VIENNA.- The Old Master Paintings sale on 8 June, which takes place within the framework of Dorotheum’s Classic Week, includes a selection of significant 17th century paintings by so-called Caravaggisti, artists drawn together as friends and colleagues by the influence of Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio. Among them are Artemisia Gentileschi, Giovanni Francesco Guerrieri, Domenico Fiasella and the Rome-based Frenchmen Simon Vouet and Nicolas Régnier.

Naturalism

The painters grouped together in the wake of Caravaggio (1571-1610) until about 1620 were characterised by a new and radical naturalistic style marked by dramatic contrasts of light and dark which has shaped the history of painting and fascinates us to this day. Their works were not least a product of the strict guidelines imposed on them by the newly strengthened church. Henceforth, works of art should be functional and didactic, their subject matter clear and easily understandable, their style true to real life.

Caravaggio (1571–1610) himself was forced to flee Rome in 1606 after a violent fight which ended tragically in murder. He would never return. His towering influence however would remain. The result was a heterogeneous body of work with with numerous overlapping experiences and mutual influences, as we see reflected in the works gathered together in the upcoming Dorotheum sale.

Caravaggisti in the auction

Orazio Gentileschi knew Caravaggio personally and most of the younger artists encountered the work of Caravaggio through him and other early interpreters. Orazio’s daughter, Artemisia Gentileschi for instance, was profoundly influenced by Caravaggio in her own right. The square painting in the auction depicts Judith and her maidservant with the head of Holofernes (estimate € 300,000 - 400,000), a bold composition focussed on the head at its centre. Gentileschi was active in Rome between 1608 and 1612, after which she left the city due to the scandal surrounding her abuse by Agostino Tassi. Venetian artist Carlo Saraceni is a documented as a witness against Tassi at her famous trial, confirming their contact with one another.

Other instances of the close involvement of the artists of this genre include Giovanni Francesco Guerrieri who moved to Rome in 1606 and lived in a convent not far from Orazio´s workshop. He is the author of the large format painting depicting Lot and his daughters (€ 150,000 - 200,000). Domenico Fiasella, whose painting The Mocking of Christ is also part of the sale, arrived in Rome from Liguria one year later (€ 60,000 - 80,000). Although there is no proof of his direct relationship with the Gentileschi there, he had previously studied under Orazio’s brother, Aurelio Lomi, when he was living in Genoa.

Followers of Caravaggio’s work could also be found abroad. Artemisia met the French painter Simon Vouet, after her return to Rome in 1620 and the two went on to have a productive, mutually beneficial, professional relationship. Another artist in the circle around Vouet was Nicolas Régnier, the two probably brought together through their shared nationality. The sale includes Vouet’s The Penitent Mary Magdalene (€ 100,000 - 150,000), and Régnier’s Portrait of a nobleman, long bust-length, as Aeneas, holding a branch of golden laurel, estimated at € 120,000 - 180,000.