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THE PROPERTY OF THE ROYAL SCOTTISH ACADEMY SOLD TO ESTABLISH THE BORTHWICK-NORTON BEQUEST ANNIBALE CARRACCI BOLOGNA 1560 - 1609 ROME SAINT JOHN THE BAPTIST IN A LANDSCAPE POINTING AT THE FIGURE OF CHRIST

oil on copper, in an early 19th-century English gilt plaster frame bearing the Bridgewater House inventory number 84

PROVENANCE

Duke of Parma, Palazzo del Giardino, Parma, by 1678 (according to Malvasia, Couché and Posner, see Literature below, though not listed in the inventories of c.1680 or 1708);
Mr. Paillot, Paris (according to engraving in Couché);
By whom sold to Philippe II, Duc d'Orléans (le Régent) (1674-1723), Palais Royal, Paris whose collection was formed in the quarter-century before his death;
Thence by descent to Louis, Duc d'Orléans, Palais Royal, Paris (1703-1752), in whose collection it is recorded in an inventory of 1727, no. 33 (as well as in a posthumous inventory of 1752 (1,000 l.), according to Stryienski, under Literature below);
Thence by descent to Philippe, Duc d'Orléans (Philippe Égalité) (1747-1793), Palais Royal, Paris (listed in an inventory of 1785 (1,200 l.), according to Stryienski, op. cit.), by whom sold and sent to England in 1792;
Negotiated by Michael Bryan (1757-1821), the painting was among the Orléans Italian pictures which were made over to a syndicate consisting of Francis Egerton, 3rd Duke of Bridgewater, and George Granville Leveson-Gower, Earl Gower (later 2nd Marquess of Stafford and 1st Duke of Sutherland), and Frederick Howard, 5th Earl of Carlisle, for the sum of £43,500. Exhibited for sale by private contract at Mr. Bryan's Gallery, no. 88 Pall Mall, London, for six months from 26 December 1798, no. 4;
From which acquired for 300 guineas by Francis Egerton, 3rd Duke of Bridgewater (1736-1803), Bridgewater House;
Thence by inheritance to his brother, the 1st Marquis of Stafford, Bridgewater House (re-named the Stafford Gallery);
Thence by descent to his second son, the Earl of Ellesmere, Bridgewater House, by 1851, inv. no. 84 (the same number that appears on the frame and listed by Waagen, see Literature below);
Thence by descent until sold, London, Christie's, 18 October 1946, lot 65 (as Annibale Carracci, with erroneous Orsini and Chigi provenance);
Mr and Mrs Hugh F. Packenham Borthwick Norton;
Thence by descent to Mrs Eva Sardinia Borthwick Norton (d. 1988) of Southwick House, Purbrook, Hampshire by 1952;
Bequeathed by her Executors to The Royal Scottish Academy in 1990.
EXHIBITED

London, Michael Bryan's Gallery, no. 88 Pall Mall, for six months from 26 December 1798 (see Provenance above).
LITERATURE AND REFERENCES

C.C. Malvasia, Felsina Pittrice, Bologna 1678, ed. G. Zanotti, Bologna 1841, vol. I, p. 359 (according to Posner, see Literature below, to be identified with this painting);
D. de Saint-Gelais, Description des Tableaux du Palais Royal, Paris 1737 (2nd ed.), p. 39 (as on copper);
J. Couché, La Galerie du Palais-Royal, gravée d'après les tableaux des différentes écoles qui la composent, Paris 1786, vol. I, no. 15, reproduced plate 77;
A Catalogue of the Orleans' Italian Pictures which will be exhibited for sale by private contract, on Wednesday, the 26th of December, 1798, and following days, at Mr. Bryan's Gallery, no. 88 Pall Mall, London 1798, no. 4 ("Annibale Carracci. St. John showing the Messiah");
W. Young Ottley and P.W. Tomkins, Engravings of the Marquis of Stafford's Collection of Pictures in London, London 1818, vol. II, no. 43;
W. Buchanan, Memoirs of Painting, with a Chronological History of the Importation of Pictures by the Great Masters into England since the French Revolution, London 1824, vol. I, p. 81, no. 15;
Catalogue of the Pictures belonging to Lord Francis Leveson-Gower at Bridgewater House, London 1830, p. 15, no. 69;
Catalogue of the Bridgewater Collection of Pictures belonging to the Earl of Ellesmere at Bridgewater House, Cleveland Square, 3rd ed., London 1851, p. 14, no. 84;
G. Waagen, Treasures of Art in Great Britain, London 1854, vol. II, p. 35, no. 4;
C. Stryienski, La Galerie du Régent Philippe, Duc d'Orléans, Paris 1913, p. 83 ("rougeâtre et balourd, est pitoyable"), and p. 169, no. 239;
H. Voss, Die Malerei des Barock in Rom, Rome 1924, p. 502 (where he confuses it with the painting of the same subject by Bellori);
D. Posner, Annibale Carracci, London 1971, vol. II, p. 59, under cat. no. 133[A] (as a studio variant of the ex-Chigi picture mentioned by Bellori);
G. Malafarina, L'opera completa di Annibale Carracci, Milan 1976, p. 122, under cat. no. 125 (as a studio replica);
D. Mahon & S. Pepper, in Ars, vol. II, January 1998, p. 61, reproduced (where it was erroneously described as being in the Ringling Art Museum, Sarasota, and being a copy after the Orsini-Chigi version of this subject);
D. Mahon, in Il San Giovanni Battista ritrovato. La tradizione classica in Annibale Carracci e in Caravaggio, exhibition catalogue, Rome, Musei Capitolini, 19 October 2001 - 3 February 2002, pp. 17-18, 26, footnotes 1 and 2, reproduced on p. 19, fig. 1 (as Annibale Carracci).

ENGRAVED:
By Louis-Michel Halbou (1730-1809), for Couché (see Literature).
CATALOGUE NOTE

From when it was first recorded by Malvasia in 1678 (see Literature), this painting was considered an autograph work by Annibale Carracci. It was catalogued as such in the collection of the Duc d'Orléans in Paris and subsequently at Bridgewater House (see Provenance below). The copper was ascribed to Annibale by Hermann Voss but was considered by subsequent scholars to have come from Annibale's workshop; that is until Mahon and Pepper's 1998 publication (see Literature). At the time of its last appearance at auction in 1946, this painting was considered to be that to which Gian Pietro Bellori refers in his Vite which, at the time of writing in 1672, was in the collection of Flavio Chigi in Rome (though it had been painted for Corradino Orsini in circa 1601-2). Although the subject is the same - St. John the Baptist pointing at Christ in a landscape - the figure of John is described by Bellori as life-size ("al naturale"), and we know the Chigi picture's appearance was somewhat different from an engraving by Pietro del Po (see Posner, under Literature, fig. 133). A painting on canvas of this composition, formerly on the Paris art market, has recently been put forward as Carracci's lost original by, amongst others, Sir Denis Mahon (see Mahon, under Literature, 2001-2, reproduced in colour p. 16). In connection with the Chigi-Orsini picture Bellori mentions another painting of similar subject, but the fact that he does not specifically describe it as being on copper makes an identification with the present painting far from certain ("Dipinse Annibale un altro San Giovanni a sedere con una mano in terra, additando con l'altra il Redentore"; G.P. Bellori, Le vite de' pittori, scultori et architetti moderni, Rome 1672, p. 85, ed. E. Borea, Turin 1976, p. 96, cited by Posner, op. cit., p. 59, rejecting a possible identification with this painting).

The picture's illustrious provenance is securely recorded from the 18th century, when it is mentioned in an inventory of the collection of Louis, Duc d'Orléans, drawn up in 1727, as no. 33: "Annibal Carrache. S. Jean qui Montre le Messie. Peint sur cuivre, haut d'un pied huit pouces, large d'un pied quatre pouces. Fig. dans la proportion de dix-huit pouces. La Scene du Tableau est un Paisage, où l'on voit sur le devant à gauche S. Jean vêtu de sa peau de chameau, doublée d'écarlate, qui montre le Messie qui est dans le lointain à droit sur une montagne." Couché produced a book of engravings after paintings in the Orléans collection (1786); a practice later copied by Young Ottley and Tomkins for their book of engravings after paintings in the Marquis of Stafford's collection (1818). No less than five other paintings attributed to Annibale Carracci found their way from the Palais Royal into the Duke of Bridgewater's collection (see Posner, op. cit., cat. nos. 18, 31, 99, 112 and 153). Couché considered this painting to be that formerly in the collection of the Duke of Parma at the Palazzo del Giardino; an identification also endorsed by Posner. A painting in Parma of this subject is described by Carlo Cesare Malvasia, in his Felsina Pittrice (1678), though he does not state that it was on copper: "Un S. Gio. Battista a sedere in bellissimo paese, che accenna ad un picciolissimo Signora sopra un monte" (see Literature). A painting of this subject, attributed to Annibale or otherwise, is not listed in the inventories of the Palazzo del Giardino of c.1680 or 1708, but the fact that the painting was on public view when Malvasia was writing is attested to by the existence of a 17th-century copy, formerly in the Leuchtenberg collection (reproduced in J.D. Passavant, Galerie Leuchtenberg, Frankfurt 1851, plate 50, and cited by Posner, op. cit.). Labels on the reverse of this painting's frame confirm it to be the picture formerly in the Ellesmere collection at Bridgewater House; an identification further substantiated by the presence of the number 84 on the frame, the number to which Waagen refers when he saw it in situ at Bridgewater House: "St. John the Baptist pointing to Christ, who is approaching from the distance (No. 84); from the Orleans Gallery. In this picture we see the eclectic studies of Annibale Carracci on another side. We have here an academic figure. The St. John is coloured in a reddish tone, like the Genius of Glory in the Dresden Gallery. The landscape is of a noble, cheerful character" (see Literature).

The painting can be dated on stylistic grounds to the end of the 1590s, and perhaps closer to circa 1600, shortly after Annibale's arrival in Rome and contemporary to his ceiling frescoes in the Galleria in Palazzo Farnese (1597-1600). Though much of Annibale's energy and time was spent on the Farnese frescoes during these years, he did execute a number of easel paintings, many of which are on hard supports (copper or panel). The closest and most convincing comparison is provided by Annibale's Domine Quo Vadis? in the National Gallery, London, datable to circa 1601-2, in which the artist has concentrated on the plastic form of the figures, painting the landscape as a sort of backdrop to the scene. Recent juxtaposition of the two works underlined similarities in the handling of the trees, foliage and clouds, as well as in the vigour and strong modelling of the figures (see Posner, op. cit., p. 60, cat. no. 135, reproduced in colour). The angular geometric face of the Baptist is comparable to the facial types one finds on the Farnese ceiling, in particular to those of the ignudi: compare specifically that to the left of Polyphemus and Acis on the north side of the vault (reproduced in Posner, op. cit., fig. IIIi). Other parallels may also be found in Annibale's Penitent Magdalene in the Galleria Doria Pamphilij, Rome, which has been dated to circa 1600-01, and finds many points of comparison not just in the figure type but also in the landscape (ibid., cat. no. 125, reproduced fig. 125). Angular folds similar to those of the Baptist's drapery, and the figure's slightly disproportionate limbs and feet are characteristics which are also to be found in Annibale's "Montalto Madonna" (sold in these rooms, 10 July 2003, lot 35, and today in the National Gallery, London), datable to circa 1598-1600.

Despite such a distinguished and long-standing provenance as an unquestionable work by Annibale Carracci, some scholars have more recently considered alternative attributions, none of which are entirely convincing, including that to his pupil Francesco Albani.