© Soprintendenza Speciale PSAE Roma


Name of Object:

Taking of Christ

Location:

Rome, Latium, Italy

Holding Museum:

Borghese Gallery

 About Borghese Gallery, Rome

Original Owner:

Scipione Borghese

Current Owner:

Italian State

Date of Object:

c. 1596–97

Artist(s) / Craftsperson(s):

Giuseppe Cesari, the Cavalier d’Arpino (1568, Arpino (Frosinone)-1640, Rome)

Museum Inventory Number:

356

Material(s) / Technique(s):

Oil on copper

Dimensions:

h: 77 cm; w: 56 cm

Provenance:

Borghese Collection

Type of object:

Painting

Description:

The painting is one of a group of works confiscated from the workshops of the painter in 1607 on the orders of Paul V, and subsequently transferred to the collection of cardinal-nephew Scipione Borghese as a gift from the Pope. It is one of the most famous paintings of the Cavalier d'Arpino because of the chromatic quality and the complexity of the composition. It shows Christ being taken to the Garden of Gethsemane according to evangelical accounts, which also describe some peripheral episodes. At the centre of the scene is the figure of Christ, who stands out in the luminous glow of the torches and appears to emit his own light. In the bottom right, Peter holds his knife aloft, about to cut off the ear of the high priest's servant Malchus. On the left-hand side we see a perfect diagonal line traced between the figures running after the naked boy in the foreground. Notably, this latter was taken by the painter from a lost painting by Correggio (c. 1489–1534), which he may have seen first-hand during a trip to Parma. The composition and the attitudes of the figures express the taste of late Roman Mannerism, of which the artist was the best exponent during the 16th and 17th centuries. Beneficiary of the major commissions of the time, including primarily those placed by Pope Clement VIII Aldobrandini, Arpino headed the most important workshop in Rome, where a young Caravaggio worked having recently arrived from Lombardy. The high drama imparted by the sense of isolation around the figure of Christ, highlighted by flashes of light, was an essential focus of study and inspiration for Caravaggio's Martyrdom of St. Matthew produced a few years later for the Contarelli Chapel of the Church of San Luigi dei Francesi (1599–1602).

View Short Description

This painting was considered “the most beautiful work by the Cavalier” (Bellori). Giuseppe Cesari was involved in some of the most important commissions of the time, including for Pope Clement VIII Aldobrandini. He owned the most important workshop in Rome in the late 16th century, where a young Caravaggio also worked soon after his arrival from Lombardy. Here he developed the still lives of his formative years, studying the issue of light in great depth. This work inspired Caravaggio's Martyrdom of St. Matthew

How Object was obtained:

The Borghese Collection was acquired by the Italian State in 1902.

Selected bibliography:

Della Pergola, P., Galleria Borghese. I dipinti, II, Rome, 1959, n.91, p. 63.
Röttgen, H., Il cavalier Giuseppe Cesari d'Arpino, Rome, 2002, pp. 84–85.

Additional Copyright Information:

Copyright image: Archivio fotografico Soprintendenza Speciale PSAE e Polo Museale della Città di Roma.

Citation of this web page:

Sofia Barchiesi, Marina Minozzi "Taking of Christ" in "Discover Baroque Art", Museum With No Frontiers, 2024. https://baroqueart.museumwnf.org/database_item.php?id=object;BAR;it;Mus11;12;en

Prepared by: Sofia BarchiesiSofia Barchiesi

SURNAME: Barchiesi
NAME: Sofia

TITLE: Author and Researcher

CV:
Sofia Barchiesi, a graduate and specialist in Art History and recipient of a scholarship from the School of Mediaeval and Modern Art History at Lumsa University, has been working with the Superintendency for Historical Artistic Heritage and the Museums of Rome since the late 1980s. She was responsible for cataloguing the art of the region and museums of Rome, studying the period of the Counter-Reformation particularly closely. She works with journals and writes essays, alternating her research and teaching work.
, Marina MinozziMarina Minozzi

SURNAME: Minozzi
NAME: Marina

AFFILIATION: Borghese Gallery, Rome

TITLE: Head Art History Co-ordinator

CV:
Marina Minozzi, a graduate and specialist in Art History, is currently the Head Art History Co-ordinator at the Borghese Gallery, where she curates the collections from the 18th and 19th centuries and heads the museum’s Documentation Centre. She has published a range of papers, including many on art-collecting in Rome and particularly the Borghese collection. She is currently involved with the Ten Great Exhibitions project underway at the Borghese Gallery, and has written essays on the work of Bernini, Raffaello, Canova and Correggio.

Translation by: Laurence Nunny
Translation copyedited by: Mandi GomezMandi Gomez

Amanda Gomez is a freelance copy-editor and proofreader working in London. She studied Art History and Literature at Essex University (1986–89) and received her MA (Area Studies Africa: Art, Literature, African Thought) from SOAS in 1990. She worked as an editorial assistant for the independent publisher Bellew Publishing (1991–94) and studied at Bookhouse and the London College of Printing on day release. She was publications officer at the Museum of London until 2000 and then took a role at Art Books International, where she worked on projects for independent publishers and arts institutions that included MWNF’s English-language editions of the books series Islamic Art in the Mediterranean. She was part of the editorial team for further MWNF iterations: Discover Islamic Art in the Mediterranean Virtual Museum and the illustrated volume Discover Islamic Art in the Mediterranean.

True to its ethos of connecting people through the arts, MWNF has provided Amanda with valuable opportunities for discovery and learning, increased her editorial experience, and connected her with publishers and institutions all over the world. More recently, the projects she has worked on include MWNF’s Sharing History Virtual Museum and Exhibition series, Vitra Design Museum’s Victor Papanek and Objects of Desire, and Haus der Kulturen der Welt’s online publication 2 or 3 Tigers and its volume Race, Nation, Class.

MWNF Working Number: IT1 15

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