Circle of ANIBALE CARRACI (Bologna, 1560 - Rome, 1609)

Circle of ANIBALE CARRACI (Bologna, 1560 - Rome, 1609).
"The holy women before the tomb of Christ".
Oil on canvas. Relined.
It has a frame of c. 1800.
Measurements: 76 x 88 cm; 102 x 118 cm (frame).
This work follows the model of the painting entitled "The holy women before the tomb of Christ" or "The three Marys", a work made in 1598 by the Italian artist Annibale Carracci, one of the main representatives of the early Baroque. It is currently preserved in the Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg, where it arrived in 1836 after having passed through various private collections over the centuries.
The original work was commissioned by Lelio Pasqualini, a canon at the Roman basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore and an outstanding scholar of classical antiquity. His well-known fondness for collecting antique objects and his intellectual sensitivity could explain the peculiarity of the painting's composition, which departs from the more conventional models of Christian iconography of the Resurrection and shows a notable influence of classical art. This link with the ancient world is reflected not only in the arrangement of the figures, but also in the sculptural monumentality of the bodies and in the expressive serenity of the angel, whose vestments recall both the ancient statues and the idealized characters of the Vatican tapestries designed by Raphael.
The painting embodies a masterful synthesis of the style that Annibale developed during his stay in Rome, a time of particular artistic fecundity for the Bolognese painter. His visual language, refined yet emotive, integrates influences of Renaissance masters with an incipient Baroque sensibility, perceptible in the restrained theatricality and atmospheric treatment of space.
The testimony of Carlo Cesare Malvasia in his Felsina Pittrice (1678) confirms the early celebrity of this work, which at the time was described as an insignificant painting, of exceptional grace and execution. Malvasia relates having seen it in Naples, at the residence of the Duke della Torre, where it was known not only for its subject matter, but also for the presence of the angel "in vestments" next to the sepulcher. The painting's trajectory reveals its high esteem by collectors and patrons: it belonged to Monsignor Agucchi, passed by inheritance to Cardinal Filomarino and, it is said, was the subject of an attempted acquisition by the king of England, who offered in exchange three chamber tapestries without success. Finally, after becoming part of the collection of Lucien Bonaparte, the canvas ended up in its current location.