(Siena 1583–1646)
The procession celebrating the consecration of the Insigne Collegiata di Santa Maria in Provenzano, Siena
oil on canvas, 146 x 189.5 cm, framed

Provenance:
Private European collection, for at least 30 years

We are grateful to Marco Ciampolini for confirming the attribution on the basis of a high resolution digital photograph and for his help in cataloguing the present painting.

This work represents the procession held in Siena on 23 October 1611 on the occasion of the transferal of the Madonna di Provenzano to the new canonical church built in her honour. The canvas shows a ‘multiple view’ of the city serving as a pictorial itinerary of the procession and represents several locations marking the stages of the progress: Piazza Postierla, Piazza del Campo and Piazza Tolomei as well as the new church to which the venerated Madonna was being transferred.

The Madonna, consisting of the terracotta remains of a Pietà, is at the centre of the scene, carried under the canopy of a baldacchino preceded by archbishop Camillo Borghese, and followed by Grand-Duke Cosimo II de’Medici accompanied by his children, Maria Cristina and Ferdinand II, and by his wife Maria Maddalena of Austria and his mother Cristina of Lorrain.

The present painting relates to another similar slightly smaller canvas (121 x 181 cm) that is signed by Antonio Gregori and conserved in the canonical chambers of the church of the Madonna di Provenzano which was executed immediately after the event depicted (see M. Ciampolini, Pittori Senesi del Seicento, Siena 2010, p. 217, ill. 136, with previous bibliography).

This procession marked the culmination of an important event in the religious life of Siena; indeed, a Biccherna panel (no. 85) in the Archivio di Stato di Siena, painted by Stefano Volpi and dated 1613 was dedicated to this subject (see op. cit. Ciampolini, 2010, p. 1099, pl. 549). Here however Volpi limited himself to only depicting the arrival of the procession in the piazza in front of the new church. This event was again depicted by Gregori (1618) in a lunette fresco in the Saletta del Capitano del Popolo in the Palazzo Pubblico, Siena (op. cit. Ciampolini, 2010, pp. 215–216, pl. 135).

In 1637, the painting by Antonio Gregori, was replicated in a painting that is in the church of the Madonna di Provenzano (see B. Tavolari, La pittura nella chiesa di Santa Maria in Provenzano, in: C. Alessi/M. Borgogni/B. Tavolari [eds.], La collegiata di Santa Maria in Provenzano, Sovicille 2008, p. 78, ill.). This later work has been given to Girolamo Periccioli (see F. Bisogni, in: F. Bisogni/M. Ciampolini [eds.], Bernardino Mei e la pittura barocca a Siena, exhibition catalogue, Florence 1987, p. 33, n. 36).

The present work is previously unpublished, and it is a further demonstration of the interest in this subject. Compared to the canvas signed by this artist, and its replica, the present painting is larger. Furthermore, the figures appear less stylised. Moreover, one of the figures in the present painting shows a detail that helps dating this work. The figure of Maria Maddalena of Austria, unlike the other two paintings, is shown here wearing a black veil, signalling her state of mourning for Cosimo II who died in 1621. This is a detail that did not require signalling in 1637, the year the replica by Periccioli was executed, in that by then, with the exception of the children of Cosimo II, all the dignitaries represented were dead; but evidently it was still a matter of significance when the present painting was executed. This would imply that Maria Maddalena of Austria was still alive, but a widow, therefore the painting must certainly date to between 1621 and 1631, the year of her death.

The character of this painting points to Antonio Gregori’s style of the 1620s: indeed, it signals the change from his descriptive manner, towards a greater pictorial concision and an increasingly decorative taste, as is also demonstrated by his exuberant miniatures painted during the same decade for the Libri dei Leoni conserved in the Archivio di Stato di Siena. Indeed, the figures in the present canvas are arranged in a line to heighten the elegance of their contours and condense their form, conferring greater compositional clarity to the whole image.