Giovanni Francesco Romanelli

(Viterbo 1610–1662)
Allegory of Fame,
oil on canvas, 191.5 x 137 cm, framed

Provenance:
probably commissioned by Cardinal Jules Mazarin;
sale, Christie’s, Milan, 7 June 2006, lot 116;
where acquired by the present owner

Literature:
S. Ferrari (ed.), Linguaggi e presenze nella pittura del Settecento a Torino, Busto Arsizio 2016, p. 12 and p. 13, fig. 1

Giovanni Francesco Romanelli executed this Allegory of Fame during his first Parisian sojourn between 1646 and 1648. It is very likely a commission connected with Cardinal Jules Mazarin, the prime minister of the regent, Anne of Austria who was the mother of Louis XIV, and a political ally of Cardinal Francesco Barberini, Romanelli’s patron. Indeed, the painter had been called to Paris to decorate the illustrious prelate’s city residence in the Hôtel De Chevry-Tubeuf, today a seat of the Bibliothèque National de France. The celebrative intent of the present work recalls the Allegory of Jules Mazarin engraved by François de Poilly after a design by Romanelli (Bibliothèque National, Paris), which also exalted the cardinal’s political role, raising him to mythic status.

The present painting represents a winged female figure, who turning her gaze to the heavens, raises a laurel crown in her left hand and holds a trumpet in her right. The subject is identifiable as ‘Fame’ as described by Cesare Ripa in his Iconologia. On the right there is a cylindrical pedestal on which are sculpted a coat of arms with two eight pointed stars. Leaning against the pedestal is a baton of command, while placed on top of it are two coronets, a cardinal’s hat and a cross of the Order of Malta, symbols of temporal power.

The painter’s rich palette is especially striking in its combination of the bright red of the female figure’s drape, with the strong ochre yellow of her dress and the intense blue of the sky. The figure’s pose recalls prototypes by Bernini, while her delicacy and sense of scale are reminiscent of Guido Reni: Romanelli achieved his most original pictorial language through the singular combination of baroque and classicizing traits. Stylistic comparisons can be made with the figures frescoed by the painter on the ceilings of Cardinal Mazarin’s palace, which largely represent mythological scenes taken from the Metamorphosis of Ovid (see E. Oy-Marra, Zu den Fresken des Parnaß und des Parisurteils von Giovanni Francesco Romanelli in der Galerie Mazarin in Paris, in: Zeitschrift für Kunstgeschichte, LVII, 1994, 2, pp. 170-200).

After a brief formative period with Domenichino at Rome, Giovanni Francesco Romanelli was introduced into the studio of Pietro da Cortona with whom he collaborated on the decoration of Palazzo Barberini alle Quattro Fontane, an experience that marked the beginning of a long association between Romanelli and the family of Urban VIII. On his return to Italy following his first Parisian sojourn, Romanelli received numerous prestigious public and private commissions, before being called to France for a second time, this time at the behest of the queen mother, Anne of Austria, to decorate four rooms of her summer apartment in the Louvre.