Denys Calvaert Antwerp circa 1540 - 1619 Bologna

This copper panel is closely related to an altarpiece of 1606, painted by Calvaert for the Bertalotti altar in the church of San Giuseppe de’ Vecchi Settuagenari, Bologna, and today in the convent church of San Luca in the same city.¹ Calvaert clearly went to great pains in designing the altarpiece’s complex composition, which is populated by no less than ten figures, and he produced a detailed preparatory drawing (probably serving as a modello or presentation piece for the Bertalotti family to approve).² The altarpiece follows the drawing’s design almost exactly, but the present painting on copper shows considerable differences: although the composition is still built around an overall pyramidal design, Calvaert has omitted the middle-tier figures of Saint John the Evangelist on the left and Saint Lawrence on the right. The result is a less cramped composition, in which the figures are given more space, and the artist has filled the gaps left by the two missing saints with Saint Joseph’s feet on one side and a broken column behind Saint Roch on the other. The Infant Saint John the Baptist proffers a rose here rather than a bird: the former is a symbol often linked to the Virgin Mary and more generally represents martyrdom; the latter is a symbol often associated with Christ for legend has it that the goldfinch acquired its red spot when it flew over Christ on the way to Calvary and, drawing a thorn from His brow, was spattered with a drop of the Saviour’s blood.

This variant on copper was almost certainly painted by Calvaert for a private patron, in response to a specific commission. Calvaert sometimes produced replicas or variants of his compositions, particularly late in life.³ The date of the San Luca altarpiece provides a terminus post quem for the execution of this copper and it is therefore reasonable to assume that it was probably painted during the last ten years of the artist’s life. The copper support, much favoured by Calvaert, is wonderfully suited to the artist’s mannerist coloring and delicate rendering of detail.⁴

1  Oil on canvas, 266 by 172 cm.; see S. Twiehaus, Dionisio Calvaert (um 1540-1619). Die Altarwerke, Berlin 2002, pp. 199-200, cat. no. A9, reproduced fig. 26.
2  Paris, Cabinet des Dessins du Louvre, inv. no. 19.843; reproduced in Twiehaus, op. cit., fig. 27.
3  His painting of Danae in the Pinacoteca in Lucca, which is signed and dated 1614, is a variant of an earlier painting of the same subject, datable to circa 1601, in the Ferens Art Gallery, Kingston-upon-Hull; both reproduced by T. Montella, in V. Fortunati Pietrantonio, Pittura bolognese del ’500, Bologna 1986, vol. II, pp. 708 and 701 respectively.
4  The same is true of the copper representing The Holy Family with Saints Elizabeth and John the Baptist, signed and dated 1584, sold in Milan, Sotheby’s, May 30, 2006, lot 5, for €160,000.