GIOVANNI FRANCESCO GUERRIERI da Fossombrone (Fossombrone,... Lot n° 16

Amphitrite in Her Chariot Oil on canvas, 180 x 120 cm This picture may be attributed to Guerrieri da Fossombrone, an artist from the Marche, and was probably painted during his time in Rome between 1615 and 1618, when he was engaged in painting his well-known cycle of frescoes in Palazzo Borghese, commissioned by Prince Marcantonio Borghese and based entirely on Cesare Ripa's Iconology. Guerrieri was only twenty-five years old in 1615 and he had recently completed a very important commission for the church of Santa Maria del Piano del Ponte in Sassoferrato. Our painting, which is based on the outstanding formal design work in that commission, is thought to depict Amphitrite in her Chariot, seated on a large shell sustained by four branches of pure coral. Two tritons are sounding their horns on the far left. The composition is extremely mannered in tone and is very strongly influenced by Caravaggio's early, calmer style forged primarily, in its turn, on the early manner of Guido Reni and deeply imbued with the Sienese culture of Antiveduto Grammatica. The figure of Amphitrite, solid and classicising in her movements, may be considered a perfect combination of Reni's classicism and of Caravaggio's early Roman manner, at a time when the two major strains of Baroque culture existed side by side while producing very different results. The composition recalls the figure of the Chariot of the Hours on the vault of the Casino Pallavicini Rospigliosi on the Quirinal Hill in Rome, a milestone in Reni's career. It is worth comparing our composition with several different details in the frieze in Palazzo Borghese, such as the scene of Mount Parnassus, where various different categories of female figure unquestionably echo our Amphitrite's clear, jewel-like tone (albeit heavily tinged with chiaroscuro), and the same may be said of the other superb frieze depicting the Triumph of the Sciences (for which, see Andrea Emiliani, Giovanni Francesco Guerrieri da Fossombrone, Venice 199