| Описание |
Bought and sold repeatedly on the antique market in the second half of the 1980s, this painting came into the Cariplo Collection in its original neo-baroque frame from a private collection in 1998. The history of its ownership began in 1838, when it was purchased by Ferdinand I of Austria for the Belvedere in Vienna. As a result of the financial problems besetting the Habsburgs, it was then decided to sell the work together with other Italian paintings from the collection, which were auctioned at the Galleria Scopinich, Milan, in 1928.
It was exhibited at the Esposizione Nazionale di Belle Arti di Brera in 1838 and proved a great success with the public and critics alike – further enhanced by its acquisition for the imperial collections – as a result of the subject, drawn directly from contemporary life and portrayed in the large format previously reserved for history painting. The iconographic and compositional model of the work can perhaps be traced to The Confession (1712, Dresden, Staatliche Kunstsammlungen) by the Bolognese painter Giuseppe Maria Crespi (1665–1747), which portrays the sacrament of confession as a familiar part of everyday life.
The sweet yet pert woman kneeling in the confessional was thought by some contemporary critics to represent a young mother who had yielded to the advances of an admirer. Meticulously captured in all the details of furnishing and dress, the contemporary scene was instead seen by the Catholic critic Pietro Estense Selvatico as designed to illustrate the moral beauty of everyday life. Already sought after as a fashionable portrait painter in the 1830s, Giuseppe Molteni thus developed a type of genre painting then in great demand on the market, depicting aspects of society and day-to-day life in a variety of styles ranging from folksy and anecdotal to dramatic in subjects of social satire. |
| Ссылки |
- Della pubblica esposizione di opere di Belle Arti e d’industria fatta in Milano nel settembre del 1838. Cenni di Opprandino Arrivabene, Pirotta, Milano, 1838, pp. 67-68.
- Esposizione dei grandi e piccoli concorsi ai premi e delle opere degli artisti e dei dilettanti nelle gallerie della I. R. Accademia di Belle Arti per l’anno 1838, Imp. Regia stamperia, Milano, 1838, n. 2, p. 4.
- Benedetto Bermani, La confessione, dipinto di Giuseppe Molteni, in Album. Esposizione di belle arti in Milano nell’anno MDCCCXXXVIII, anno II, C. Canadelli, Milano, 1838, pp. 3-12, ill.
- Ignazio Fumagalli, Esposizione degli oggetti di belle arti nell’I. R. palazzo di Brera, in "Biblioteca italiana ossia giornale di letteratura scienze ed arti", fascicolo XCI, Milano, luglio 1838, p. 100.
- Romantici italiani provenienti dalla Casa d'Austria e collezione Bolasco, catalogo di vendita, Milano, Galleria Scopinich, 1928, Rizzoli & C., Milano, 1928, n. 117, tav. VIII (come Confessionale).
- Ferdinando Mazzocca, La pittura dell'Ottocento in Lombardia, in Enrico Castelnuovo, a cura di, La pittura in Italia. L'Ottocento, vol. I, Electa, Milano, 1990, p. 103, ill. n. 125, p. 97.
- Paola Zatti, Giuseppe Molteni. La confessione, in Sergio Rebora, a cura di, Le collezioni d’arte. L’Ottocento, Fondazione Cassa di Risparmio delle Province Lombarde, Milano, 1999, n. 185, pp. 280-283, ill.
- Paola Segramora Rivolta, Giuseppe Molteni, La Confessione, in Giuseppe Molteni (1800-1867) e il ritratto nella Milano romantica. Pittura, collezionismo, restauro, tutela, catalogo della mostra a cura di Fernando Mazzocca, Lavinia M. Galli Michero, Milano, Museo Poldi Pezzoli, 28 ottobre 2000 - 28 gennaio 2001, Skira, Milano, 2000, n. 68, pp. 219-220, ill. (opera non esposta).
- Paola Segramora Rivolta, in Fernando Mazzocca, a cura di, Da Boccioni a Canova. Le collezioni della Fondazione Cariplo e di Intesa Sanpaolo, Skira, Milano, 2011, n. III.35, pp. 188-189, ill.
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