(Lucca 1603–1681/82)
Adoration of the Shepherds,
oil on canvas, 113 x 119 cm, framed

Provenance:
Mansi collection, Lucca;
Private collection, Milan;
where acquired by the present owner

Literature:
G. Borella, P. Giusti Maccari, Il Palazzo Mansi di Lucca, Lucca 1993, p. 193, no. 22;
P. Giusti Maccari, in: M. T. Filieri (ed.), La pittura a Lucca nel primo Seicento, exhibition catalogue, Lucca 1994, p. 235 (mentioned under no. 49);
F. Moro, Viaggio nel Seicento toscano. Dipinti e disegni inediti, Mantova 2006, pp. 161-162, fig. 9;
G. Porzio, in: G. Porzio (ed.), Quadreria 2015. Documents d’art e d’histoire, Rome 2015, pp. 12-14, no. 2.

The present painting, with its apparently elegant original frame most probably made in Lucca, is an important record of the religious painting of Pietro Paolini.

This painting may be identified as the work described as ‘Birth of Our Lord’ [‘Nascita di Nostro Signore’] attributed to Gherardo delle Notti in the 1682 inventory of the collection of Gasparo Mansi of Lucca. He played a leading role in the creation of the family´s important art collection.

The present painting dates to the second half of the 1630s and on stylistic grounds is comparable to the large altarpiece with the Birth of Saint John the Baptist executed by Paolini in 1637 for the church of Santa Maria Corteorlandini in Lucca and now in the Museo Nazionale di Villa Guinigi.

Another larger autograph version of the Adoration of the Shepherds is known which is currently conserved in the collection of the Fondazione Cassa di Risparmio di Lucca (see op. cit. Giusti Maccari, 1994).

The present painting which is of significant pictorial quality presents an engaging nocturnal setting influenced by the European Caravaggist tradition, which explains the old attribution of this work to the Dutch artist Gerard van Honthorst, known in Italy as Gherardo delle Notti, who Paolini would have known during his Roman sojourn.

In the present Adoration of the Shepherds the inclusion of two light sources breaking through the darkness is of great effect: one, the naked body of the Christ Child in his mother’s lap, irradiates luminous rays that light up the principal figure group of the scene; another softer light source is supplied by the lantern held up by a girl on the right of the composition. The background consists of classical ruins and a landscape passages just visible by the light of the moon. The pictorial fluidity with which the sky is depicted derive from the influence of the neo-Venetian painters who were influencial during this period, among them Pier Francesco Mola, revealing Paolini’s visual awareness of the latest pictorial innovations.

In the present painting Paolini depicts, as if in an ancient bas-relief, a full personal repertoire of images in a close, intimate scene of great lyricism. The composition includes all the characteristic elements of the painter’s figurative vocabulary, ranging from the physiognomic type of the bald shepherd seen in profile in the background, to the idea of an illuminated night scene, that envelops the set in an atmosphere of serenity. These are qualities derived from examples that circled in the Roman ambit of Caravaggio, which Paolini knew directly during the years of his training in there under the guidance of Angelo Caroselli during the 1620s. As in the present case, he made the motifs he employed entirely his own, in doing so he found success with the tastes of the most refined patrons of his native city of Lucca.