Ventura Salimbeni

Possibly Torquato Perotti (c. 1580–1642), Rome, by 1633;

Private collection Italy;

Whence sold, Florence, Pandolfini, 13 November 2018, lot 1;

Where acquired by the present owner.

Possibly G. Mascardi, Le Veneri, Poesie del Bruni all'altezza serenissima di Odoardo Farnese Duca di Parma e di Piacenza, Rome 1633, p. 257.

This elegant depiction of The Three Graces with Cupid asleep is an autograph variant of Ventura Salimbeni's picture in the Galleria Borghese, Rome.¹ The attribution of the Borghese canvas, which is unsigned, slightly larger in size and includes another putto in the upper left corner, previously oscillated between various Sienese painters, including Francesco Vanni (1563–1610) and Rutilio Manetti (1571–1639).² The emergence of the present monogrammed painting on the market in 2018 (see Provenance), however, restored both pictures to Salimbeni's œuvre.

Note on Provenance

The Borghese picture's early provenance remains unknown. Paola della Pergola claimed that it likely entered the collection in 1607, together with a number of other works confiscated from Cavalier d’Arpino (1568–1640), who was accused by Paul V’s fiscal authorities of the illegal possession of firearms. The canvas can perhaps be associated with an entry on the list of confiscated goods: ‘[a] small work with three figures of bacchanals, without a frame’.³ By contrast, Marco Gallo hypothesised that the Borghese painting had originated from the collection of Monsignor Torquato Perotti, a Roman Catholic bishop, who is described as owning a picture of this subject by Salimbeni in a madrigal published in 1633 (see Literature).⁴ On the basis of the extant documents it is not possible to determine whether Della Pergola or Gallo is more likely correct, but their theories cannot both be applied: if the Borghese canvas entered the collection in 1607, it cannot have also been in Perotti's ownership by 1633. It is possible, therefore, that the 1633 madrigal refers instead to the present work.

¹ Inv. no. 527; oil on canvas, 35 x 41 cm.; The Three Graces - Salimbeni Ventura.

² C. Brandi, 'Francesco Vanni', in Art in America, vol. XIX, 1931, p. 81, no. 15; A. Bagnoli, in Rutilio Manetti: 1571–1639, A. Bagnoli (ed.), exh. cat., Florence 1978, p. 75, no. 10.

³ P. della Pergola, La Galleria Borghese. I Dipinti, Rome 1959, vol. II, pp. 38–39, no. 51.

⁴ M. Gallo, 'Per Monsignor Torquato Perotti accademico Humorista: un collezionista della cerchia di Maffeo e Francesco Barberini', in Valori Tattili, voI. I, 2013, pp. 66–99.