16th century masterpiece thought lost for centuries enters Uffizi collections

A new painting is entering the collections of the Uffizi Galleries: it is theEnigma of Homer, a work by the 16th-century Bolognese master Bartolomeo Passerotti (Bologna, 1529 - 1592), thought to have been lost for centuries. The painting will soon be displayed in the Florentine museum’s new rooms dedicated to 16th-century painting soon to be opened. It was known only through descriptions in some historical sources and some preparatory and d’après drawings.

Bartolomeo Passerotti trained between Bologna and Rome, first in the retinue of Iacopo Barozzi known as il Vignola, then with his contemporary Taddeo Zuccari. In the Urbe he deepened his drawing from antiquity and perfected himself in etchings. Returning permanently to Bologna before 1560, he devoted himself to the execution of large altarpieces where elements of Nordic painting were combined with stylistic features typical of Roman Mannerism and, above all, of the Modenese works of Correggio. Significant was his activity as a portrait painter, which earned him numerous commissions from the famous and influential. His naturalistic interests and assiduous study from life, stimulated by his friendship with the famous botanist and entomologist Ulisse Aldrovandi, made him a key artist in the formation of the Carracci and in the birth of the great Bolognese painting of the late 16th and early 17th centuries.

Thefirst biographer of Bartolomeo Passerotti is Raffaello Borghini, who in his work Il Riposo (1584) gives a detailed description of the painting: “a large painting in canvas of vigorous coloring in oil, where are in a boat the sailors proposing the enigma to Homer, who is on the shore; and on the other side is a gypsy woman and in the face of Homer has Passerotto portrayed himself and there are seen very natural the waters of the sea et alcune conche marine et un cane che par par par vivo.” According to the testimony of the same biographer, the painting was in the palace of the Florentine scholar Giovanni Battista Deti (1539-1607), a collector and amateur of art, founding member of the Accademia della Crusca and author of the first Vocabolario della Crusca. In 1677 Giovanni Cinelli recorded the painting in the family palace of Florentine senator Carlo Torrigiani (1616-1684), but the description of the painting that had been made by Borghini was not recognized, confusing even the subject represented: a painting “entrovi un Orfeo, che con la lira in mano trae alla riva dal mare una nave con cinque figure dentro, rapite dalla dolcezza ed armonia di quel suono, opera molto vaga.”

Thus, traces of the work are lost: in modern studies of Passerotti, The Enigma of Homer was considered lost. At least until now: it has in fact been traced to the family of Carlo Torrigiani’s heirs.

In the second half of the sixteenth century, the myth of Homer enjoyed great fortune: examples are the great fresco cycles such as the one by Giorgio Vasari and Giovanni Stradano in Palazzo Vecchio in Florence, or the decoration by Pellegrino Tibaldi in Palazzo Poggi in Bologna. More rare than the scenes from theIliad and theOdyssey,Homer’s Enigma episode is reported in the Greek editions of Pseudo-Plutarch’s Vita Homeri, printed several times during the 16th century. The story goes that Homer, when he was on the island of Ios, sitting on a rock on the seashore, saw a ship of fishermen coming, whom he asked if they had done good fishing. The men, who had caught nothing and were intent on spearing themselves, answered thus, with this riddle: “What we caught, we left behind; what we did not catch, we kept.” The answer to the riddle was lice, alluding on the one hand to those they had managed to remove and throw into the sea, and on the other hand to those they had failed to remove and were still carrying on them. According to Pseudo-Plutarch’s account, Homer racked his brains over the riddle to such an extent, without coming to terms with it, that he died of it.

The painting was presented this morning along with a dedicated monographic volume published by the Uffizi, in the presence of Eike Schmidt, director of the Galleries, Daniele Benati, professor of History of Modern Art and director of the School of Specialization in Historical and Artistic Heritage at the University of Bologna, and the authors; the initiative was also attended by the president of the Tuscany Region Eugenio Giani and the regional councillor for Culture of Emilia Romagna Mauro Felicori.

“The discovery of this painting is of such importance that, on the occasion of its acquisition by the Galleries, a book was specially dedicated to it, which we are presenting today along with the painting,” Schmidt explained. “If the purchase of a work remembered in the oldest guides to Florence is in itself an intervention aimed at protecting our heritage from dispersion, the volume is further evidence of the intense research activity promoted by the museum.”

“The purchase of this very important painting by Bartolomeo Passerotti,” added Giani, “gives the sense of an ever-expanding Uffizi Gallery. On the one hand, the goal is to develop the Uffizi project in Tuscany with the exhibition of its works in properties of great value, which spread the sense of attraction to the collection throughout the region; on the other, to develop the illustration of a panorama of Italian artists of absolute significance and great prestige, as this acquisition of the Bolognese painter testifies.”

The Painter, the Poet and the Lice. Bartolomeo Passerotti and the Homer of Giovan Battista Deti (Sillabe, 2020, pp. 248) is the monographic volume edited by Marzia Faietti that contains in-depth studies by a group of specialists in Bolognese art from the University of Bologna: Vera Fortunati, Angela Ghirardi, Federico Condello, Donatella Fratini, and Roberto Bellucci.

Image: Bartolomeo Passerotti, The Enigma of Homer (c. 1570-1575; oil on canvas, 120 x 144 cm; Florence, Uffizi Galleries)

16th century masterpiece thought lost for centuries enters Uffizi collections

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