The following condition report has been provided by Simon Parkes of Simon Parkes Art Conservation, Inc. 502 East 74th St. New York, NY 212-734-3920, simonparkes@msn.com, an independent restorer who is not an employee of Sotheby's.
This work has been restored. The lining is applied with glue, and the surface is very attractive. The varnish nicely saturates the darker colors of the paint layer. The retouches are well applied. They are clearly visible under ultraviolet light in a vertical line running from the lower center up to the waist of the figure, which measures about 6 inches. There is another small rectangular line of retouches at the top of this vertical line. There are a few isolated spots of retouching in the upper right and upper left background. There is a group of retouches in the background near the raised hand on the left, and a concentration of retouches to the right of the face and shoulder. There are only a very few isolated spots of retouching in the face, neck and hand. Retouches are few and far between in the red cloak. There are two thin lines of restoration running from beneath his ear across his beard and into the blue fabric over the shoulder on the right, which may address thin breaks in the canvas. The work does not seem to be noticeably abraded, and the colors and glazes seem to be well preserved. The restoration is well applied, and the work should be hung as is.
"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."
This compelling and finely rendered portrait of
Christ Blessing is a highly important addition to the
oeuvre of Bartolomeo Manfredi, Caravaggio's most important follower in Rome after his death. A painter of North Italian birth, Manfredi is documented in 1610 in Rome, although he may have arrived a few years earlier, and it was here that he would have first come in contact with the tenebrist style of Caravaggio. No paintings by Manfredi are signed or dated, making the chronology of his works difficult to establish, yet his accomplished output spanning his entire career solidifies his importance within the tradition of Baroque painting as a key link between Caravaggio and artists in generations to follow.
The style of the present painting, so suggestive and confident in its use of chiaroscuro, does in fact have roots in the works of Caravaggio, who clearly left an impression on the young artist from Ostiano. Rather than being a simple, slavish follower of Caravaggio, however, Manfredi himself was an innovator of a new style. His dramatically lit compositions were to have a deep influence on French and Netherlandish artists visiting Rome, such as Dirck van Baburen, Valentin de Boulogne, Nicolas Tournier, and Nicolas Régnier, all of whom would disseminate his style in their native lands. The effect was so marked and immediate that a near contemporary and fellow artist called the phenomenon the “Manfrediana methodus.”
The expressive profile of the face of the Christ in the present work, cast in a deep shadow, can be compared to that of Manfredi’s Saint John the Evangelist in the Pinacoteca Capitolina in Rome,1 and a related figure of Christ, also dramatically lit and draped in heavy red and blue fabrics, appears in Manfredi’s Tribute Money in the Uffizi Gallery in Florence (fig. 1).
1. See G. Papi, Bartolomeo Manfredi, Soncino 2013, pp. 161-162, cat. no. 21, reproduced p. 87, reproduced plate 29.
