Ventura Salimbeni, il Cavaliere Bevilacqua (Siena 1568-1613)

This characteristically refined pictured on copper is a mature work by the Sienese painter, Ventura Salimbeni. As was recognised by Roderick Thesiger and James Byam Shaw in the 1962 Colnaghi catalogue a terminus post quem is supplied by the figure of Saint Cecilia, which is based on Carlo Maderna's celebrated statue of 1600 in the church of S. Cecilia in Trastevere, Rome, which in turn is said to have been inspired by the appearance of the Saint's body when her tomb was opened in 1599. The authors of the 2005 Jesi exhibition catalogue propose a date circa 1604. The opening of the tomb and the success of Maderna's statue evidently stimulated the cult of Saint Cecilia, the patron saint of music. Two drawings for the picture by Salimbeni are known, one in the Louvre (no. 12374), correctly attributed to the artist by Françoise Viatte, the second, corresponding closely with the composition finally adopted, in the Victoria and Albert Museum (no. E 1088-1920).