Carlo Maratti (1625-1713) and his school - The Virgin Mary

Carlo Maratti (Camerano, 1625 - Roma, 1713) and his school.
The Virgin Mary
Oil on copper
H: 23; W: 18 cm
Inscribed in ink on the back "1713?

Provenance: Probably the collection of Cardinal Silvio Valenti-Gonzaga, inventory of the Valenti-Gonzaga Gallery, Villa Paolina, Rome, before 1763, p.71, n°827 ‘cuadro alto palmi 1. rappresentante la Madona, in rame, di Carlo Maratta’.


Carlo Maratti (also known as Maratta) was one of the most influential Italian painters of the seventeenth century, the last great exponent of Roman classicism inherited from Raphael and the Carracci. Born in Camerano at the age of eleven, and having demonstrated a precocious talent, he was sent to Rome to complete his artistic training. He quickly became a central figure in temperate Baroque painting, appreciated for his balance, clarity and idealised grace.

Protected by several popes, he carried out major religious commissions, notably for St Peter's Basilica and numerous Roman churches. His influence also extended to portraiture, a field in which he excelled by combining majesty and naturalism. His studio was an essential centre of training, attracting pupils and assistants who perpetuated his refined, academic style.

On his arrival in Rome in 1636, Carlo Maratti trained in Andrea Sacchi's studio and learned by copying Raphael's works. He took from the Italian master the physiognomy of the Madonnas typical of his style.

With heavy, lowered eyelids, a long nose close to a tight mouth and an oval-shaped face, like the one in the San Fernando collection in Madrid (Fig. 2) and also in the Royal Collection Trust (Fig. 3), our Virgin on copper displays the physical characteristics employed by Maratti.

The hands delicately placed on the bust are reminiscent of the preparatory studies also in the San Fernando collection.
The heavy drapery in broad flat tints is also characteristic of the artist, and the brushwork on the complexions can be compared to another oil on copper by the artist, The Flight into Egypt, which is in the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

The Virgin in our possession was reproduced in pastel by a French artist, Jeanne Natoire. She was the sister of the director of the Académie de France in Rome, Charles-Joseph Natoire, who held this position from 1751 to 1775.

We have found mention of a Virgin on copper by Carlo Maratta of the same dimensions in the collections of Cardinal Silvio Valenti-Gonzaga. We know that Charles-Joseph Natoire was acquainted with the cardinal, and the archives mention commissions placed by him with the artist. We have therefore speculated that Jeanne Natoire may have copied her Virgin from Valenti-Gonzaga's copper following a visit to his collection.

As for the ink inscription on the back of the work, the date seems difficult to decipher, either 1713 or 1715. In any case, Carlo Maratta devoted himself mainly to small devotional paintings at the end of his career, supported by his workshop, which was the most important in Rome during the last decades of the seventeenth century and until his death in 1713.

Illustrations:

Carlo Maratti, Virgin, black chalk on paper, 21x16cm, Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando (INVD-0881).

Carlo Maratti, The Head of the Virgin and a Young Man, red chalk on paper, 25.5x14.7cm, Royal Collection Trust, London (INV RCIN 904223).

Carlo Maratti, The Flight into Egypt, 1664, oil on copper, 60.3x48.6cm, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (INV 2020.263.8).

Carlo Maratti, studies, black chalk on paper, 27x43 cm, Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando (INV D-1126)

Jeanne Natoire, pastel on paper mounted on canvas, 36.7x28.7cm, private collection.