VALENTIN DE BOULOGNE* (1591-1632)

THE PROPERTY OF A PRIVATE COLLECTOR

Details

VALENTIN DE BOULOGNE* (1591-1632)

David with the Head of Goliath

oil on canvas
54¾ x 40½in. (139 x 103cm.)

Provenance

Cardinal Francesco Barberini (1597-1679), nephew of Pope Urban VIII, purchased the painting for 15 scudi in 1627. Recorded in the Barberini inventory, 1633, as in the collection of Cardinal Antonio Barberini, and in the 1649 inventory as again in the collection of Cardinal Francesco. (In the 1738 inventory included under the name Andrea Camassei.) After the dispersal of the collection in 1812-16, the painting remained in the family, where it was frequently cited in the 19th century
Luisa Schwartz, sale, Galleria L'Antonia, Rome, Jan. 16-23, 1935, no. 475
Yugoslavian Embassy, Madrid
Yovan Duchich, United States
Mitchell Duchich, Gary, Indiana, 1941-52
Fr. Vladimir Mrvchin, San Gabriel, California, until 1979

Literature

F. von Ramdohr, Uber Malerie und Bildhauerkeit im Rome, 1785 (reprinted 1971), II, p. 285, as Caravaggio
H. Voss, Die Malerie des Barock im Rome, 1924, p. 455
G. Isarlo, Caravaggio et le Caravagisme European, II, 1941, p. 247
F. Zeri, Catalogo del Gabinetto Fotografio Nazionale, I, La Galleria e la collezione Barberini, 1954, p. 7, no. 87, illustrated
R. Longhi, A Propos de Valentin, La Revue des Arts, 1958, p. 61
J. Thuillier, Un peintre passioné, L'Oeil, no. 47, Nov. 1958, p. 28, illustrated
Kunstmuseum Berne, Das 17 Jahrhundert in der Franzosischen Malerei, 1959, under no. 7
F. Vivian, Poussin and Claude seen from the Archivio Barberini, The Burlington Magazine, Dec. 1969, p. 722
Cleveland Museum of Art, Caravaggio and his Followers, 1971-72, p. 184, fig. 44
R. Spear, Renaissance and Baroque Paintings from the Sciarra and Fiano collections, 1972, p. 32
R. Spear, Unknown Pictures by the Caravaggisti, Storia del Arte, no. 14, 1972, p. 151 and note 21
Rome and Paris,The Catalogue of the Exhibition, I Caravaggeschi Francese, 1973-74, pp. 123, 168 and 246 (Italian ed.); pp. 125, 174 & 252 (French ed.)
M. Aronberg-Lavin, Seventeenth Century Barberini Documents & Inventories of Art, 1975, p. 42, doc. 343; p. 43, doc. 346; p. 242, III Inv. 49-676; pp. 529-530 and 575
J.B. Cuzin, Problèmes du Caravagisme, Revue de l'Art, no. 28, 1975, pp. 53-61
R. Spear, Caravaggio and his Followers, 1975, pp. 44, 184 and 205 and note 21, p. 229 and note 71
C. del Bravo, Verso I Carracci e verso Valentin, 1979, p. 46, 56 and note 91, pl. IV
B. Nicolson, The International Caravaggesque Movement, 1979, p. 104 M. Lewis, A lost painting, an insurance agent, and art history, The Christian Science Monitor, 26, 1, 1982
M. Mojana, Valentin de Boulogne, 1989, no. 38
B. Nicolson, Caravaggism in Europe, ed. L. Vertova, 1990, I, p. 201, II, pl.709

Exhibited

Paris, Galeries Nationales du Grand Palais, France in the Golden Age, Seventeenth-Century French Paintings in American Collections, Jan.-April 1982, no. 109, p. 58, illustrated. This exhibition travelled to New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art, May-August 1982; Chicago, The Art Institute of Chicago, Sept.- Nov. 1982

Lot Essay

The pendant to the above lot, also recorded in the Barberini inventory of 1727, is a Samson, commissioned in 1630 and now in the Cleveland Museum of Art (c.f. France in the Golden Age, etc..., op. cit, 1982, no. 110). Both paintings have previously been enlarged at the lower edge, but have now been restored to their original dimensions. Pierre Rosenberg (France in the Golden Age, etc... loc. cit.) tentatively dates the David to 1627, the year of its purchase by Cardinal Francesco Barberini and suggests it should be dated after the David in Montreal and the David in the Thyssen collection, Lugano.

Until recently the above lot bore at lower left a characteristic Barberini inventory number (no. 90) of the 19th Century