Saint John the Evangelist (Domenichino)
| Saint John the Evangelist | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Artist | Domenico Zampieri (Domenichino) |
| Year | 1621–1629? |
| Medium | Oil on canvas |
| Dimensions | 259 cm × 199.4 cm (102 in × 78.5 in) |
Saint John the Evangelist is a painting by the Italian Baroque painter Domenichino. In February 2014 it was on display in the National Gallery, London, on loan from a private collection.
The painting is thought to have been commissioned by either Benedetto (1554–1621) or his brother Vincenzo Giustiniani (1564–1637) since it appears in the 1638 Giustiniani inventory. Paintings of Saints Matthew, Mark and Luke (by Nicolas Régnier, Francesco Albani and Guido Reni respectively) are also included, all stated to be the same size as the Saint John. It has been suggested therefore that the four paintings were originally intended as a series.
Despite the prestigious commission, the date of the painting's execution remains unclear. Richard E. Spear, author of numerous publications on 17th-century Italian painting and one of the foremost scholars on the life and work of Domenichino, put the work at around 1627 to 1629. This is due to stylistic similarities with works such as the Sant'Andrea della Valle's Saint John. An alternative theory, put forward in Squarzina's analysis of the 1938 Giustiniani inventory, speculates that the work could be from before 1621. Others have concluded dates between 1624 and 1628.
The painting descended via Vincenzo Giustiniani's heir to Prince Benedetto Giustiniani, in whose posthumous inventory of 1793 it appears, then to Andrea Giustiniani, who in 1804 declined a purchase offer of 6,500 scudi for it. Andrea then had it taken to Paris, probably before 1806, where he sold it to Alexis Delahante. Delahante and W. Harris then sold it to Richard Hart Davis and it was then sold in around 1813 with the rest of Davis's collection to Philip John Miles. Inherited firstly by his son, William Miles then his grandson Philip Miles, the picture was kept at Leigh Court where it, along with others in the family's extensive collection, could be viewed upon application. The impact of the Long Depression and an agricultural crisis depressing farm prices due to cheap imports from abroad, however, simultaneously attacked this landowning and banking family's sources of income and caused Sir Philip to seek to sell in 1884 at Christie's where part of the collection was among the first to be sold under the terms of Gladstone's Settled Lands Act. However, Domenichino and his contemporaries had by then gone out of fashion with British buyers and the Saint John the Evangelist remained unsold.
...
Wikipedia