Lot 30: OTTAVIO VANNINI

OTTAVIO VANNINI FLORENCE 1585 - 1644 SUSANNA AT THE WELL oil on canvas 212.5 by 187 cm.; 83 3/4 by 73 3/4 in.

F. Mastropierro, Jacopo Vignali: Pittore nella Firenze del Seicento, Milan 1973, p. 21, reproduced p. 37, plate 2, as circle of Matteo Rosselli;
C. Pizzorusso in 'Ottavio Vannini', Il Seicento fiorentino: arte a Firenze da Ferdinando I a Cosimo III; Biografie, exh. cat., Florence 1986, p. 182, as Vannini.
G. Cantelli, Repertorio della pittura fiorentina del Seicento, aggiornamento, Pontedera 2009, p. 188;
F. Baldassari, La pittura del Seicento a Firenze, indice degli artisti e delle loro opere, Turin 2009, p. 694;
S. Bellesi, Catalogo dei pittori fiorentini del '600 e '700, vol. I, Florence 2009, p. 266.

Commissioned by Giulio Pucci (1590-1672);
Private Collection, Florence.

Until now only known to scholars through an old black and white photograph, this Susanna at the Well, one of Ottavio Vannini's finest works, is offered here for the first time with the correct attribution. Until as late as 1973 the work was misattributed to the circle of Matteo Rosselli (see Literature) but was rightly restored to the oeuvre of Vannini soon after.

Ottavio Vannini was apprenticed under Domenico Passignano in his native city of Florence before moving to Rome where he worked under Astasio Fontebuoni. Upon his return to Florence his career as an independent artist quickly took off, as he received commissions both from churches and private patrons. His skills as a fresco painter were equally sought after as the Medici asked him to decorate the Casino Mediceo in their Villa di Poggio Imperiale in 1622-23. He also contributed to the frescoes in the Sala degli Argenti in the Palazzo Pitti which had been left unfinished by Giovanni di San Giovanni. Vannini's most important patron, however, was Andrea Del Rosso (1640-1715), who is known to have owned several of the artist's works. Though a painting depicting Susanna and the Elders is listed in the 1689 inventory, we can be sure that it is not the present work as it is of horizontal format and shows Susanna in the grips of the two old men.

It is surprising that despite being such a prolific draughtsman, no drawings linked to the present design are known. Datable to the late 1620s, the balanced composition, described by Pizzorusso as "bella and inconsueta" (beautiful and unusual),υ1 can be compared stylistically with Vannini's undisputed masterpiece which also dates from this period, the Rebecca at the Well in the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna.υ2 The carefully placed figures and the rigorous drawing echo the precise yet flowing design of the Vienna picture, as well as the serenity of the Baptism of Christ in the Musée des Beaux-Arts in Nantes.υ3

The subject of Susanna, who originally was an Old Testament Apocryphal figure, was often in the seventeenth century little more than an excuse to portray the female nude. Yet in the present work the old men - usually protagonists of the scene - can only just be made out in the background at left. They are yet to make their mark on the sequence of events, leaving us with a scene of sensual calm as Susanna and her maids undress before the lascivious storm of the old men's attack.

We are grateful to Dottoressa Francesca Baldassari for pointing out the early Provenance and to Dottor Filippo Gheri for his assistance in the preparation of the catalogue entry.



1. See Pizzorusso under Literature,
2. See Bellesi, vol. III, p. 358, plate 1630.
3. See Baldassari, p. 699, plate 427.