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86 x 71,5 cm
Oil on canvas
1700-1705 ca.


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Artwork profile

Visitation in the sepulchre with the Virgin and three Marys

The Expertise


This “Our Lady of Sorrows” with the crown of thorns held by a small angel and with, on the right of the background, the three Marys and the crosses of the Calvary, stands as a further testimony of the large popularity that Carlo Maratti gained as a painter of religious subjects focused on the image of the Virgin, either portrayed in full of half figure, as the true protagonist. Highly favoured iconographies at all times, with which the undisputed leader of the Roman scene himself, after the death in 1661 of the Master Sacchi and in 1669 of Berrettini, renewed Raphael’s fame, as remarked by E. Waterhouse in his fundamental book Italian Baroque Painting (London 1963), so much so that he was maliciously named “Carletto delle Madonne”.

Actually, this image produced by Maratti stood as a basic reference mark within the Roman school of the first half of the 18th century, being repeated almost identically by S. Conca, F. Trevisani and others. It appears that Maratti painted at least two versions of it: one was intended for Pope Alexander VIII Ottoboni, a detailed account of which can be found in Bellori (who tells that “the angel that displays the crown of thorns is touching with a finger the sting of a spike, and this is one of the mysteries of the Passion”), but was given to the homonymous Cardinal as the Pope had died just before its completion; the other was painted for Niccolò Maria Pallavicini. In the volume devoted to this patron of Maratti (Ed. Bozzi, Roma 1995, fig. 29 pp. 50-51), S. Rudolph publishes a version currently in the Marchioness of Lothian Collection in Melbourne Hall, supposing that it can be identified with one of the two mentioned.

From the comparison between the Lady of Sorrows here examined, which I had the possibility to scrutinize thoroughly, and the published one, emerges that there are no substantial qualitative differences; one may detect only a greater modelling softness and a greater pictorial sensibility of handling, especially in the draperies which, in the present version, show a more subdued chiaroscuro, in contrast with the stiffer and marked folds of the British specimen (at least judging from the photograph). One may also detect variations in the background of the sky and in the mountain, as well as a slight difference in the Virgin’s facial expression.

Furthermore, our representation of “Our Lady of Sorrows” is actually bigger (the measures of the published picture are missing), as it includes a larger portion of the angel’s wings. It is however on grounds of its undoubted high qualitative value that we may assert that this is an original work from Maratti, and not a contemporary piece from one of his skilful apprentices. (15th June 2005 Giancarlo Sestieri)