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GIOVANNI RAFFAELE BADARACCO
Genoa 1648 ~ 1726 Genoa
Giovanni
Raffaele Badaracco is one of the less well-known Genoese artists. His first teacher was his father, Giuseppe, who was also a painter. Badaracco then went to Rome where he spent eight years studying under Carlo
Maratta. According to his biographer, Ratti,1 he went on to Naples and Venice and other Italian cities before returning to Genoa. We know that he was a prolific painter and there are many existing drawings. Unfortunately, his oeuvre has remained hidden in Genoese collections or has been destroyed. Therefore, our knowledge of his painting in his native city is restricted to four extant altarpieces.2
Our drawing, although inscribed 'Cav. Maino',3 is definitely not by the Roman sculptor of that name although the monumentality of the figure is typically Roman. The angular, dynamic, loosely executed line and free use of wash, to create strong contrasts of light and shade, are characteristics of Genoese draughtsmanship. It is perhaps a drawing for simulated sculpture intended as decoration for a church interior. The style is close to Badaracco's contemporary, Gregorio de Ferrari, and especially to the latter's sheet of another female saint on a plinth, recently sold at auction.4 However, our sheet can be convincingly given to Giovanni Raffaele Badaracco as its style is very closely related to several published drawings by this artist, for example: The
Virgin Appearing to the Carmelites, Musée du Louvre, Paris,5 where the Virgin's facial features and awkward hands are reminiscent of our Saint Clare; The
Head of John the Baptist brought to Herodias, Hessisches Landesmuseum, Darmstadt,6 where there is a pronounced similarity between the fluttering draperies of Salome and those of Clare, and also between the physique of the page and that of our cherub; and lastly, The
Birth of the Virgin, Palazzo Rosso, Genoa, dated 1680s,7 where such relationships occur again.
1. Rafaele Soprani & Carlo Giuseppe Ratti, Vite de' Pittori, Scoltori, ed Architetti, 2 Vols., Genoa, 1768, pp.69–73; C. di Fabio, 'Giovanni
Raffaele Badaracco', Bollettino dei Musei Civici Genovesi, 40–42, 1992, pp. 61–73.
2. Mary Newcome, 'Giovanni Raffaelle Badaracco', Antichitã viva, No.2, 1980, pp. 21–27
3. I wish to thank Dr. Jennifer Montagu for her kind letter on this important point.
4. Sotheby's Sale, London, 17th April 1997, lot 140.
5. I should like to thank Mary Newcome for confirming the
attribution of this drawing and for her citation of her exh. cat. Le dessin Gênes du XVIe au XVIIIe siècle, exh. cat., Cabinet des Dessins, Musée du Louvre, 1985, p112, cat. 97 illus.
6. Mary Newcome, Genoese Baroque
Drawings, exh. cat., University Art Gallery, Binghampton, 1972, no. 106 illus.
7. Mary Newcome, Antichitã viva, op.cit., p.27 illus.
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