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Lot Essay
This striking portrait was first published by Mario Alberto Pavone and has also been studied by Francesco Petrucci and Marcello Fagiolo dell'Arco, who endorse the traditional attribution. Clearly the inscription on the reverse is the point de départ for the study of the picture and in this connection it should be noted that Cristina di Leo considers this to be in Bernini's own hand, a view accepted by Petrucci.
Bernini executed self-portraits throughout his career. As Petrucci and Pavone observe, the angle of the head corresponds very closely with that of the early self-portrait in the Villa Borghese, Rome. Allowing for the passage of some two decades the correspondence of the features is compelling. Dr Ann Sutherland Harris independently noted this, but commented on the surprising scale of the ears which are conveniently covered by hair in the Borghese sketch: it should be noted that the second, later, self-portrait in the Villa Borghese, shows that the lobes of the artist's ears were indeed rather large.
Bernini is of course most celebrated as a sculptor, but his contemporary Baglione, writing in 1642, commented on his talent as a painter and in one of the Avvisi, printed after his death, he is referred to as the 'Titiano dei nostri tempi' (Pavone, pp. 280 and 282, note 23). While most of the extant portraits in oil have the character of sketches, and were no doubt intended as such, this canvas was intended for presentation -- to a significant member of the Barberini establishment (see below) -- and is thus more fully wrought. As Petrucci notes, Fagiolo dell'Arco has suggested that the picture was intended as a wedding present to Alessandro Siri and thus that his characterisation of himself as Mars alludes to the theme of Mars and Venus. This characterisation would not be surprising in an artist who had twice portrayed himself in the character of David (Rome, Palazzo Barberini and formerly Incisa della Rocchetta collection, the latter of Chigi provenance). The deep red drapery -- which Dr Sutherland Harris (who also has reservations about the lighter strokes of the hair and facial hair) considers not to be by the artist -- is not readily paralleled in other pictures by him, but the dramatic folds do have sculptural counterparts: and without the drapery the characterisation as Mars would not be clearly expressed.
The fullest description of Bernini's physical appearance is that of his son, Domenico (cf. Pavone, p. 280): 'carni alquanto brune, pelo nero, che incanuti nell'età più vecchia, occhio pur nero, e di cosi forte guardatura, che cullo squardo solo alter..., ciglia lunghe, e di longhi peli composte, ampla fronte e maestosa...'. The swarthy skin of the Siri portrait would conform with this filial account.
The explanation of Bernini's association with Alessandro Siri must lie in their mutual links with the Barberini family, all powerful during the relatively long pontificate of Pope Urban VIII (1623-44). As was established by Giuseppe Milazzo, from whose paper 'La Nobile Famiglia Savonese dei Siri', the information in the ensuing three paragraphs is drawn. Alessandro Siri and his brother Giovanni Battista were the sons of Francesco Siri, a successful merchant of spices from Savona, who had settled in Rome. The brothers who became bankers in the service of Bernini's patron, Pope Urban VIII, applied to be ennobled and, in 1638, were duly included in the 'Libro d'Oro' of the nobility of Savona. In 1640, Alessandro married Aurelia Gavotti, daughter of a distinguished Savonese family; and in October of that year, employing two of the Gavotti as intermediaries, the brothers acquired a palace in via Guarda at Savona for 20,000 lire. As bankers to the Pope, the Siri, evidently against the wishes of Odoardo Farnese, controlled the finances of the Duchy of Castro. They were also no doubt active in securing financial support at Genoa and elsewhere in Liguria for the disastrous war of Castro, in which the Barberini tried to usurp territory acquired less than a century earlier by the equally grasping family of Pope Paul III Farnese.
The family's earliest demonstrable link with Bernini was due to a third brother, Giovanni Stefano, born in 1602. He was a favourite of Cardinal Antonio Barberini, nephew of Pope Urban VIII. Appointed bishop of Sagona and Calvi in Corsica at the age of 29 on 15 November 1631, he died on 4 September 1635, but had already established what was to be an enduring link between his family and the Sanctuario of Savona. Before his departure for Corsica he had clearly come to know Bernini. Letters between the two survive, one with the ending: 'vi saluto con salvado del cuore affettuoso e col desiderio dell'amico lontano' (Pavone, p. 278, quoting V. Poggi, 1889, pp. 105-113).
With the Gavotti, the Siri were briefly the leading patrons of religious artistic projects in the city, but the Sanctuario was their main preoccupation. For the chapel of the Visitation, the brothers ordered Guido Reni's picture of the subject: the marble decoration was supplied from Rome, as an inscription records:
TOTUM QUOD HEIC MIRARIS
MARMOREVM OPUS
IOANNES BAPTISTA
ET ALEXANDER SIRI FRATRES
SAVONENSES VIRI.
HVC ROMA DONO MISERVNT
OLLIS LAVRENTIVS BERNINVS
FECIT
Alessandro's personal commitment to the sanctuary is also implied by his gift on 15 May 1639, of a reliquary of the Cross, now in the Museo del Tesoro del Sanctuario di Nostra Signora della Misericordia di Savona.
With the death of Pope Urban VIII in 1644 the brothers not only lost their patron, but also suffered from the reaction against those associated with the Barberini regime and indeed the war of Castro. Their financial business quickly disintegrated. Alessandro Siri died in Rome soon after 1651, his widow in 1665: Giovanni Battista survived, apparently until 1671, by when the collapse of his business had impelled him to return to Savona where a fourth brother, Nicolò may have enjoyed a quiet prosperity as a canon of the cathedral. The family survived, but in reduced circumstances.
Bernini's range was prodigious. As a painter we associate him, above all, with his wonderfully direct studies of heads that have a timeless conviction purely because these almost float on the surface of the canvas. The drapery in the Siri portrait thus comes as a surprise. Yet although studies were collected in the seicento, it would be difficult to invoke any example of an evidently unfinished work painted for presentation. If Bernini intended to be represented as Mars as a teasing allusion to Siri's marriage, red drapery, or failing this visually distracting armour, would in any case have been necessary. It may not be a coincidence thus that in some ways the portrait recalls works by Van Dyck, of whose achievements Siri as a Ligurian would have been so well aware.
Bernini executed self-portraits throughout his career. As Petrucci and Pavone observe, the angle of the head corresponds very closely with that of the early self-portrait in the Villa Borghese, Rome. Allowing for the passage of some two decades the correspondence of the features is compelling. Dr Ann Sutherland Harris independently noted this, but commented on the surprising scale of the ears which are conveniently covered by hair in the Borghese sketch: it should be noted that the second, later, self-portrait in the Villa Borghese, shows that the lobes of the artist's ears were indeed rather large.
Bernini is of course most celebrated as a sculptor, but his contemporary Baglione, writing in 1642, commented on his talent as a painter and in one of the Avvisi, printed after his death, he is referred to as the 'Titiano dei nostri tempi' (Pavone, pp. 280 and 282, note 23). While most of the extant portraits in oil have the character of sketches, and were no doubt intended as such, this canvas was intended for presentation -- to a significant member of the Barberini establishment (see below) -- and is thus more fully wrought. As Petrucci notes, Fagiolo dell'Arco has suggested that the picture was intended as a wedding present to Alessandro Siri and thus that his characterisation of himself as Mars alludes to the theme of Mars and Venus. This characterisation would not be surprising in an artist who had twice portrayed himself in the character of David (Rome, Palazzo Barberini and formerly Incisa della Rocchetta collection, the latter of Chigi provenance). The deep red drapery -- which Dr Sutherland Harris (who also has reservations about the lighter strokes of the hair and facial hair) considers not to be by the artist -- is not readily paralleled in other pictures by him, but the dramatic folds do have sculptural counterparts: and without the drapery the characterisation as Mars would not be clearly expressed.
The fullest description of Bernini's physical appearance is that of his son, Domenico (cf. Pavone, p. 280): 'carni alquanto brune, pelo nero, che incanuti nell'età più vecchia, occhio pur nero, e di cosi forte guardatura, che cullo squardo solo alter..., ciglia lunghe, e di longhi peli composte, ampla fronte e maestosa...'. The swarthy skin of the Siri portrait would conform with this filial account.
The explanation of Bernini's association with Alessandro Siri must lie in their mutual links with the Barberini family, all powerful during the relatively long pontificate of Pope Urban VIII (1623-44). As was established by Giuseppe Milazzo, from whose paper 'La Nobile Famiglia Savonese dei Siri', the information in the ensuing three paragraphs is drawn. Alessandro Siri and his brother Giovanni Battista were the sons of Francesco Siri, a successful merchant of spices from Savona, who had settled in Rome. The brothers who became bankers in the service of Bernini's patron, Pope Urban VIII, applied to be ennobled and, in 1638, were duly included in the 'Libro d'Oro' of the nobility of Savona. In 1640, Alessandro married Aurelia Gavotti, daughter of a distinguished Savonese family; and in October of that year, employing two of the Gavotti as intermediaries, the brothers acquired a palace in via Guarda at Savona for 20,000 lire. As bankers to the Pope, the Siri, evidently against the wishes of Odoardo Farnese, controlled the finances of the Duchy of Castro. They were also no doubt active in securing financial support at Genoa and elsewhere in Liguria for the disastrous war of Castro, in which the Barberini tried to usurp territory acquired less than a century earlier by the equally grasping family of Pope Paul III Farnese.
The family's earliest demonstrable link with Bernini was due to a third brother, Giovanni Stefano, born in 1602. He was a favourite of Cardinal Antonio Barberini, nephew of Pope Urban VIII. Appointed bishop of Sagona and Calvi in Corsica at the age of 29 on 15 November 1631, he died on 4 September 1635, but had already established what was to be an enduring link between his family and the Sanctuario of Savona. Before his departure for Corsica he had clearly come to know Bernini. Letters between the two survive, one with the ending: 'vi saluto con salvado del cuore affettuoso e col desiderio dell'amico lontano' (Pavone, p. 278, quoting V. Poggi, 1889, pp. 105-113).
With the Gavotti, the Siri were briefly the leading patrons of religious artistic projects in the city, but the Sanctuario was their main preoccupation. For the chapel of the Visitation, the brothers ordered Guido Reni's picture of the subject: the marble decoration was supplied from Rome, as an inscription records:
TOTUM QUOD HEIC MIRARIS
MARMOREVM OPUS
IOANNES BAPTISTA
ET ALEXANDER SIRI FRATRES
SAVONENSES VIRI.
HVC ROMA DONO MISERVNT
OLLIS LAVRENTIVS BERNINVS
FECIT
Alessandro's personal commitment to the sanctuary is also implied by his gift on 15 May 1639, of a reliquary of the Cross, now in the Museo del Tesoro del Sanctuario di Nostra Signora della Misericordia di Savona.
With the death of Pope Urban VIII in 1644 the brothers not only lost their patron, but also suffered from the reaction against those associated with the Barberini regime and indeed the war of Castro. Their financial business quickly disintegrated. Alessandro Siri died in Rome soon after 1651, his widow in 1665: Giovanni Battista survived, apparently until 1671, by when the collapse of his business had impelled him to return to Savona where a fourth brother, Nicolò may have enjoyed a quiet prosperity as a canon of the cathedral. The family survived, but in reduced circumstances.
Bernini's range was prodigious. As a painter we associate him, above all, with his wonderfully direct studies of heads that have a timeless conviction purely because these almost float on the surface of the canvas. The drapery in the Siri portrait thus comes as a surprise. Yet although studies were collected in the seicento, it would be difficult to invoke any example of an evidently unfinished work painted for presentation. If Bernini intended to be represented as Mars as a teasing allusion to Siri's marriage, red drapery, or failing this visually distracting armour, would in any case have been necessary. It may not be a coincidence thus that in some ways the portrait recalls works by Van Dyck, of whose achievements Siri as a Ligurian would have been so well aware.