(Genoa 1590–1645)
Saint Jerome,
signed lower right: LVCIANO/BORZONE/FACEVA,
oil on canvas, 152 x 120 cm, framed

Provenance:
Collection of Infante Don Sebastiàn Gabriel de Borbòn y Braganza, Madrid and Naples, 1811-1875 (according to the monogram SG surmounted by a crown on the reverse);
with Manuel Gonzales, Madrid, from 1971;
Private collection, Spain, from 2015

Literature:
C. Manzitti, Influenze Caravaggesche a Genova e nuovi ritrovamenti su Luciano Borzone, in: Paragone, no. 259, 1971, p. 38, fig. 25 (as Luciano Borzone);
F. R. Pesenti, La pittura in Liguria. Artisti del primo Seicento, Genoa 1986,
p. 70, illustrated p. 67 fig. 45 (as Luciano Borzone);
P. Pagano/M. C. Galassi, La pittura del 600 a Genova, Milan 1988, fig. 98 (as Luciano Borzone);
G. V. Castelnovo, La prima metà del Seicento: dall’Ansaldo a Orazio de Ferrari, in: La pittura a Genova e in Liguria dal Seicento al primo Novecento, ed. by C. Bozzo Dufour, Genoa 1987, p. 127 (as Luciano Borzone);
C. Manzitti, Luciano Borzone, in: La pittura in Italia. Il Seicento, II, Milan 1989, p. 649 (as Luciano Borzone);
L. Ghio Vallarino, Genova nell’età Barocca, exhibition catalogue, Genoa, Palazzo Spinola, 2 May-26 July 1992, p. 102;
A. E. Pérez Sànchez, Pittura genovese in Spagna nel Seicento, in: Genova e la Spagna: opere, artisti, committenti, collezionisti, ed. by P. Boccardo et al., Cinisello Balsamo 2002, p. 209 (as Luciano Borzone);
A. Orlando, Dipinti Genovesi dal Cinquecento al Settecento. Ritrovamenti dal collezionismo privato, Turin 2010, p. 48 (as Luciano Borzone);
A. Manzitti, Luciano Borzone: 1590-1645, Genoa 2015, p. 158 cat. no. A9 (as Luciano Borzone);
A. Orlando, Il Caravaggismo Genovese. Strozzi, Fiasella, Borzone, Assereto, Orazio de Ferrari e altre comparse, in: Caravaggio e i genovesi. Committenti, collezionisti, pittori, exhibition catalogue, ed. by A. Orlando, Genoa 2019, p. 233, illustrated p. 235 fig. 40 (as Luciano Borzone)

The present painting is registered in the Fototeca Zeri as Luciano Borzone (no. 60347).

According to the monogram SG surmounted by a crown printed on the back of the canvas, this work belonged to the Infante Don Sebastiàn Gabriel de Borbòn y Braganza. Manzitti documented its presence in the collection of Manuel Gonzales in Madrid (see Manzitti 1971 in literature).

Here Saint Jerome is represented gazing on the crucifix in a moment of meditation. He rests his head on his left hand, while in his right he holds the sacred scriptures and a skull rests on his lap: these are his attributes, emblematic of his life as a hermit.

The present painting is considered to be among Luciano Borzone’s first works, characterised by a certain formal rigour, as well as an interest in naturalism. The Saint’s expression reveals how Borzone had already learnt to observe nature.

This Saint Jerome by Borzone has been compared by Manzitti (see literature 1971) on chronological grounds to the Baptism of Christ in the Museo di Palazzo Bianco, Genoa (inv. no. PB 348) which was executed for the church of Santo Spirito between 1620 and 1621. Owing to their similar lighting effects, chiaroscuro and sculptural qualities, both paintings already reveal evident ties with the Lombard painters whom Borzone could have studied in the collection of his patron, Giovanni Carlo Doria. Moreover, this was also a crucial moment for the development of painting in Genoa due to the influence of painters from Tuscany, Orazio Gentileschi and Giovanni Battista Paggi, from whom Borzone took inspiration for the formal elegance of the present Saint Jerome. In the present compostion Borzone skilfully combined Tuscan mannerism with the new-found realism of the Caravaggists, demonstrating that he was among the first to embrace the innovations of Caravaggio.

The emotive warmth with which this Saint Jerome is imbued connotes the artist’s adherence to the new realist creed of the Caravaggists (see Orlando 2010 in literature) and it can also be compared to the painter’s Saint Francis in meditation in the Galleria dell’Accademia Albertina, Turin (inv. no. 98).

Luciano Borzone’s biography is provided by Soprani (see R. Soprani, Le vite de’ pittori..., Genoa 1674, pp. 179-185): he was born in Genoa in 1590, where he was initially trained by his uncle, the portraitist Filippo Bertolotto. In circa 1606 he entered the studio of Cesare Corte. He knew the poet Gabriello Chiabrera who dedicated various sonnets to his painter-friend that were later published in his collection Delle Poesie of 1618 (see A. Manzitti 2015 in literature). In 1612 Borzone took on Gioacchino Assereto as his pupil and in the same period he accompanied his patron Giovanni Carlo Doria to Milan where he was able to observer to new innovations in Milanese art (see L. Ghio Vallarino in literature).