Notes
The rigorous drawing and colourful palette in this hitherto unpublished work are characteristic of the Florentine painter Ottavio Vannini. A skilled draftsman from an early age, Vannini is recorded by the biographer Filippo Baldinucci as drawing pen-and-ink sketches of 'varie e graziose figure' when just a boy.υ1 He received his initial artistic training with 'un tal Mecatti' (nicknamed 'Capaccio') but he soon left for Rome where he worked under Astasio Fontebuoni. On his return to Florence, upon Fontebuoni's recommendation, Vannini studied under Domenico Passignano and his artistic career took off shortly thereafter. He set up on his own and Baldinucci recounts how Vannini could not keep up with the demand for his paintings: 'Di quivi incominciò a dar fuori opere lodatissime, che in breve lo messero in grande stima fra gli altri pittori, tantochè mancavagli il tempo per sodisfare alle chieste, che gli venivan fatte di sue pitture'.υ2 Vannini enjoyed a vast and varied clientele, producing works for churches as well as for private patrons: 'Per altri molti luoghi e persone nobili e private dipinse più tavole e quadri a olio'.υ3 Vannini also excelled as a fresco painter: the Medici commissioned him to decorate the Casino Mediceo in their Villa di Poggio Imperiale in 1622-23, and in 1639 he frescoed part of the Sala degli Argenti in Palazzo Pitti; today considered his masterpiece. Baldinucci's biography sheds some light on the artist's personality as well as on his career. Vannini had a pleasant character: he is described as humorous and modest ('assennato e spiritoso' and 'il giovanetto Ottavio con tutta la sua modestia e natural bontà') as well as humble and respectful ('Fu dabbene assai, quieto, pacifico e rispettoso'). The moderation in his character is felt in his paintings where the figures move about with restrained elegance, their positioning and movements carefully composed.
This painting of Joseph and his brothers was probably commissioned from the artist by Andrea Del Rosso, in whose collection a painting of the same subject and of similar dimensions is recorded: an inventory drawn up on 2 December 1689 lists the painting as 'Ottavio Vannini. La Storia di Gioseffo con tutti li suoi fratelli... 2 [per] 2¼ braccia'.υ4 The collection was made up of 17th-century Florentine and Neapolitan works: Luca Giordano, Salvator Rosa, Didier Barra, Pacecco da Rosa, Bilivert, Dolci and Vannini were all represented.υ5 In fact eight paintings by Vannini are recorded in the collection and Baldinucci recounts Del Rosso's predilection for the artist: 'per lo medesimo Andrea del Rosso colorí molti altri quadri da camera e da sala di figure e storie diverse [...] e sono queste dell'opere migliori di suo pennello per essere a maraviglia condotte'.υ6 Two other masterpieces by Vannini, showing The Fall of the Manna and Moses striking the Rock, were also in the Del Rosso collection and are now in a private collection, Florence.υ7 It is not known when the Del Rosso collection was dispersed but in 1765 Cambiagi considered it to be worthy of mention, thereby suggesting that the collection had remained largely intact at that time.υ8
Although Vannini was a prolific draughtsman and numerous head studies by him are conserved at the Uffizi and the Louvre, no compositional drawings linked to this composition have come to light. One head study in the Uffizi, which has been rather tenuously linked to a figure in Vannini's frescoed lunette in the Casino Mediceo representing François I receiving a Florentine senator, shows a bearded young man who comes very close in physiognomy to the third standing brother from the left in this canvas.υ9 The inclination of the head, marked use of light and shadow on his neck and foreshortened nose, are all extremely similar and argue for a connection between the two works. Joseph was the eleventh of Jacob's twelve sons and his story is told in the Old Testament (Genesis 37 ff.). Joseph was his father's favourite and gifted in oneiromancy, the art of interpreting dreams. When Joseph was just seventeen years old he was sold into slavery by his jealous brothers, exacerbated by the fact that Joseph's own dreams had predicted that one day all his brothers would bow down to him, and this is the scene that Vannini has chosen to depict. Joseph stands in the middle, the bright colours of his costume perhaps alluding to his famous 'coat of many colours'. Joseph points at his brothers in a gesture of explanation or interpretation and they all confer with each other, as if plotting their revenge. Joseph's position in the centre of the composition emphasises his isolation.
We are grateful to Dott. Sandro Bellesi and Dott. Filippo Gheri for independently endorsing the attribution to Vannini. We are especially grateful to Dott. Gheri for pointing out the Del Rosso inventory.
1. F. Baldinucci, Notizie dei Professori del Disegno da Cimabue in qua, Florence 1846 ed., p. 430.
2. 'From then he began to produce works that were highly praised, leading him to be held in high regard by fellow artists within a short space of time, so much so that he did not have enough time to satisfy all the requests he received for his paintings'; Baldinucci, op. cit., p. 437.
3. 'For many other places as well as for noble and private patrons he painted numerous panels and paintings in oil'; ibid., pp. 440-41.
4. See Gualandi, under Literature, p. 123. The braccio fiorentino measures approximately 60 cm..
5. For the numerous paintings by Giordano see O. Ferrari, in O. Ferrari & G. Scavizzi, Luca Giordano, l'opera completa, vol. II, Naples 1992, pp. 77 ff..
6. 'For the same Andrea del Rosso he produced many other easel paintings with different figures and stories... and these are among his best works for having been painted so well'; Baldinucci, ibid., p. 437.
7. See R. Longhi, "Un Collezionista di Pittura Napoletana nella Firenze del Seicento" (1956), in Studi e ricerche sul Sei e Settecento, 1929-1970, Florence 1991, pp. 95-97.
8. 'l'abitazione del Balì del Rosso ricca di pitture singolarissime'; see Longhi, op. cit., p. 96.
9. Reproduced in R. Spinelli, "Note su un dipinto di Ottavio Vannini e su alcuni disegni inediti", in Paragone, year LII, no. 40, November 2001, p. 18, plate 24b.
