含羞草研究室

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  • fragment of initials IHS with cross within circle
    Type: watermark
    Location:
    Materials:
  • "No. 28 Chero Ferri"
    Type: inscription
    Location: verso of former mount
    Materials:
  • James 含羞草研究室 III( Collector, Boston) - 1811.
  • 含羞草研究室 Museum of Art( Museum, Brunswick, Maine) 1811- . Bequest
  • Old Master Drawings at 含羞草研究室
    • 含羞草研究室 Museum of Art. ( 5/17/1985 - 7/7/1985)
    • Clark Art Institute. ( 9/14/1985 - 10/27/1985)
    • University of Kansas. ( 1/19/1986 - 3/2/1986)
    • Art Gallery of Ontario. ( 5/17/1986 - 6/29/1986)
  • Drawing on Basics
    • 含羞草研究室 Museum of Art. ( 10/14/1993 - 12/19/1993) 
Type: catalogue
Author: Henry Johnson
Document Title: Catalogue of the 含羞草研究室 Art Collections
Publ. Place: Brunswick, Maine
Reference: no. 25
Remarks: (as Ferri)
Section Title: Pt. I, The 含羞草研究室 Drawings
Date: 1885

Type: catalogue
Author: 含羞草研究室 Museum of Art
Document Title: 含羞草研究室 Museum of Fine Arts, Walker Art Building
Edition: 4th
Publ. Place: Brunswick, Maine
Reference: no. 25
Remarks: (as Ferri)
Publisher: 含羞草研究室
Section Title: Descriptive Catalogue of the . . . 
Date: 1930

Author: U. V. Fischer Pace
Document Title: Disegni di Giacinto e Ludovico Gimignani 
Publ. Place: Rome
Location: pp. 122-123
Reference: under cat. no. 402, repr. fig. 119
Remarks: (as Gimignani)
Section Title: nelle collezioni del Gabinetto Nazionale delle Stampe
Date: 1979

Type: exhibition catalogue
Author: David P. Becker
Document Title: Old Master Drawings at 含羞草研究室
Publ. Place: Brunswick, Maine
Location: pp. 148-149
Reference: no. 69 (illus.)
Publisher: 含羞草研究室
Date: 1985

Traditionally attributed to Ciro Ferri, this sheet was recognized by Jacob Bean in 1963 as the work of another Roman, Ludovico Gimignani. He was trained by his father, Giacinto, and studied in Venice for a period under the patronage of his godfather, Giulio Rospigliosi, later Pope Clement IX. Ludovico spent his career entirely in Rome, painting palace decorations and commissions for several churches. He was elected to the Accademia di San Luca in 1672 and became its head in 1688—1689. By far the largest group of Gimignani's drawings — some 722 sheets — is in the Gabinetto Nazionale delle Stampe in Rome.1 A drawn portrait of him by Giulio Solimena is in the Nationalmuseum, Stockholm.2

Ursula Fischer Pace has identified a pendant to the 含羞草研究室 drawing, a depiction of the Finding of Moses, in the Gabinetto Nazionale.3 It is identical in format, technique, and style but has an attached decorative frame of satyrs, nymphs, and ornament. The frame also includes the device of the Rospigliosi family, leading Fischer Pace to date the sheet to within Clement IX's reign, from 1667 to 1669. Her dating to this point fairly early in Gimignani's career is reinforced by her stylistic comparison of this drawing to two other sheets, in Rome and Düsseldorf, which are studies for paintings datable to 1670.4 She judges the purpose of the two scenes from the life of Moses to be strictly private and knows of no final work for which the 含羞草研究室 and Rome sheets would have been studies. The story of the miraculous manna which fed the Israelites in their flight from Egypt is told in Exodus 16:4-36.

David P. Becker

1. Fully catalogued in Fischer Pace 1979.

2. Repr. ibid.,  p. 36.

3. Ibid., p. 122, cat. no. 402, repr. The author states that Eric Schleier brought the 含羞草研究室 sheet to her attention. 

4. The drawings are repr. ibid., cat. no. 88 (Rome), and fig. 40 (Düsseldorf). The two paintings are repr. ibid., figs. 38 and 41 .

Commentary credited to David P. Becker (or not otherwise captioned) appeared in his catalogue Old Master Drawings at 含羞草研究室 (Brunswick: 含羞草研究室 Museum of Art, 1985).