(Genoa 1629–1657)
The Madonna and Child with Saint Augustine and Saint Nicholas of Tolentino,
oil on canvas, 170 x 116 cm, framed

Provenance:
sale, Finarte, Rome, 28 May 1985, lot 524 (as Antonio Travi called il Sestri, on panel);
Collection of Enzo Costantini, Rome (according to a label on the back, as Antonio Travi called il Sestri);
Private European collection

Literature:
G. Sestieri, Repertorio della Pittura Romana della fine del Seicento e del Settecento, Turin 1994, vol. 1, p. 176, not illustrated (as Francesco Trevisani);
A. Orlando, Stefano Magnasco e la cerchia di Valerio Castello, Milan 2001, pp. 17-18, illustrated on p. 19, fig. 8, p. 52, footnote 24 (as Bartolomeo Biscaino);
G. Zanelli, Antonio Travi e la pittura di paesaggio a Genova nel ‘600, Genoa 2001, pp. 69-70, note 17 (as Bartolomeo Biscaino)

The present painting is registered in the Fototeca Zeri under no. 60607 (as Antonio Travi, on panel).

This painting represents the Madonna and Child raised on a marble pedestal in sacra conversazione with two Saints of the Augustinian order. The Saint on the left has been variously interpreted until being identified as Saint Augustine. He is shown in the act of receiving the Virgin’s Sacred Girdle (see F. Franchini Guelfi, Nostra Signora della Cintura: una devozione agostiniana a Genova, in: Quaderni Franzoniani, 1994, no. 2, pp. 203-233). On the right, Saint Nicholas of Tolentino is recognisable by the emblem of a star on his chest.

The composition is painted with swift agile brushstrokes, especially visible in the carved and gilded crosier held by the putti. The sweetness of their features and gestures led Federico Zeri to identify the work as from a Genoese ambit. Its traditional attribution to Antonio Travi called Il Sestri (1608-1665) was subsequently refuted by Zanelli, who excluded the painting from his monograph on the artist (see literature); it was finally reassigned to Bartolomeo Biscaino by Anna Orlando (see literature).

Born in Genoa in 1629, Bartolomeo Biscaino first studied with his father Giovanni Andrea, a landscape painter. Around 1649-1650 he entered the studio of Valerio Castello (1625-1659) where, alongside Stefano Magnasco and Giovanni Battista Merano and he became one of his most celebrated pupils. However, Biscaino distinguished himself from the others for his stylistic autonomy, and especially for his distinctive renderings of the female figure’s features, and for the depiction of insistently folding drapery. The present painting compares with the Saint Ferdinand imploring the Virgin on behalf of the cripples in the Museo di Sant’Agostino, Genoa (see C. Manzitti, Per Bartolomeo Biscaino, in: Paragone, no. 253, 1971, p. 38).

Biscaino was able to adapt Valerio Castello’s example to his own sensibility, however, compared to the latter who had a preference for broad, highly scenographic compositions, Bartolomeo Biscaino maintained an intimate character in his paintings and his figures are more classicisied (see F. Affronti, Biscaino e Castello: due artisti a confronto, in: La Casana, 2008, no. 1, pp. 42-49).

Biscaino gives the media in his paintings such full body that one can seemingly touch the relief surface of the oil impasto on the canvas. Moreover, the outlines of his figures, in contrast to Castello’s which are almost indistinct, are much more graphically clear. Indeed, Biscaino also had the reputation as a draughtsman and as an etcher-engraver. It is likely on this account that in addition to the example of Valerio Castello he also looked to Giovanni Benedetto Castiglione (1609-1664).