Lot 24: ANDREA LILIO Saint Francis praying

ANDREA LILIO
Saint Francis praying
Oil on canvas

It was Luciano Arcangeli who rediscovered this painting and attributed it to Lilio at the opening of the exhibition in Ancona (1985), (Andrea Lilli nella pittura delle Marche tra Cinquecento e Seicento, exhibition booklet, Pinacoteca Civica Francesco Podesti di Ancona, July – Oct. 1985, curated by Luciano Arcangeli and Pietro Zampetti, Rome, 1985, pp. 58-59, 2.).
On that occasion, it was repeatedly underscored that the Poverello reflects Counter-reformation ideals, ever more similar to the monk-like and meditative figure of St Jeronim. In addition, the visible flaking of the face, hands and the sackcloth reflect, on the one hand, a deeply Baroque ascendancy on the painter – especially evident in the hues of the chromatic range favouring monochrome - whereas on the other, they are also owed to his stern and pointy Gothic-like graphic style, typical of late Mannerism in central Italy. It is thanks to this chronology that Arcangeli assigned the painting to the late Sistine years and the beginning of the period of the works ascribed by pope Clement VIII Aldobrandini in the central nave of Santa Maria Maggiore in Rome. Recently, art critic Massimo Pulini has attributed this work to Ferraù Fenzoni (Massimo Pulini, Andrea Lilio. Milan, 2003, p. 13 and illustration; p. 240, 7), acknowledging that it is “...a work of high value representing the anti-classicist and anti-reformist streak which swept Rome at the end of 16th century...”. Pulini, in fact, related the present St Francis to a drawing by Fenzoni, showing a monk in the act of reading (Pulini, op. cit., p.13) which might lead to think that this served as an initial sketch to the painter. What emphases further on such possible authorship is the period in which the painting saw the light – first forwarded by Arcangeli and successively confirmed by Pulini - namely, when reciprocal influences between Lilio and Fenzoni became more manifest. In this respect, we maintain that Pulini’s hypothesis is of an absolute importance, although accepting the historical attribution by Arcangeli. In the end, it sounds sensible to compare the suffering and vivid figure of St Francis with the edgy face but smooth - as far as the brushstroke is concerned – of St Rochus and the dog, in the Galleria Nazionale delle Marche, Urbino, signed and dating 1596.
cm 88 x 65

cm 88 x 65

Oil on canvas