le Talon Sampieri, B 344, fasc. 132, “Inventario e stima de quadri esistenti nella casa senatoria Sampieri, stimate dal signor Pedrini,” c. 3v. “Due quad: piccoli un rap: S. Girolamo, e l’altro S. Franco: di Lodovico Caracci, con cornice intagl: e dorato.” Hermann Voss, “Quellenforschung und Stilkritik: Eine Praktische Methodik mit Beispielen aus der Spätitalienischen Malerei,” Zeitschrift für Kunstgeschichte, vol. 2, no. 3 (1933), pp. 191–192, fig. 8, as Ludovico Carracci. Italienische Malerei des 17. und 18. Jahrhunderts: Katalog der von der Stadt Wiesbaden und dem Nassauischen Kunstverein Veranstalteten Ausstellung, Wiesbaden, 1935, p. 8, cat. no. 54, as Ludovico Carracci. “Auflösung der Galerie Stern,” Internationale Sammler-Zeitung, no. 19 (1 December 1937), p. 205. Die Weltkunst, vol. 11, no. 42/43 ( 24 October 1937), p. 5. Die Weltkunst, vol. 11, no. 46 (21 November 1937), p. 6. Heinrich Bodmer, Lodovico Carracci, Burg bei Magdeburg, 1939, p. 142, as attributed to Ludovico Carracci by Hermann Voss. Gail Feigenbaum, Lodovico Carracci, A Study of His Later Career and a Catalogue of his Paintings, PhD dissertation, Princeton University, 1984, pp. 255–256, cat. no. 37, fig. 54, in catalogue A, as Ludovico Carracci. Emilia Calbi and Daniela Scaglietti Kelescian, Marcello Oretti e il Patrimonio Artistico Privato Bolognese: Bologna, Biblioteca Comunale, MS. B.104, Bologna, 1984, p. 59. Alessandro Brogi, “Il fregio dei Carracci con “Storie di Romolo e Remo” nel salone di palazzo Magnani,” in Il Credito Romagnolo fra storia, arte e tradizione, Bologna, 1985, p. 246, as Ludovico Carracci. Giovanna Perini “‘L’uom più grande in pittura che abbia avuto Bologna’ – L’alterna fortuna critica e figurative di Ludovico Carracci,” in Ludovico Carracci, ed. Andrea Emiliani, Milan, 1993, pp. 315–316, footnote 287; Appendix 2: “Elenco Sommario delle Stampe da Ludovico Carracci,” p. 341, no. 38, as Ludovico Carracci. Catherine MacKenzie, ed., Auktion 392: Reclaiming the Galerie Stern, Düsseldorf, exh. cat., Montreal, Faculty of Fine Art Gallery, Concordia University; New York, Leo Baeck Institute; London, Ben Uri Gallery; Jerusalem, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, 20 October 2006–31 August 2008, pp. 17, 50, cat. no. 185. Laurence Kanter and John Marciari, Italian Paintings from the Richard L. Feigen Collection, New Haven, 2010, p. 130, footnote 5, as Ludovico Carracci. Giovanna Perini Folesani, “Riflessioni baroccesche tra Bologna e Urbino,” in Barocci in Bottega, ed. Bonita Cleri, Macerata, 2013, p. 39, footnote 104, as Ludovico Carracci. Sara Angel, “The Secret Life of Max Stern,” The Walrus (15 October 2014). Alessandro Brogi, Ludovico Carracci (1555–1619), Bologna, 2001, vol. 1, pp. 271–273, cat. no. R51, under rejected attributions; and vol. 2, fig. 291, as Bolognese painter, second half of the seventheenth century; p. 298, cat. no. P103, the Saint Jerome in the Desert documented in the Palazzo Sampieri listed under lost or dispersed works. Giovanna Perini Folesani, Sir Joshua Reynolds in Italia (1850–1752): Passaggio in Toscana, Il taccuino 201 a 10 del British Museum, Florence, 2012, pp. 90–91, footnote 196, as Ludovico Carracci. Alessandro Brogi, Ludovico Carracci: Addenda, Bologna, 2016, pp. 116, 118–120, footnotes 178, 184–185, fig. 146, as “after Ludovico Carracci (?),” a copy after the lost original by Ludovico Carracci in the Sampieri collection. Christie’s, New York, Property from the Collection of Richard L. Feigen, 1 May 2019, under lot no. 26, as Ludovico Carracci. Giovanna Perini Folesani, Sir Joshua Reynolds in Italia - Il soggiorno romano - I - il taccuino di Plymouth, Florence, forthcoming as Ludovico Carracci.
WI T H I T S DY NA M I C C O M P O S I T I O N and jewel-like refinement, this devotional work
is a prime example of the small-scale paintings executed by Ludovico Carracci, the preeminent painter in late sixteenth-century Bologna. Along with his younger cousins Agostino and Annibale, Ludovico helped introduce a new naturalism to contemporary painting as head of the family’s Accademia degli Incamminati—literally “the academy of the progressives.” The artistic reform ushered in by the Carracci was a watershed moment in the history of painting in Italy, effectively putting an end to the dominant Mannerist style and making way for the Baroque. With its earthy tones, graceful forms, and dramatic lighting effects, the present work exemplifies the mature style 58