A masterpiece by Subleyras enters the Uffizi

3/8/24 - Acquisition - Florence, Gallerie degli Uffizi - While it is generally difficult to determine which is ’the’ painting at TEFAF, for once the choice was simple last March (see article), when the large painting by Subleyras on Filippo Benappi’s stand was immediately unanimously acclaimed and attracted a large number of curious onlookers from the beginning to the end of the Maastricht fair. It’s hard to imagine anything better: a prestigious commission from the mid-18th century, a gift to Pope Benedict XIV, which has since been passed from one Roman palace to another and is therefore virtually unheard of, as well as being ideally preserved!

1. Pierre Subleyras (1699-1749)
The Mystical Marriage of Saint Catherine de Ricci, 1746
Oil on canvas - 175 x 250 cm
Florence, Galleria degli Uffizi
Photo: Benappi Fine Art

See the image in its page

The only downside for potential wealthy international buyers was that such a masterpiece was inevitably subject to the dreaded notifica prohibiting any definitive export, and automatically reducing the substantial price at which it could be offered. Rumours of its sale to a major Italian museum began to circulate at the opening of the fair, where the painting (ill. 1) reappeared in majesty just a few months after the publication of the masterly monograph (see article) by Nicolas Lesur, who had unfortunately been unable to obtain a good photograph of it!

2. Pierre Subleyras (1699-1749)
Le Mariage mystique de Sainte Catherine de Ricci, 1745
Huile sur toile - 23 x 30 cm
Amherst, Smith College Museum of Art
Photo : Smith College Museum of Art

See the image in its page

Absent from the major retrospective in 1987, when Subleyras enjoyed successive exhibitions at the Musée du Luxembourg and the Villa Medici, the large painting presented to the Pope in 1746 was at least evoked by its attractive sketch, which has been conserved in the United States since 1957 (ill. 2) after having spent a…