Simone Pignoni (1611-1698), attribuito a - Figura di eroina (Giuditta?)

TUSCAN PAINTER OF THE 17TH CENTURY
Attributed to SIMONE PIGNONI
(Florence, 1611 – 1698)
Figure of a biblical heroine or a Saint
Oil on canvas, cm. 62 x 52
Frame size cm. 87 z 79 x 6 approx.

NOTE: Publication of the catalog of works from the Intermidiart collection. Certificate of Guarantee and Lawful Origin. Work with golden and perforated frame:

Splendid ancient painting, oil on canvas, from the 1600s, depicting a young woman whose protagonist is a figure of a biblical heroine or a saint. Due to its quality and style characteristics, it has been traced back – by a well-known Italian auction house – to the hand of the Florentine painter Simone Pignoni (Florence, Florence, 1611 – 1698) .
Revealed by the light, the figure emerges half-length from the shadow of the background, captured in three-quarters almost frontal, while turning its gaze to the right. It imposes itself with its physical presence, composed within oval profiles and characterized by the decisive features of the face which contrast, as in an oxymoron, the psychological distance from the observer, marked by the temperate expression and the gaze that flees to the side, withdrawing from the encounter, as if suddenly attracted by something that is not part of our universe. The woman holds in her left hand a highly tailored sheet, made of a yellow ocher fabric. The figure has blond hair - probably tied with a velvet ribbon - which falls behind the back, forming an elegant flourish to underline the movement of the body. While the - partial - nudity of the left shoulder gives the image an attraction of erotic sensuality, typical of the Florentine master's painting. Furthermore, the artist seems to adopt a more refined poetic style in the work in question which he dilutes with the Caravaggio influence of the Furini school.
The pose of the model, the type of face with the particular elongated eyes, the hair that falls in delicate locks on the bare shoulder, the whiteness of the skin and the chromatic tones, confirm - with caution - the idea of attribution to the master or his workshop , in turn supported by the comparison of some similar works dating from the fourth and second decades of the seventeenth century. We recall, for example, the canvases depicting Saint Ursula (oil on canvas 92 x 76 cm, Gianfranco Luzzetti collection, dating back to the 1650s) ; the Saint Peter cures Saint Agatha kept at the Civic Museums of History and Art, Trieste (oil on canvas, 102 x 85 cm, dating from the late 1940s and early 1950s) ; and in particular the preparatory drawing of the study for Sant'Agata, preserved at the Musée des Arts Décoratifs in Lyon (red pencil on beige paper, 161 x 182 mm, inv. 5799/A) , where, in our opinion, it cannot be excluded that the work in question could arise from the same design (Simone Pignoni by Francesca Baldassari, pp. 119-120, figs. 52, 53 and 53D) .
The stylistic characteristics and the particular compositional formulation, therefore, allow us to assign, without a doubt, the work to an artist active in Florence at the beginning of the second half of the seventeenth century, and therefore it is not risky to propose with an attributive reference to the catalog of the works of Simone Pignoni (Florence, 1611 – 1698) , one of the most intriguing and original artistic personalities active in the Tuscan capital in the Baroque age. Born in the Tuscan capital in 1611, Pignoni was directed at a young age to study painting initially in the workshop of Fabrizio Boschi and then in the more qualified atelier of Francesco Furini, an artist with whom he worked frequently until his death in 1646 Attracted by the interpretative malice and figurative formulas typical of Furini's lexicon, the painter specializes in sacred and profane works, essentially featuring young ephebes with an androgynous appearance or persuasive girls in alluring and sensual poses. Author of sacred and profane paintings, today only partly referable to certain chronological data, Simone Pignoni was appreciated until late in life by the most important local clients, who constantly made use of his brush to furnish their picture galleries. At the time of his death, which occurred in his hometown in 1698, the artist left a large number of followers, who preserved his lesson until the first decades of the eighteenth century (for a biographical and bibliographical outline on the artist see Bellesi 2009, I, pp. 223-225) .
Regarding its state of conservation, the canvas is in fairly good general condition considering the age of the painting, the pictorial surface shows a patina of paint. We can see - in Wood's light - some scattered restorations and some light unraveling and oxidation of the pictorial surface, but nothing really significant. There are no conservation problems and the original canvas has an old relining, which does not appear to require intervention. In sunlight, a fine crackle related to the era is visible. The frame may have been replaced at the time of the relining. The measurements of the canvas are cm. 62 x 42. Regarding the frame, however, it has a patina and there are small defects, such as gold drops, and wear over time. The dimensions of the frame are cm. 87 x 77 x 6 approx. , (defects) . The painting is embellished with a beautiful pierced and gilded antique-style frame (frame size, approx. 87 x 79 x 6 cm, defects) . "The frame shown in the photos above was added to the artwork by the seller or a third party. The frame is provided to you at no additional charge so that it is ready to display as soon as it arrives. The frame is included as a as a courtesy and is not considered an integral part of the artwork. Therefore, any potential damage to the frame that does not affect the artwork itself will not be accepted as a valid reason to open a complaint or request cancellation of the order . "

ORIGIN: Coll. Private Sicilian

PUBLICATION:
Unpublished;
THE MYTHS AND THE TERRITORY in Sicily with a thousand cultures. UNPUBLISHED PAINTINGS general catalog of paintings from the collection of the “Myths and the territory” cycle, Publisher Lab_04, Marsala, 2024.

The work will be shipped - as it is fragile - in a wooden and polystyrene case. In the case of sales outside Italian territory, the buyer will have to wait for the export procedures to be processed.