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Collection Details
Wrongly said by Arslan to have been in Palazzo Colonna, Rome (see below);
by 1686 in the Barberini collection, whence it was bought by Colnaghi
in 1964 and sold to Lord Faringdon.
Literature
Lady Morgan, Life and Times of Salvator Rosa, 1824, II, p. 373; W Arslan,
‘Opere Romane di Pier Francesco Mola’, Bollettino d’Arte,
VIII, 1928, pp. 74, 80, fig 19; R Cocke, Pier Francesco Mola, 1972, pp.
41–2, 44–5, No. 6, pl. 37; M Aronberg Lavin, Barberini Inventories,
1975, p. 411: VII. Inv. 86 (404).
Exhibition Details
Colnaghi, London, Old Masters, 1964, No. 13.
Background
Universally accepted in modern times as a major late work by the eclectic
Roman artist, P F Mola (1612–66), this picture must now be considered
the masterpiece of his pupil, G B Pace, hitherto chiefly known as a copyist
working for the Chigi (cf I Faldi, Arte Antica e Moderna, 1966, pp. 147–50).
It would appear to have been acquired or commissioned by Prince Maffeo
Barberini (1631–85) sometime between his last inventory ad vivum,
c.1680, and his death, since it only appears in his posthumous inventory
of 1686, in the Palazzo alle Quattro Fontane, as: ‘Un quadro p[er]
alto con S. Girolimo, con le braccia larghe, che mira il Cielo, con tre
Serafini alto p[alm]i 8. largo 7 incirca, con cornice liscia, noce, e’oro,
mano di Gio: Batta Pace.’
The close relationship of the St Jerome to Mola’s ex-Chigi St Bruno
of c.1665 has been pointed out by Arslan, although the pose of the saint
is derived from another, lost, St Bruno by Mola, known from a preparatory
drawing, a studio version and an engraving (Cocke, pl. 133 and catalogue
nos 71, L.67). The rich, brownish tones are typical of Mola during these
years in Rome, but the evident rapidity of execution and roughness betray
the influence of Salvator Rosa, to whom it was indeed attributed when
an entail was established around 1816 and Fidecommesso numbers were painted
on the core of the Barberini collection.
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Collection 1999.
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