sacred scene of the Marian cult, the Immaculate Conception: that Christian dogma which only received official sanction in the nineteenth century, but was successfully divulged in art from the era immediately following the counter-reformation. Closely conforming to the iconographic dictates sanctioned by Francisco Pacheco in his treatise El arte de la pintura published in 1649, the painting represents the Virgin Mary, as the ‘New Eve’ unstained by Original Sin and therefore ‘immaculate’ of original sin. Dressed in blue and white, the Virgin is depicted at the centre of the painting with her hands delicately folded together in prayer and with her head crowned by twelve stars; beneath her feet is a waxing crescent moon, its corners facing down, and a chained dragon, respectively symbols of chastity and the triumph of Good over Evil. Arranged around the Madonna are God the Father giving his blessing from among the clouds and ranks of angels and cherubs.

This canvas is the product of baroque sensibility, orchestrated in light and vibrant luminous colours. On the basis of comparisons of style and execution, it stands as an important document of the final phase of the activity of Antonio Franchi, one of the most admired Tuscan painters from the age of Grand Duke Cosimo III de’ Medici.

Born at Villa Basilica in 1638, after an initial introduction to painting in Lucca under the guidance of Pietro Paolini, Franchi stayed in Florence from 1655 to 1667 where he was apprenticed to Felice Ficherelli and Baldassarre Franceschini, called il Volterrano. Only when he had become a mature painter did Franchi return to his native city where he received numerous important public and private commissions, whereby he demonstrated his pictorial ability of reconciling the baroque modelled after Pietro da Cortona, with the new classicist tendencies emerging in mid-seventeenth century Florence. Franchi returned to establish himself in Florence in 1674 where he lived until his death in 1709. Following the death of Justus Sustermans, documented in 1681, Franchi was appointed grand-ducal portraitist and thanks to this position he created numerous portraits of members of the Medici family, as well as members of their court. Franchi spent the final years of his life writing the treatise Teorica della Pittura which was printed posthumously in 1739 (see S. Bellesi, Catalogo dei pittori fiorentini del ‘600 e ‘700. Biografie e opera, Florence 2009, 3 vols., I, pp. 150-152 and II, figs. 666-681).

The present painting can be dated to the first decade of the eighteenth century, according to Bellesi, due to the composition’s debt to the example of Carlo Maratta and his school in Rome, as well as reflections of the Florentine academic tradition under the classicist influence of Anton Domenico Gabbiani and Antonio Puglieschi. Although it is characterised by certain figure types that are recurrent at various stages of the artist’s activity, as can be seen by comparison to early works such as, for example, the Saint Apollonia or the Temple of Love (both of unknown location but illustrated in S. Bellesi, Ibid., 2009, II, figs. 666, 668) the present painting displays a theatrical grandeur of composition, and the effect of a soft-tinted chiaroscuro, which significantly compares with the finest achievements of Franchi’s final years, as is demonstrated by comparison with the altarpiece of the Baptism of Christ in San Frediano in Cestello in Florence, executed by the artist in 1705-1706 (see S. Bellesi, Ibid., 2009, II, fig. 680).