Valentin De Boulogne

Carlo Cesare Malvasia, the seventeenth-century historian of the Bolognese school of painting, recorded a conversation between Lodovico and Annibale Carracci in his 1678 biography. Lodovico is said to have told his brother that for one to imitate a single master is to make oneself his follower and therefore his inferior; however, to draw from all of them and select things from other painters is to make oneself their judge and leader. 1 The alleged conversation between the Carracci brothers offers a fascinating glimpse into seventeenth-century art theory and criticism. In this essay, I will explore this rich cultural discourse on originality and creative emulation using a particular set of case studies involving the paintings of Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio and Valentin de Boulogne. Through close examination of subject matter, visual details, style, and iconographic traditions, I will demonstrate that Valentin consciously engaged in a posthumous artistic rivalry with Caravaggio and other Caravaggesque painters through his fortune-telling paintings in order to forge his own stylistic identity in the competitive artistic arena of his time. Valentin's appropriations, insertions, and modifications were designed to improve upon the original inventions forged by Caravaggio while at the same time creating new, pastiched images that could provide visual pleasure and indeterminate meanings for his patrons. As Maria Loh has demonstrated, for both rising and established artists, repetition and imitation were critical strategies in Baroque art practice and theory. 2 The objects of imitation could vary: one could chose to imitate another's style (maniera) or themes (concetti) or even specific details (figure). 3 While these ideas about imitation, emulation, invention, and competition had been circulating since antiquity, they crystallized and were widely adopted in 1 Maria H. Loh, "New and Improved: Repetition as Originality in Italian Baroque Practice and Theory," Art Bulletin 86 (2004): 485. Her translation of Malvasia's text. 2 Ibid., 477 3 Ibid., 483. Huffman 3 the seventeenth century. Imitation had deep roots in ancient rhetoric and literary theory. 4

This paper aims to examine some examples of Diego Velázquez’s oeuvre that could be interpreted as genre violations. From a metapictorial point of view, his Sevillian bodegones will be elucidated neither as “pictures of everyday life” nor as polysemic, emblem-like images, but rather as mimetic “inventions”. Despite its significance for the young Velázquez, still life would decline as an independent genre in his maturity. Yet much of what he learnt from its practice re-emerged purified in his “fables” or “history paintings”. With all these works, Velázquez would surpass the concept of simple imitation to
the extent of developing that of dissimulatio artis as the true end of his painting.

This article contributes new material relating to a portrait of Raffaello Menicucci by the French artist, Valentin de Boulogne, painted in Rome c1630, and now in the Indianapolis Museum of Art. Menicucci was a middle-aged man from the Tuscan city of Monte San Savino who became a buffoon in the courts of the Grand Duke of Tuscany and of Pope Urban VIII in Rome. The portrait displays Valentin's interest in revealing the complex layers behind the persona of his subject.

Zurich, photo: Mark Niedermann pp. 12-13 © Josef Koudelka / Magnum Photos / Contrasto pp. 14-15 © Fondazione Torlonia, photo Lorenzo De Masi pp. 16-17 per gentile concessione del MAXXI, foto Musacchio Ianniello pp. 18-19 © Triennale Milano, foto Gianluca Di Ioia p. 26 © Fabio Donato pp. 56-57 courtesy Stanley Whitney, photo Rob McKeer e Gagosian p. 63 (a sinistra) foto Continental Deutsches Tanzarchiv Köln p. 85 © Francesca Ferrari p. 86 © Max Rommel pp. 110-111 foto Patrizia Tocci per gentile concessione del MAXXI, Roma p. 123 © Alice Fiorilli pp. 124-125, ph Luciano

Il contributo ricostruisce la storia della provenienza, analizza l’iconografia e mette insieme la storia degli studi sulla tela del pittore francese Valentin de Boulogne conservata presso la Galleria Nazionale dell’Umbria di Perugia, pendant del Cristo e la Samaritana nel medesimo museo. Viene proposta una nuova lettura stilistica in base alla produzione del pittore francese più vicina al modo di dipingere di Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio.

al Metropolitan Museum (N.Y.) 7 ottobre -16 gennaio di Michela GIANFRANCESCHI «How could one not love Valentin? His paintings contain such sincerity, such emotion, such true humanity; they possess a rare combination of delicacy and savagery». Con queste parole Jean-Pierre Cuzin apre il suo saggio all'interno del catalogo della mostra

Acquistato (e probabilmente commissionato) dall’archiatra del papa Giovan Giacomo Baldini, il dipinto si conserva presso la collegiata di Sant’Urbano ad Apiro. Il contributo analizza la storia della provenienza e avanza una nuova proposta di collocazione cronologica all’interno della produzione tarda del pittore francese.

Some unpublished documents and photos belonging to Vittorio Belli’s heirs unveil his collection. The previous provenance of some paintings from the collection of Pope Clement XIV was also included in the documents, in particular a Van Dyck Flagellation identifiable with the painting by Louis Cretey which today is collocated at Musée des Beaux Arts in Marseilles. Several printed sources, in particular a little book by Francesco Alberi, have allowed to connect to the collection of the pontiff of Santarcangelo di Romagna other important paintings such as the Negation of Peter by Valentin de Boulogne from the Longhi Foundation and Christ between the crosses by Lelio Orsi. Moreover, a nineteenth-century inventory of Tondani Ganganelli family has shown that the paintings they were collocated at the Pope’s heirs, in Rimini, even in the XIX century.

Pendant della tela raffigurante l’episodio evangelico definito con l’allocuzione latina Noli me tangere, conservato nella medesima Galleria Nazionale dell’Umbria di Perugia, l’opera proviene dal palazzo Mazzuoli a Città della Pieve. Il contributo ne ricostruisce la storia e propone una nuova lettura stilistica in relazione al catalogo del pittore francese.

This fascinating book provides a fresh perspective on the understanding of sacred imagery and its use through selected studies related to seventeenth-century Roman visual culture. Patronage and Devotion: A Focus on Six Roman Baroque Paintings will accompany an exhibition of works by prominent Baroque artists, at the Villa Mondragone, a Renaissance Papal Villa in the countryside of Rome.



The highlight of catalogue and exhibition is a group of masterpieces by seven prominent artists of the seventeenth century: five altarpieces by Carlo Saraceni, Valentin de Boulogne, Andrea Sacchi, Andrea Camassei and Carlo Maratti, and one easel painting by Guido Reni commissioned for private devotion. Most of the paintings will be on public view for the first time.



The publication offers new approaches to the study of the complex processes involved in the making of a work of art. By reconstructing the religious and social dynamics of artistic patronage and the context of worship and devotion in which these paintings – fully documented by primary sources – were executed, the volume explores the visual impact of these works on the viewers.



This beautifully illustrated book will feature new research, remarkable photographs and details of diagnostic analyses of the altarpieces.

This fascinating book provides a fresh perspective on the understanding of sacred imagery and its use through selected studies related to seventeenth-century Roman visual culture. Patronage and Devotion: A Focus on Six Roman Baroque Paintings will accompany an exhibition of works by prominent Baroque artists, at the Villa Mondragone, a Renaissance Papal Villa in the countryside of Rome.



The highlight of catalogue and exhibition is a group of masterpieces by seven prominent artists of the seventeenth century: five altarpieces by Carlo Saraceni, Valentin de Boulogne, Andrea Sacchi, Andrea Camassei and Carlo Maratti, and one easel painting by Guido Reni commissioned for private devotion. Most of the paintings will be on public view for the first time.



The publication offers new approaches to the study of the complex processes involved in the making of a work of art. By reconstructing the religious and social dynamics of artistic patronage and the context of worship and devotion in which these paintings – fully documented by primary sources – were executed, the volume explores the visual impact of these works on the viewers.


This beautifully illustrated book will feature new research, remarkable photographs and details of diagnostic analyses of the altarpieces.

Among the paintings produced in the last years of the French Caravaggisti Valentin de Boulogne’s life is an extraordinary portrait of a man known as a buffoon in the courts of the Grand Duke of Tuscany and Pope Urban VIII, (Portrait of Raffaello Menicucci, c1628-1632, Indianapolis Museum of Art). In his satirical biography of Menicucci, Gian Vittorio Rossi (or Erythraei) stated that Menicucci had begged him to be included in his Pinacoteca, his collection of 300 contemporary biographies. Rossi said that Menicucci was “able to pour forth extemporary verse, make witty remarks, move to laughter”. These are features of the ancient art of buffoonery – a profession that relied on the art of rhetoric to disturb social equilibrium and to puncture pretension. Valentin’s portrait expresses the contradictions and psychological complexity presented by Menicucci. It was painted when the influence of Caravaggio had all but died out. I will argue that the portrait is both an ironic example of the fluidity of early seventeenth century social ambitions and in accord with tendencies in portraiture in these decades towards the depiction of more complex layers of identity.