The Flight into Egypt (after Reni)
possibly Giuseppe Bartolomeo Chiari (Rome 1654 – Rome 1727)
Category
Art / Oil paintings
Date
1654 - 1727
Materials
oil on canvas
Measurements
1524 x 1283 mm (60 x 50 1/2 in)
Place of origin
Italy
Order this imageCollection
Kedleston Hall, Derbyshire
NT 108838
Summary
Oil painting on canvas, The Flight into Egypt (after Reni), possibly by Giuseppe Bartolomeo Chiari (Rome 1654 – Rome 1727). The Virgin stands on the left, three-quarter length, right profile, her right hand raised holding up a veil she is wearing on her head, looking down on the Christ Child in swaddling clothes held in the crook of her left arm; Joseph on the right, turned to right, but head turned back to look down on the Christ Child, beneath Joseph on bottom right corner a naked boy angel (cherub) with a swirling modesty cloth, turned three-quarters to right, head turned to left, looking up at the Christ Child, and offering the Virgin/Child, with his right hand, a flower from the bunch of flowers he holds in his left hand. In the course of his career Chiari was a pupil, assistant, and ultimately follower, of Carlo Maratta, after whose death in 1713 he became doyen of the painters in Rome. Here, however, he may have been copying or making his own pastiche of the work of one of the formative influences on Maratta himself, Guido Reni. There is no certain original by Reni. The best version, from the Colonna collection, is in the Cartwright Hall, Bradford City Art Gallery.
Provenance
Recorded at Kedleston since 1769; and thence by descent until bought with part of the contents of Kedleston with the aid of the National Heritage Memorial Fund in 1987 when the house and park were given to the National Trust by Francis Curzon, 3rd Viscount Scarsdale (1924-2000)
Credit line
Kedleston Hall, The Scarsdale Collection (acquired with the help of the National Heritage Memorial Fund and transferred to The National Trust in 1987)
Makers and roles
possibly Giuseppe Bartolomeo Chiari (Rome 1654 – Rome 1727), publisher after Guido Reni (Bologna 1575 – Bologna 1642), publisher
References
Pepper 1984 D. Stephen Pepper, Guido Reni: A Complete Catalogue of his Works with an Introductory Text, Oxford 1984, pp.295-6:“Appendix I. Works Related to Guido Reni. B. RELIGIOUS SUBJECTS. B7. The Flight into Egypt (cf. Figs 55 and 56) Whereabouts unknown. Malvasia’s reference (p.64) to a Flight into Egypt in which the Holy Family is accompanied by an angel then in the collection of the Contestabile Colonna, is the basis for considering a lost original by Reni to stand behind the several versions of the subject. This, however, does not exclude the possibility that the work referred to by Malvasia was itself a studio work (see Copies below, A) and is therefore the source of the other copies or variants. It is possible that in a case, such as this, when so many copies survive but the far previous original is ‘lost’, that the work was from the very start produced by an assistant. LITERATURE: Malvasia, p.64;COPIES… Flight into Egypt without angel… B4. Kedleston Hall, Derbyshire, Viscount Scarsdale. ..”