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Premium Pietro PAOLINI (Lucca, 1603 - 1681)
Portrait of Tiberio Fior…
See original version (French)
Pietro PAOLINI (Lucca, 1603 - 1681)
Portrait of Tiberio Fior…
See original version (French)
Lot no. 4
Description
Pietro PAOLINI (Lucca, 1603 - 1681)
Portrait of Tiberio Fiorilli as Scaramouche
Oil on canvas
(Restorations)
Portrait of Tiberio Fiorilli as Scaramouche, oil on canvas, by P. Paolini
18.70 x 15.94 in.
47.5 x 40.5 cm
Bibliography: Nikita de Vernejoul, "Paolini e i rittrati - Rittrati piu che allegorie", Paola Betti and Gianni Papi (eds.), Paolo Guidotti, Pietro Sogismondi e Pietro Paolini. Tre pittori lucchesi nella Roma di Caravaggio, proceedings of the symposium, Lucca, 18 October 2019, Lucca, 2020, pp. 151-152, fig. 11.
Nikita de Vernejoul, Pietro Paolini 1603-1681, Paris, 2024, no. P.60
The Neapolitan comedian Tiberio Fiorilli (1608-1694) was a famous commedia dell'arte actor who was immensely successful in his interpretations of the role of Scaramouche, even going so far as to modify the role's commonplaces, substituting the sword for the guitar, abandoning the mask and adopting an all-black costume. Singing, playing music and dancing, he was a complete comedian, as Angelo Costantini, who was also an actor, attests: "[...] nature had endowed him with a marvellous talent, which was to portray, through the postures of his body and the grimaces of his face, whatever he wanted "1. His success was international, and there is no longer any need to question the appropriateness of the acquisition of a magnificent painting by Pietro Paolini2 depicting him, surrounded by two figures (fig. 1), by the Château de Versailles once we learn of his celebrity at the French court. After arriving in Paris in 1640, he quickly made a name for himself with Louis XIII, who had called him, and was applauded by the grandees of the kingdom, led by the dauphin. Regarded as Molière's master, he established himself in Paris, where three of his children were baptised, and his success lasted a long time, as can be seen from the date 1657 on the print attributed to Jean Lepautre3.
Our work is probably a bozzetto for the three-figure painting mentioned by Nikita de Vernejoul in her catalogue (fig.2), which probably formed a pair with the Versailles painting. The head is slightly more tilted to the left, and the brushwork is more abrupt, effective and radical. The artist, who depicts the figure's squinting, seems to have toned down the scowl. Despite the visible restorations, our head of expression captivates us with its originality and expressive power, plunging us into a world that is all too rarely represented, that of theatre and comedy. As Lucca and Tuscany were on the road between Naples and Paris, the actor and the painter met on numerous occasions, certainly in the second half of the 1620s. Paolini, who was fond of exaggerated expressions, strange worlds marked by strong chiaroscuro and complex 'drawer' speeches, must have fully blossomed by portraying a personality as rich as the actor Fiorilli.
1 - Angelo Costantini, La vie de Scaramouche par Mezetin, Paris, 1876, chap. XXVIII, p.82
2 - Pietro Paolini, Portrait de Fiorilli en Scaramouche avec une vieille femme et un enfant, oil on canvas, 92.5 x 121 cm, Versailles, Musée national des châteaux de Versailles et de Trianon, acquired in 2017 from Galerie Michel Descours
3 - Vernejoul, 2024, op.cit. fig. 44, p. 127.
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Pietro PAOLINI (Lucca, 1603 - 1681)
47.5 x 40.5 cm
See original version (French)
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