Pseudo Caroselli
(active in Rome, first half of the 17th Century)
Homo Homini Lupus,
oil on canvas, 60.5 x 74 cm, possibly in its original frame
Provenance:
Private collection, Rome;
where acquired by the present owner
We are grateful to Maria Rossetti for suggesting the attribution on the basis of a high resolution digital photograph. We are also grateful to Gianluca Bocchi for independently suggesting the attribution on the basis of a high resolution digital photograph.
The present painting presents an enigmatic scene and its iconography is somewhat rare. In the foreground on the left a leopard with its typically spotted coat is shown, and before it the decapitated head of a man, while on the right there is a lion with a thick mane that looks like the curled hair of a wig, before which is a helmet in the form of a dragon’s head, ornamented with coloured feathers. A landscape of trees and rocky outcrops opens out in the background.
The facial expressions of the two animals are striking, their features being almost anthropomorphic revealing the painting’s intended meaning. Indeed, the scene appears to allude to the cruelty of man and his bestiality: elements of the human condition upon which intellectuals have reflected since antiquity. According to the Latin proverb homo homini lupus [‘man is wolf to man’] the nature of man is essentially egotistical, and his actions are only determined by the instinct to survive and to assert power.
This painting belongs within the body of work assigned to the so-called Pseudo Caroselli, an individual whose identity remains obscure, and is identified by the association of his work with that of the Roman painter Angelo Caroselli (1585–1652). He may have been a Northern European painter active in Rome during the first half of the seventeenth century, specialized in still life painting, with a particular ability for depicting fabrics, carpets and animals, and notable for the detailed attention he gave to the representation of material minutiae. The works so far included within his corpus primarily include allegorical subjects associated with themes of necromancy, witchcraft and the occult, frequently with more or less explicit erotic overtones, as in the case of two paintings representing Allegories of the senses which were offered in 2013 (Christie’s, London, 4 December 2013, lot 162).
Laura Laureati first identified this artist as an autonomous personality coining the name Pseudo Caroselli, with which he is now conventionally identified, when she assigned two paintings of complex allegorical meaning from a private collection to him; these were formerly attributed to Angelo Caroselli by Luigi Salerno (see L. Laureati, in: F. Zeri/F. Porzio (eds.), La natura morta in Italia, Milan 1989, II, pp. 768-769). In one of these, among the many symbolic elements, there are a leopard and a lion with a thick mane, that can be compared to those in the present painting. Close ties with the present work also exist in the representation of wild animals seen in one of a pair of paintings by the anonymous painter conserved in the Museo Statale d’Arte Medievale e Moderna, Arezzo, which represent Scenes of sorcery with witches and animals (see G. Bocchi/U. Bocchi, Pittori di natura morta a Roma. Artisti italiani 1630–1750, Viadana 2005, pp. 153-164). These works are also close to the painting presently under discussion on account of the particular painterly technique applied, which emphasizes the density of the application of paint to create a relief effect that enhances the sense of chiaroscuro. Additionally in the present painting the artist’s exacting attention to detail and the deployment of fine, but densely loaded brush strokes, to pick out the texture of the fabric in the right foreground and the detailing of the coloured feathers, as well as the animal’s fur, are characteristics that may assert the painter’s position within a painterly tradition of Northern European origin, and point to his being among the most original and capable artists of this cultural ambit, active at Rome during the first half of the seventeenth century.
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(active in Rome, first half of the 17th Century)
Homo Homini Lupus,
oil on canvas, 60.5 x 74 cm, possibly in its original frame
Provenance:
Private collection, Rome;
where acquired by the present owner
We are grateful to Maria Rossetti for suggesting the attribution on the basis of a high resolution digital photograph. We are also grateful to Gianluca Bocchi for independently suggesting the attribution on the basis of a high resolution digital photograph.
The present painting presents an enigmatic scene and its iconography is somewhat rare. In the foreground on the left a leopard with its typically spotted coat is shown, and before it the decapitated head of a man, while on the right there is a lion with a thick mane that looks like the curled hair of a wig, before which is a helmet in the form of a dragon’s head, ornamented with coloured feathers. A landscape of trees and rocky outcrops opens out in the background.
The facial expressions of the two animals are striking, their features being almost anthropomorphic revealing the painting’s intended meaning. Indeed, the scene appears to allude to the cruelty of man and his bestiality: elements of the human condition upon which intellectuals have reflected since antiquity. According to the Latin proverb homo homini lupus [‘man is wolf to man’] the nature of man is essentially egotistical, and his actions are only determined by the instinct to survive and to assert power.
This painting belongs within the body of work assigned to the so-called Pseudo Caroselli, an individual whose identity remains obscure, and is identified by the association of his work with that of the Roman painter Angelo Caroselli (1585–1652). He may have been a Northern European painter active in Rome during the first half of the seventeenth century, specialized in still life painting, with a particular ability for depicting fabrics, carpets and animals, and notable for the detailed attention he gave to the representation of material minutiae. The works so far included within his corpus primarily include allegorical subjects associated with themes of necromancy, witchcraft and the occult, frequently with more or less explicit erotic overtones, as in the case of two paintings representing Allegories of the senses which were offered in 2013 (Christie’s, London, 4 December 2013, lot 162).
Laura Laureati first identified this artist as an autonomous personality coining the name Pseudo Caroselli, with which he is now conventionally identified, when she assigned two paintings of complex allegorical meaning from a private collection to him; these were formerly attributed to Angelo Caroselli by Luigi Salerno (see L. Laureati, in: F. Zeri/F. Porzio (eds.), La natura morta in Italia, Milan 1989, II, pp. 768-769). In one of these, among the many symbolic elements, there are a leopard and a lion with a thick mane, that can be compared to those in the present painting. Close ties with the present work also exist in the representation of wild animals seen in one of a pair of paintings by the anonymous painter conserved in the Museo Statale d’Arte Medievale e Moderna, Arezzo, which represent Scenes of sorcery with witches and animals (see G. Bocchi/U. Bocchi, Pittori di natura morta a Roma. Artisti italiani 1630–1750, Viadana 2005, pp. 153-164). These works are also close to the painting presently under discussion on account of the particular painterly technique applied, which emphasizes the density of the application of paint to create a relief effect that enhances the sense of chiaroscuro. Additionally in the present painting the artist’s exacting attention to detail and the deployment of fine, but densely loaded brush strokes, to pick out the texture of the fabric in the right foreground and the detailing of the coloured feathers, as well as the animal’s fur, are characteristics that may assert the painter’s position within a painterly tradition of Northern European origin, and point to his being among the most original and capable artists of this cultural ambit, active at Rome during the first half of the seventeenth century.
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