TEFAF, Benappi brings a masterpiece by Pierre Subleyras. Hopes for an Italian museum purchase

A few months after the publication of Nicolas Lesur ’s monograph devoted to French painter Pierre Subleyras (Saint Gilles, 1699 - Rome, 1749), the Benappi Fine Art gallery in London, directed by Filippo Benappi and Valentina Vico, exhibited Subleyras’ painting commissioned by Pope Benedict XIV, The Mystic Marriage of St. Catherine de’ Ricci of 1746 at the Tefaf Maastricht art fair in Maastricht , Netherlands, now in its 36th year. The painting is catalogued among the Subleyras’ masterpieces along with the canvas depicting St. Camillus Saving the Sick kept at the Museum of Rome, executed the same year. Both paintings were donated by Pope Benedict XIV and later passed into various collections.

In 1763 the work is registered in the collection of Girolamo Colonna di Sciarra, after which it was in the collection of Lorenzo Onofrio Colonna, in that of Filippo III Colonna, and between 1812 and 1935 it was also in the Barberini’s (it was located in Palazzo Barberini in Rome). In 1935 the painting was sold at auction, and was purchased by Marquis Sacchetti, from whom it later came by inheritance to its present owners. The painting was executed on the occasion of the canonization of St. Catherine de’ Ricci: on the occasion of canonization ceremonies, it was customary for religious orders to offer as gifts to the pope works dedicated to the person being elevated to the rank of saint, but it was the pontiff who chose the artist and subject. Thus it was that Benedict XIV chose Subleyras and the theme of the Mystic Marriage of St. Catherine de’ Ricci. The work depicts the vision that Catherine de’ Ricci, a Dominican nun who lived in the sixteenth century, had, according to hagiographic tradition, on April 9, 1542, Easter Sunday of that year: the Virgin Mary, Christ, St. Mary Magdalene and St. Thomas Aquinas would appear to her in a vision in a triumph of cherubs to celebrate her mystical wedding, symbolized by Christ slipping the ring into the saint’s left ring finger.

The exhibition of the painting, a work well known to critics since it is not a previously unpublished work, comes, as anticipated, just a short distance from the publication of Nicolas Lesur’s monograph devoted precisely to Subleyras and published in November 2023 by Arthena. “It is a very well-known work,” Lesur tells Gazette Drouot, “But very few people have had the opportunity to see it because it was kept inside the Sacchetti palace. The painting had not been exhibited for half a century. It did not appear at the 1987 retrospective in Rome and Paris. I must admit that during the 12 years I devoted to my research on Subleyras, I never got close! Arthena Editions could not even get a good color photographic reproduction for the edition of the work, despite numerous attempts. To see it finally reappear after publication is almost a godsend!”

The painting is notified by the Italian state-meaning it cannot be sold to a buyer outside the country’s borders. And even to bring it to the fair, Benappi Fine Arts had to obtain a special temporary export permit from the General Directorate of Fine Arts of the Ministry of Cultural Heritage. The work, in fact, is still owned by the Sacchetti heirs, who hope to sell it to an Italian collector or museum. Benappi Fine Arts is not new to such operations: bringing a notified masterpiece to the great windows of the international market. It had already done so, for example, in 2017, when it exhibited the two Pannocchieschi d’Elci paintings by Daniele da Volterra, two masterpieces of the 16th century, at the Florence Biennale Internazionale dell’Antiquariato, which were then purchased by the Uffizi, in one of the most interesting operations that an Italian museum has carried out in recent years, securing two important works for the public (in fact, today everyone can see them in the museum’s section dedicated to Tuscan Mannerism). The hope, then, is that Subleyras’ masterpiece will also find a home in an Italian museum.

Tefaf Maastricht, which opened on the 9th and can be visited until March 14, is one of the most prestigious art fairs globally, with 270 galleries exhibiting ancient, design and contemporary masterpieces, spanning 7,000 years of history. Each year, works and rare art objects, coveted by international collectors and institutions, are exhibited. The ten-day long event boasts a wide range of galleries, including thirteen new galleries, such as Seoul’s PKM Gallery and New York’s Rosenberg & Co.

TEFAF, Benappi brings a masterpiece by Pierre Subleyras. Hopes for an Italian museum purchase

Warning: the translation into English of the original Italian article was created using automatic tools. We undertake to review all articles, but we do not guarantee the total absence of inaccuracies in the translation due to the program. You can find the original by clicking on the ITA button. If you find any mistake,please contact us.