Ciro Ferri

(Rome 1634–1689)
Laban Searching for the Idols,
oil on canvas, 142.5 x 184.5 cm, framed

Provenance:
sale, Sotheby’s, London, 29 October 1958, lot 28 (as G. B. Castiglione, The Meeting of Isaac and Rebecca)
Piero Corsini collection, New York;
thence by descent to the present owner

Exhibited:
New York, Piero Corsini, Baroque Paintings, 9 October - 16 November 1992

Literature:
Piero Corsini Inc., Baroque Paintings, exhibition catalogue, New York 1992, pp. 42-43, fig. 51;
M. Fagiolo dell’Arco, Pietro da Cortona e i cortoneschi. Gimignani, Romanelli, Baldi, il Borgognone, Ferri, Geneva-Milan 2001, p. 151, p. 159, nota 13, fig. 110;
M. C. Paoluzzi, Pietro da Cortona e Ciro Ferri: la storia di Giacobbe e Labano in due dipinti di provenienza Barberini, in: L. Mochi Onori, S. Schütze, F. Solinas (eds.), I Barberini e la cultura europea del Seicento. Atti del convegno internazionale. Palazzo Barberini 7–11 December 2004, Rome 2005, pp. 335–336;
J. M. Merz, Pietro da Cortona und sein Kreis. Die Zeichnungen in Düsseldorf, Munich-Berlin 2005, p. 476, nota 210
The subject in the present painting is taken from the Old Testament (Genesis 31: 25-35). Rachel with her husband Jacob are fleeing to Canaan, she has secretly stolen her father Laban’s household idols, and he, on learning of the theft, is shown having pursued and stopped the couple to search their retinue.

The subject of the present painting, Leban searching for the idols, is the same as the one painted by Pietro da Cortona for the Barberini family (City Art Gallery, Bristol, see G. Briganti, Pietro da Cortona o della pittura barocca, Florence 1962, ed. 1982, p. 336–337, no. 61). This painting originated as the pendant to the Alliance of Jacob and Laban which is now conserved in the Louvre, Paris. These two Barberini paintings were highly acclaimed, and as Pietro da Cortona’s favourite pupil, Ciro Ferri in some way became his spiritual heir, and the continuator of the ‘Cortonesque’ style, which he deployed for the depiction of this theme on multiple occasions.

The present painting was published in 2001 by Maurizio Fagiolo dell’Arco as by Ciro Ferri; his opinion was followed by Paoluzzi and Merz (see literarure). Another smaller version of this composition (98 x 130 cm), which is also attributed to Ciro Ferri, was in the Sestieri collection. Additionally, Paoluzzi records a painting of the same subject that was in the collection of Ciro Ferri’s son, which was described as the departure of Jacob, however, in Pietro Ferri’s inventory this is singled out as an unfinished work (see M. C. Paoluzzi, Un inventario inedito per la quadreria di Ciro Ferri, in: Atti del convegno. La cultura nell’età delle Legazioni, Ferrara 2005, pp. 537–583).

When compared to Cortona’s prototype in Bristol, Ferri demonstrates a certain compositional originality: he not only altered the format of the composition from vertical to horizontal, but he redistributed the figures, arranging them in a broad landscape in contrast to the Bristol painting, in which all the attention is focused on the protagonists of the scene. Pietro da Cortona’s paintings often served as Ciro Ferri’s initial source of inspiration, which he would then re-elaborate in his preparatory drawings. As an especially gifted draughtsman, Ferri was capable of great speed in execution and facility in the development of drawings, allowing him to swiftly modify and rework his subjects, and to elaborate them anew in landscape setting, or in entirely different contexts. The two paintings by Pietro da Cortona representing stories of Jacob and Laban (at Bristol and in the Louvre respectively) originated as pendants; it is therefore quite possible that Ferri also dedicated himself to these two subjects at the same time.

There is a print by Francesco Bartolozzi of the present painting which gives the composition to Pietro da Cortona: there could therefore either be a lost original by the master, or possibly, as often occurred with Ciro Ferri’s work, it was mistakenly believed to be by Pietro da Cortona.

According to Paoluzzi the demonstration of Ciro Ferri’s authorship of the present work lies in our ability to trace the composition of this painting and its pendant in Ferri’s graphic opus. Indeed, two drawings each depicting the whole composition, reveal Ferri’s complex development through the design process of these works: the first is in black chalk and is certainly by Ferri (private collection, formerly Christie’s, London, 6 July 1982, lot 173, prov. Sir Thomas Lawrence, see M. C. Paoluzzi, Ibid., 2005, p. 335 e 336, fig. 10), while the second, which is in Paris, was identified by Davis as autograph (Louvre, Département des Arts Graphiques, Inv. 475, B. Davis, The Drawings of Ciro Ferri, New York 1986, pp. 84, 241-242, fig. 78, see M. C. Paoluzzi, Ibid., 2005, p. 335, fig. 7). As compared to the final composition of the present painting, several interesting differences emerge: the women on the right are shown in profile and the curtain, as well as the landscape, are different. Furthermore, there is a study of a Seated young maiden, swiftly executed in pen and ink (Roma, ING, GDS, FC 124440, see M. Giannatiempo, Disegni di Pietro da Cortina e Ciro Ferri dalle collezioni del Gabinetto Nazionale delle Stampe, Roma 1977, no. 103, p. 59; see M. C. Paoluzzi, Ibid., 2005, p. 335, fig. 8), in which on the left, only lightly sketched in, it is possible to recognize the group of men on the left that are searching the trunks in our painting. Davis referred the drawing in the Louvre to the 1670s, the period to which the present canvas can be referred. The present painting received considerable acclaim during the seventeenth century: a drawing after the painting today in the Pushkin Museum, Moscow (inv. 7645), that is probably from the studio of Ciro Ferri, renders all the effects of light and shade in imitation of the oil painting on canvas; it is executed in pen and ink with a bold use of wash on light brown prepared paper, and touched in with white gouache highlights.

The present painting will be included in Maria Cristina Paoluzzi’s forthcoming catalogue raisoneé on the artist as a fully autograph work. She dates this work to the 1670s.