盧多維科‧卡拉奇

Bartolomeo Dulcini, Bologna, by 1631;
By whom sold to Conte Odoardo Pepoli for 60 scudi;
By inheritance to his nephew, Conte Cornelio Pepoli;
By whom sold in 1683 for 1,000 scudi di paoli to Ettore Melone;
By whom sold for 500 doppie to Graf Friedrich Christian zu Schaumburg-Lippe (1655-1728);
Thence by descent.

B. Dulcini, De Vario Bononiae Statu a bea condita, Bologna 1631, p. 304;
C.C. Malvasia, Felsina Pittrice. Vite de’ pittori bolognesi, Bologna 1678 [reprinted Bologna 1841], p. 286, note 1;
H. Bodmer, Lodovico Carracci, Burg-bei-Magdeburg 1939, p. 139 (as known only from Malvasia);
R. Wittkower, The Drawings by the Carracci at Windsor Castle, London 1952, p. 104, under no. 36 (as recorded by Malvasia, as sold “into the collection of a German Count”);
D. Miller, 'A Drawing by Ludovico Carracci for his Lost Penitence of St. Peter’, in The Burlington Magazine, vol. CVI, August 1964, p. 374 (as recorded by Malvasia, publishing Adriana Arfelli’s information about missing information in the provenance);
G. Feigenbaum, Lodovico Carracci: A Study of his Later Career and a Catalogue of his Paintings, dissertation, Princeton 1984, pp. 116, 442, under no. 136 (as recorded by Malvasia, with correction made by Arfelli to an omission in Malvasia’s footnote, as sold to Federico Cristiano Co. de Schaumbourg et de Lippe);
A. Brogi, Lodovico Carracci, Bologna 2001, vol. I, pp. 298–99, cat. no. P107 (as recorded by Malvasia, as sold in 1683 to Friedrich Christian von Schaumburg-Lippe);
B. Bohn, Ludovico Carracci and the Art of Drawing, Turnhout 2004, p. 234, under no. 107 (as recorded by Malvasia, as sold into the collection of a German Count).

The following condition report is provided by Sarah Walden who is an external specialist and not an employee of Sotheby's: Ludovico Carracci. St. Peter in Penitence. This painting has a very early lining which has still remained quite strong. There is a seam about 20cm from the right side. The stretcher is also early, conceivably original. The stability of the background of this painting can be see not only in its exceptional structural preservation but within the paint itself. The brushwork of the figure itself is extraordinarily intact, from the flow of the flesh painting to the unworn vigour of the drapery it is undimmed by later interference. The upper edge has undoubtedly suffered to some extent, with some old retouching mainly in the corners and some places where the warm ground can be seen in the sky. One old retouching was superficially dabbed over an original brushstroke in the blue on the upper sleeve, and there is some darkened old retouching behind the head. In each base corners there are old retouched dents, which as so often seem likely to have come from the misjudged hammering of wedges. Most unusual is the remarkable preservation of the vividly sketched background scenes. Under ultra violet light there has clearly been minimal cleaning apart from around the central head, with some opaque old varnish elsewhere, but with such minimal historic intervention this does not impede the depth of visibility for the naked eye. This report was not done under laboratory conditions.
"This lot is offered for sale subject to Sotheby's Conditions of Business, which are available on request and printed in Sotheby's sale catalogues. The independent reports contained in this document are provided for prospective bidders' information only and without warranty by Sotheby's or the Seller."

It is almost unknown for a Baroque painting of this importance, by one of the most innovative and significant personalities if the Italian school, to come to the market with an unbroken history stretching back to within a few years of its creation. The composition was first developed by Carracci in a sketch now in the Royal Collection at Windsor.


Ludovico Carracci was one of the most significant personalities to shape what was to become the Italian Baroque. It is thus significantly rare to be able to present to the market such a beautifully preserved painting by him and whose unbroken provenance stretches back at least to 1631. First recorded in that year, when it belonged to Bartolomeo Dulcini, the picture has remained unseen by scholars and the art market, and until now has been published solely on the basis of seventeenth-century records.

The scene depicted, popular in the Counter Reformation, is taken from the Gospel of Saint Mark, Chapter 14, verse 72, when Saint Peter laments his betrayal of Christ: 'And when he thought thereon, he wept'. Ludovico's presentation of the narrative discretely includes all the relevant context of the story, without distracting the viewer from the magnificent figure of Peter in the foreground. In the background we see the palace of  the High Priest, with Christ being brought before him on the arcaded upper story, and the servants warming themselves by a fire on the ground arcade, where Peter had recently been with them (Mark, 14:54). In the left foreground the Cross is being prepared.

This is a mature work by Ludovico, when he was coming to terms with the new developments in painting introduced by his kinsman Annibale in Rome. The artist’s prima idea for the design appears to be recorded in a drawing at Windsor Castle, in which the figure of Saint Peter is depicted in a similar pose, although reversed and with his hands clasped before rather than above him.¹ The architectural repoussoir to the right is also present in the drawing, including the steps, and on the left the preparation of the cross can be made out. Babette Bohn (see Literature) dates the Windsor drawing on grounds of style to circa 1593–94 and it seems likely that Ludovico’s painting was produced relatively soon thereafter.² A likely terminus ante quem is provided by a fresco of the same subject by Ludovico’s pupil Francesco Albani painted for the Oratory of San Colombano, Bologna, in circa 1597–98. The pose of the figure of the Saint is strikingly similar to Ludovico’s design, in particular to his drawing at Windsor Castle, and Albani has also depicted an arcaded palace as a backdrop.³ 

The present work can be identified with 'Il S. Pietro, che uscito dall’Atrio Flevit amare dopo la negozione ec. Figura sola alta due piedi', one of a group of thirteen paintings by Ludovico Carracci (including the Noli me Tangere also sold to Friedrich Christian Schaumburg Lippe) that belonged to Bartolomeo Dulcini in 1631, and were acquired by Conte Odoardo Pepoli for 60 scudi each.⁴ Pepoli’s nephew Cornelio sold this painting to Emilio Melone, who sold it (without its frame) and the Noli Me Tangere in 1683 for 500 doppie to Count Friedrich Christian Schaumburg-Lippe, direct ancestor of the present owner. This information was recorded by Malvasia in a manuscript annotation to his own Felsina Pittrice which had been published in 1678, and incorporated into the printed text of the reprinted edition published in Bologna in 1841. 

Malvasia records a further Saint Peter in Penitence by Ludovico, in which the saint is seen seated with a cockerel. This is the work sold in these Rooms in July 2009, formerly in the collection of Barbara Johnson and for which a preparatory drawing is in the Louvre. It was recorded by Malvasia as copied by Marcantonio Franceschini (the copy is in the Fabriccieria of S. Petronio, Bologna).⁵

THE PROVENANCE
Count Friedrich Christian zu Schaumburg-Lippe (1655-1728) succeeded his father in 1681, but did not marry until ten years later.  He spent some of the intervening years in Italy, and acquired a number of paintings in Roma, Bologna and Reggio Emilia. He mostly bought works by then contemporary artists such as Carlo Maratti and Giuseppe Chiari in Rome, and Carlo Cignani and Lorenzo Pasinelli in Bologna, but he also acquired a small number of paintings by earlier masters, including this Ludovico Carracci and another, a Noli Me Tangere  with the same Dulcini/Pepoli/Melone early provenance. 

 Schaumburg-Lippe was in Italy in 1683-6 (and possibly a year or two after that), at almost exactly the same time as John Cecil, 5^th Earl of Exeter, who was for example buying works by Pasinelli in 1684, a year before Schaumburg Lippe acquired one of several works by the artist, including a commissioned work finished in 1686.  Both northern European Milordi  also acquired several works by Cignani, Chiari and Maratta in these years, and their taste in pictures seems to have remarkably similar.  Both too were shipping their purchase back to houses built at around the same time in the 16^th Century, although of the two only Lord Exeter remodelled his seat at Burghley on a lavish scale.  Unlike Lord Exeter, Schaumburg-Lippe seems to have avoided pictures of overtly pagan subjects.

1. The drawing is in pen and brown ink and wash heightened with white on blue-grey paper, 280 x 194 mm., for which see Brogi, under Literature, vol. II, reproduced plate 349.  Permission to reproduce it here was denied.
2. See Bohn under Literature, p. 234, cat. no. 107, reproduced.
3. See C. R. Puglisi, Francesco Albani, New Haven and London 1999, pp. 90–91, cat. no. 2.i, reproduced plates 1 and 18.
4. For the Noli Me Tangere see Brogi, vol. I, p. 293, cat. no. P79.
5. Ibid., vol. I, pp. 225–26, cat. no. 113, reproduced in colour plate XLVII. The Penitent Saint Peter was sold London, Sotheby's, 8 July 2009, lot 20, for £360,000. See also Miller under Literature; the Louvre drawing and the Franceschini copy reproduced p. 372, figs 18 and 19.