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The Vision of Saint Anselmo
c. 1616
Pen and brown ink.
293 x 220 mm
(11 1/2 x 8 7/10 inches).
Provenance: Claude Kuhn, Basle; Private Collection, Brussels.
Literature: De Giorgione à Tiepolo. Dessins italiens du 15ième au 18ième siècle dans les collections privées et publiques de Belgique, exh. cat., Musée Communal d'Ixelles 1993, no. 81 illus. as
Francesco Allegrini; Sergio Marinelli, 'Note da Felice Brusasorci a Pietro Ricchi', Verona illustrata, 1994, no. 7, p.74, fig. 68; Sergio Marinelli, 'Da Cremona a Mantova, attraverso l'Europa', I segni
dell'arte. Il Cinquecento da Praga a Cremona, exh. cat., Cremona, Museo Civico, Ala Ponzone, 1997-1998, Milan, 1997, p.138, illus. p.139; Renato Berzaghi, 'Francesco Borgani (1557–1624)', in AA. VV., Manierismo
a Mantova. La Pittura da Giulio Romano all'età di Rubens, ed. Sergio Marinelli, Banca di Verona, 1998, p.215 and p.220, fig. 14.
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The Vision of Saint Anselmo, Museo Diocesano, Mantua.
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FRANCESCO BORGANI
Mantua c.1580 ~ 1624 Mantua
Francesco Borgani spent most of his life at home in the Duchy of Mantua and therefore his style is considered a fine example of the city's own artistic
tradition at the beginning of the seventeenth century. His commissions were nearly always for painted altarpieces which display a brilliant use of colour, especially in the robes of the clerics.
Our drawing,
initially attributed to Francesco Allegrini,1 was in fact the first sheet to be identified as by the hand of Francesco Borgani.2 It is a preparatory study for his altarpiece formerly in the Church of SS. Simone e Giuda, Mantua, and now in the Museo Diocesano.3 It displays a much greater sense of space and movement than the finished painting where the apparition of the Virgin does not appear to interrupt the ritual of the mass or the prayers of Saint Anselmo, the patron saint of Mantua.4 The altar was erected in 1616 by the Anselmi brothers, Paolo, head of the state police, and Saint Anselmo, the apostolic protonotary. They are probably portrayed in the painting as Saint Anselmo and the deacon to his left.
1. De Giorgione à Tiepolo. Dessins italiens du 15ième au 18ième siècle dans les collections privéeset publiques de Belgique, exh. cat.,
Musée Communal d'Ixelles, 1993, no. 81 illus.
2. Sergio Marinelli, 'Note da Felice Brusasorci a Pietro Ricchi' in Verona illustrata, 1994, no. 7, p.74 and fig. 68.
3. Renato Berzaghi, 'Francesco Borgani (1557–1624)' in AA. VV., Manierismo a Mantova. La Pittura da Giulio Romano all'età di Rubens, ed.,
Sergio Marinelli, Banca di Verona, 1998, p.215 and p.220, fig. 16.
4. Not to be confused with his contemporary the Saint Anselm who became Archbishop of Canterbury.
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