Salomé (Moretto)

Salomé is an oil painting on canvas, by Moretto da Brescia, from 1540.

Salomé
ArtistMoretto da Brescia
Mediumoil on canvas
Dimensions56 cm × 39 cm (22 in × 15 in)
LocationPinacoteca Tosio Martinengo, Brescia

Description

The oil painting on canvas measures 56 x 39 centimeters, and is in the collection of the Pinacoteca Tosio Martinengo in Brescia.

The painting depicts Salome dressed in expensive clothes and a rich fur, laying a golden scepter in her left hand. Long hair are twisted together with a green veil and pearl strands. The figure of the woman seems to rest on a marble plaque placed in the foreground, over which, in black characters, there is the inscription "QVAE SACRV[M] Ioanis CAPVT SALTANDO OBTINVIT". The background is covered by some laurel trees

Analysis

The work is also known by the name of Tullia d'Aragona, or more often, Tullia d'Aragona as Salome, though the identification with the historical character of Tullia d'Aragona is without references. The work, according to critics, inaugurates the late production of the artist, where Moretto is much freer in composition and colors than previous works, in the style of Titian.

History

The original patron of the painting is unknown, and it appears for the first time in historical documents in a 19th-century inventory of Count Teodoro Lechi, reported under the title Herodias with fur and a wand in his hand. He then transferred it to other owners, in Brescia, and on 20 July 1814 it was used in exchange to obtain the Baptism of Saint Catherine by Paolo Veronese. The painting was then bought by Count Paolo Tosio in 1829 and along with the rest of the noble collection entered the Pinacoteca Tosio Martinengo in 1846.[1]

The painting has been restored in 1986, and the operation has freed the painted surface from previous fillings, recovering almost completely the brilliance of the original color scheme.

Notes
  1. Pier Virgilio Begni Redona, pag. 354
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References
  • Guido Biagi, Un'etéra romana, in "Nuova antologia di scienze, lettere e arti", vol.4, fasc.16, 1886
  • Rossana Bossaglia, La pittura bresciana del Cinquecento. I maggiori e i loro scolari in AA.VV., Storia di Brescia, Treccani, Brescia 1963
  • Pietro Da Ponte, L'opera del Moretto, Brescia 1898
  • Pompeo Molmenti, Il Moretto da Brescia, Firenze 1898
  • Fausto Lechi, Gaetano Panazza, La pittura bresciana del Rinascimento, catalogo della mostra, Bergamo 1939
  • Pier Virgilio Begni Redona, Alessandro Bonvicino - Il Moretto da Brescia, Editrice La Scuola, Brescia 1988
  • Adolfo Venturi, Storia dell'arte italiana, volume IX, La pittura del Cinquecento, Milano 1929
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