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Rest on the Flight into Egypt

Cavaliere D'Arpino (Giuseppe Cesari) (Italian (Roman), 1568–1640)
1590–1600

Medium/Technique Oil on copper
Dimensions 43.2 x 31.7 cm (17 x 12 1/2 in.)
Credit Line Gift of John Goelet
Accession Number1983.301
CollectionsEurope
ClassificationsPaintings
Giuseppe Cesari, known as the Cavaliere d'Arpino, was a prominent painter in Rome in the late sixteenth century. The energy, emotional truthfulness, and clear color of his paintings foreshadow the Baroque style of the seventeenth century. Painted on copper and in a perfect state of preservation, this work was formerly in the great collection formed by the wealthy and powerful Barberini family in Rome.

InscriptionsLower left: F.22.
ProvenanceMaffeo Barberini, Prince of Palestrina (b. 1631 - d. 1685), Rome [see note 1]; until 1970, by descent within the Barberini family, Rome; 1970, sold by the Barberini family to P. and D. Colnaghi, London; 1971, sold by Colnaghi to John Goelet, New York; 1983, gift of Goelet to the MFA. (Accession Date: June 15, 1983)

NOTES:
[1] This is probably the painting in the posthumous inventory of Maffeo Barberini, drawn up in 1686 (VII.inv.86, fol. 208 l, no. 609), described as a Madonna and Child with St. Joseph, who offers dates to the infant; on copper; 1 3/4 palmi high (about 42 cm) by 1 1/4 palmi wide (about 30 cm) and attributed to "Vaini" (?). Around 1816, the painting was numbered F22 (visible in its lower left corner) in relation to an inheritance dispute then in progress within the Barberini family. See Marilyn Aronberg Lavin, Seventeenth-Century Barberini Documents and Inventories of Art (New York, 1975), pp. 420 and 715. The painting appears in the posthumous inventory of Francesco Barberini-Colonna, Prince of Palestrina (b. 1772 - d. 1853), drawn up in 1854 (accessible via the Getty Provenance Index Databases, http://piweb.getty.edu, Archival Document I-535), no. 22, described as a Rest on the Flight in to Egypt; on copper; attributed to Simon Vouet.