(Città di Castello 1551–1629 Rome)David and Abigail; and
Abraham and the three Angels,
tempera on panel, 93 x 83 cm and 94.5 x 82 cm, framed, a pair (2)

Provenance:
probably Sala della Lavanda, Ospedale della Trinità dei Pellegrini e Convalescenti, Rome;
Collection of Harry G. Sperling (1906–1971), New York;
sale, Sotheby’s, London, 24 March 1971, lot 64 (as Avanzino Nucci);
with Francesco Romano, Rome (1972);
Private collection, Rome

Literature:
J. A. Gere/P. Pouncey, Italian drawings in the department of prints and drawings in the British Museum: Artists working in Rome c. 1550 to c. 1640, London 1983, p. 138 (as Avanzino Nucci);
G. Sapori, in: Pittura del Seicento. Ricerche in Umbria, ed. by L. Barroero et al., exhibition catalogue, Perugia 1989, p. 189 (as Avanzino Nucci);
P. Leone de Castris, Pittura del Cinquecento a Napoli. 1573-1606 l’ultima maniera, Naples 1991, p. 186 (as Avanzino Nucci);
M. Pupillo, Un’ipotesi per Avanzino Nucci nell’Ospedale della SS. Trinità dei Pellegrini a Roma, in: Storia dell’Arte, 85, 1995, pp. 395-411, ill. (as Avanzino Nucci);
H. Röttgen, Modello storico, modus e stile: il ritorno dell’età paleocristiana attorno al 1600, in: Arte e Committenza nel Lazio nell’età di Cesare Baronio, ed. by P. Tosini, Rome 2009, p. 34 under footnote 7 (as Avanzino Nucci);
P. M. Jones, Altarpieces and their viewers in the churches of Rome from Caravaggio to Guido Reni, London 2016, p. 321, footnote 92 (as Avanzino Nucci)

The present paintings are registered in the Fototeca Zeri (nos. 32289–32290) as Avanzino Nucci.

The two scenes represented in the present paintings are biblical episodes. The first is from the Book of Samuel (25: 18-19). David sends emissaries to Nabal to request food supplies but is refused, so without telling her husband, Nabal’s wife sets out along a mountain path to meet David and his army, bringing him many gifts. Avanzino Nucci’s painting represents the moment when the woman prostrates herself before David, begging him to pay no notice of her husband’s discourtesy and to accept her offerings. The second scene represents the better-known episode taken from Genesis (18: 1-15). Abraham receives three guests to whom he offers food and the men later reveal themselves to be angels sent by God.

The theme of hospitality that unites the two scenes, prompted Pupillo (see literature) to identify the two paintings as having once decorated the Sala della Lavanda within the pilgrim complex of the Ospedale della Trinità dei Pellegrini e Convalescenti in Rome: one of the most important centres of pilgrim hospitality in the city, which was largely demolished during the first half of the twentieth century.

The chamber in which the ritual of washing the pilgrim’s feet took place was decorated with a cycle of paintings by Avanzino Nucci that is recorded by Baglione, however the precise subjects are not described: ‘Alla Trinità de’ Pellegrini, egli [Nucci] istoriò tutta la stanza, dove si lavano i piedi à Forastieri con diversi avvenimenti, a fresco espressi’ [‘At the Trinità de’ Pellegrini, he [Nucci] storied the whole room where the feet of the Foreigners are washed, with various events expressed in fresco’] (see G. Baglione, Le vite de’ pittori scultori et architetti. Dal pontificato di Gregorio XIII fino a tutto quello d’Urbano VIII, Rome 1649, ed. by G. Gradara Pesci, Velletri 1924, p. 301). In support of his hypothesis, Pupillo underlines the fact that in the photographs of the 1971 sale catalogue the works were still bare inscriptions beneath the figures giving their names, a practice which frequently occurred in wall painting cycles.

According to Pupillo, Nucci executed the present works after 1600. These works are comparable with two of his paintings on canvas Saint Peter and the Centurion and Saint Peter and Simon Magus, both with the Cassa di Risparmio di Perugia (see Pupillo in literature). Nucci reveals that he was influenced by the various artistic currents that were evolving in Rome at the turn of the century: on the one hand by adopting late-mannerist traits and on the other by exploring the naturalist manner of Roncalli and the Cavalier d’Arpino. It should be noted that Nucci collaborated on various projects with the latter on several occasions towards the end of the sixteenth century.

Leone de Castris (see literature), however, considers the present paintings to be the artist’s first known works, and dates them to around 1590 because of their clear ‘Sistine’ imprint, and pre-dating the artist’s sojourn in Naples between 1595 and 1599.

The artistic identity of Avanzino Nucci is still largely to be rediscovered, despite the fact that he is mentioned by numerous contemporary biographers, including Giovanni Baglione who describes him as ‘pratico e buon pittore’ [practical and good painter’] (see G. Baglione, ibid., pp. 300-301).

Avanzino Nucci was a pupil of Niccolò Circignani and he was prevalently active in Rome but also in the Marches, Umbria and Naples; he worked on many decorative cycles. He is recorded as having worked on the large decorative projects during the late Cinquecento in Rome, promoted by Sixtus V, including those at the Lateran Palace, the Scala Santa and the Vatican Library.