(Cento 1591–1666 Bologna)
Saint Francis of Paola,
oil on unlined canvas, 130 x 102 cm, framed

Inscribed and dated 1726 by Ubaldo Antonio Marchi on the reverse of the canvas.
Bears inscription J3 on the reverse of the frame.

Provenance:
Francesco Manganoni, Rimini;
Giuseppe Maria Manganoni, Rimini (1688);
Giuseppe Antonio Manganoni, Rimini (1726);
by inheritance to Ottavio II Zollio, son of Giovanni Battista Zollio, Rimini (1736)
Giovanni Battista II Zollio, Rimini (1755)
Carlo Zollio, his son, Rimini (1788)
by inheritance to Vincenzo Salvoni (circa 1850);
Ripa collection, until 1913;
Anoymous sale Sotheby´s, Milan 16th November 2010, lot 19 (as attributed to Guercino).

Documentation:
Archivio di Stato di Rimini, Atti di G.B. Ceci, 1687–1689, c. 184: Inventario de’ Beni stabili e Mobili di ragione dell’Heredità del quondam Signor Francesco Manganoni di Rimini, January 25th 1689, Nota de’ Quadri che sono in Casa: “ [17] 8. S. Francesco di Paola viaggiante”.
Archivio di Stato di Rimini, Atti di G. A. Sperindio, c. 111r: Inventario “mobilium hereditatis quondam Francisci Manganoni, July 28th 1727: “Nella Stanza contigua [alla Sala] a Sinistra: Nove quadri appesi al muro con cornici intagliate, e dorate alti braccia due, larghi braccia uno, e 5/6 di mano disse del Guerzino con adietro la memoria, sottoscrizione, e segno del notaro Sig.e Ubaldo Antonio Marchi sotto li 7 ottobre 1726 rappresentanti le sottonotate figure, cioè [...] L’altro un S. Fran[ces]co di Paola viaggiante”.
Archivio di Stato di Rimini, Atti di A.D. Giorgetti, December 30 1755, cc. 1-8, Inventory after death of Ottavio II Zollio: “Nell’altra Camera che guarda la strada Maestra: undici quadri che diconsi del Guercini rap. Il p[rim]o S. Francesco di Paola”

Exhibition:
Rimini, Museo della città, Guercino ritrovato. Collezioni e committenze riminesi. 1642–1660, 8 November 2002 - 23 February 2003, no. 8

Literature:
P. G. Pasini, Per il Guercino in Romagna in: Romagna arte e storia, no. 31, 1991, pp. 47, 51-56 and p. 64, fig. 9 (as Guercino’s workshop);
Guercino ritrovato. Collezioni e committenze riminesi 1642-1660, ed. by P. G. Pasini, exhibition catalogue, Museo della Città, Rimini, November 2002 - February 2003, p. 116, (as Guercino and workshop); ibidem P. Meldrini, Un tesoro della pittura. Le fonti documentarie della quadreria di Francesco Manganoni, pp. 43-55;
L. Muti, Presentazioni e precisazioni sull’arte di Giovan Francesco Barbieri detto il Guercino, e sulla collezione Manganoni costituita a Rimini nella seconda metà’ del Seicento, in: A tu per tu con la pittura. Studi e ricerche di storia dell’arte, ed. by L. Muti / D. De Sarno Prignano (Arte documento, 10), Faenza 2002, pp. 99, 104 nota 40 (as possibly Guercino);
D. de Sarno Prignano, Ripensando al Guercino in L. Muti / D. De Sarno Prignano, Capolavori in proscenio. Dipinti del Cinque, Sei e Settecento, Faenza 2006, p.106, fig. 13, p. 102 (as Guercino)

We are grateful to Nicholas Turner for confirming the attribution after examining the present painting in the original.

The exactness of handling and the beautiful clarity of the lighting give this painting extraordinary finesse. Both qualities reflect the work of Guercino’s late period, from which relatively few paintings survive. Passages such as the saint’s face and hands and the little chapel seen in the distance to the right (which seems in curious anticipation of the fantasy buildings in Gainsborough’s landscapes) forcefully illustrate the undiminished magic of the master’s touch. As the saint stands half-length, with a silvery, gossamer-like landscape behind him, and gazes upwards into the heavens he exudes remarkable spiritual power and creates for himself a hauntingly memorable icon.
It is hard to understand how an invention of such originality and force has been interpreted by recent critics as the joint work of Guercino and his studio (op. cit., Guercino ritrovato, 2003, p. 116, as “Guercino e Bottega”), even if the fully attribution has recently been endorsed by De Sarno Prignano (op.cit., De Sarno Prignano 2006).
The painting is one of a group of works commissioned by the rich Riminese cloth merchant Francesco Manganoni to Guercino, towards the end of the painter’s life: five of them are registered in the Account Book of the artist on September 29th 1659 as “cinque mezze figure”, while the present painting together with other three works are listed for the first time in the inventory of goods of Francesco Manganoni (see Documentation, 1689). The group has identical measurements and similar frames.
Although this San Francesco da Paola does not feature in the painter’s Account Book, the exceptionally quality of the handling are sufficient to show it is an autograph work by Guercino. Moreover, like all the paintings from the Manganoni group, there is an inscription on the reverse of the canvas dating from 1726, in the hand of the lawyer Ubaldo Antonio Marchi, guaranteeing the picture’s authenticity. The inscription allows to identify the present painting with the one listed in the inventory drawn in 1727 after the death of Giuseppe Maria Manganoni, heir of Francesco, where the attribution to Guercino doubtless reflects the correct traditional attribution from within the family (see Documentation).
Pasini has commented that the inclusion of a San Francesco da Paola among Guercino’s series of saints in half-length for Manganoni reflects the patron’s connection with the local Order of Minims of S. Francesco da Paola. In 1659, Manganoni had presented the Chiesa di Francesco da Paola, the church of the Minims in Rimini, with Guercino’s St Anthony of Padua to decorate the high altar of the church, a painting now in the Museo della Città (see L. Salerno, I dipinti del Guercino, Rome, 1988, no. 331). The closeness in style of the present canvas to the Rimini altarpiece is an indication that the two works, carried out for the same patron, came into being at about the same time.

We are grateful to Nicholas Turner for his assistance in cataloguing this lot.