by Barocci for the Oratorians in the Chiesa Nuova. Federico took up residence as archbishop of Milan in 1601, and Cerano was given a leading role in every major artistic project initiated by the Cardinal for the next thirty years, including several canvases for the first cycle of scenes of the life of Carlo Borromeo to be hung in the Cathedral as part of the canonization process begun in 1601, and frescoes and altarpieces for the church of Sant Maria presso San Celso where Cerano was assisted by Giulio Cesare Procaccini. Rome did not provide all of Cerano’s inspiration, however. The depiction of scenes from the Old and New Testaments as commonplace or everyday events was a hallmark of the new taste for devotional realism in northern Italy, beginning in the Bolognese milieu of the Caracci and later spreading throughout Lombardy and to Genoa. The paring back of the subject to its narrative essentials, and the attention to details of still life, namely the copper water pots in the foreground and held in the hand of the Samaritan, are characteristic of the Lombard approach to this new mode of handling devotional themes. Cerano’s knowledge of Bassano might also be noted in the compositional rhythm, in the FIG. 3
Il Cerano Martyrdom of Saint Denis, ca. 1616 oil on canvas Chiesa di San Dionigi, Vigevano
light effects, and in the woman’s astonished, almost incredulous expression. The painting’s provenance merits note. Sir Thomas Barlow (1883–1964) purchased this picture for the head office of the District Bank in Manchester, of which he was chairman from
squarely within the artist’s maturity. This hypothesis seems
1947 until 1960. He claimed that it came from the Liechtenstein
viable, especially in the light of the present painting’s similarities
collection in Vienna, and an inscription on the back of the work
to the Beheading of San Dionigi in Vigevano, which was certainly
suggests that it passed through or resided in Naples at some un-
painted after 1616 (FIG. 3). The two paintings share the spectacular
determined time. Following the merger of the National Provincial
depth of the landscape illuminated by a cold gleam and enlivened
Banks with the National Westminster Bank in 1969, the picture
by distant figures, the bravura rendering of the metals and,
was transferred, along with the other Old Master paintings in the
above all, the similar use of chiaroscuro in the figures of Christ
same collection to Heythrop Park, Banbury, which had recently
and Saint Rusticus.
been purchased by National Westminster from the Jesuits and was then used as a training center. The present painting was
The spirit of engaged intimacy animating the expressions and
installed in the chapel.
VB
gestures of Christ and the Samaritan are clearly inspired by Barocci, as is the visage of Christ, whose delicately modeled features, wispy beard, and speaking attitude were all elements of a type made popular images of Christ and various male saints by that artist. Archival documents demonstrate that Cerano was working for the Borromeo family in Milan by 1591, and it seems likely that the young artist was sent in the last decade of the sixteenth century to the Roman household of Cardinal Federico Borromeo in Piazza Navona. There he would have had the chance to study firsthand the work of Michelangelo and the paintings
FAITHFUL TO NATURE
1 See Rosci 1999, pp. 36, 214–17, for the versions. 2 Garstang in Master Paintings 1994, p. 38. 3 Marco Rosci, Mostra del Cerano, Novara, 1964, exh. cat., p. 99. 4 Alfonso E. Perez Sanchez, Pintura italiana del s. XVII en España, Madrid, 1965. p. 351.
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