The Artist: For a biography of Domenico Fetti, see the Catalogue Entry for
The Parable of the Mote and the Beam (
1991.153).
The Painting: Fetti’s original interpretation of the
Salvator Mundi (Savior of the World), brilliantly blends the monumental—with its noble figure held aloft in the clouds—and the personable—obtained through its surprisingly small format and the engaging facial expression of Christ and surrounding putti. The painting’s sophisticated citation of works by earlier artists, its small scale, and bravura finish that mixes thin glazes and rich impasto would have made it an ideal work for appreciation by connoisseurs. A letter addressed to count Francesco Gambara of Brescia from his agent in Venice on February 24, 1624 describes “the paintings of which I extracted two by Fetti. I began by wanting to discuss the St. Agnes and the other one of the Savior.” (li Quadri da quali cauo quelli doi del feti. Io cominciai a uoler discorere sopra la Santa Agnese et quell’altro Saluatore).[1] As early as 1611, Gambara owned works by Fetti and the two paintings referred to here are most likely the
Saint Agnes (Gemäldegalerie, Dresden) and The Met’s
Salvator Mundi.[2] The presence of these paintings in Venice in 1624, less than a year after Fetti’s death in the city, along with the stylistic features of vibrant colors and feathery brushstrokes place them at the end of the artist’s short life.[3]
The painting combines a Venetian palette and handling—comparable, for example, with Titian’s
Christ Blessing (see fig. 5 above)—and knowledge of illusionistic decorative painting, notably ceiling frescoes that engaged daring perspective and softly blended clouds to defy gravity. Tintoretto’s
Mary with the Child and Saints Mark and Luke (1560s; Gemäldegalerie, Berlin) combines these features, albeit at a much larger scale, and provides a sense of the kinds of work Fetti may have had in mind. Closer to the subtly playful mood of Fetti’s
Salvator Mundi are Correggio’s decorations in the cathedral of Parma (fig. 6). The facial types, poses, and interweaving bodies of the putti resonate especially with Correggio’s depiction of Saint Taddeus (fig. 7). The humorous, even distracting presence of a pair of angels may play further on Raphael’s Sistine Madonna (1512), which was in Piacenza in Emilia-Romagna during the seventeenth century. Fetti need not have looked so far afield for playful—even rudely positioned—putti after his time in Mantua. Andrea Mantegna (1431–1506)’s celebrated trompe l’oeil oculus (1465–1474) with its humorous recto-verso effect of paired putti overhead was part of the bridal chambers of Mantua’s ducal palace (fig. 8).
A second version of this composition in the collection of the Museo Tadini, Lovere, is probably a studio replica or simply a copy.[4] Safarik notes a lost version of the same subject on lapis lazuli in the inventory of the Gonzaga Palace in Mantua in 1627 that presumably predated The Met’s painting.[5] It is easy to imagine the painting’s stone support having inspired a richly colored ground and animated clouds responding to the stone’s veins, aspects that may well have remained in Fetti’s mind when he executed this panel.
David Pullins 2020
[1] Boselli 1971 [1624], p. 81.
[2] Safarik 1990, p. 177. A red wax seal on the back of the panel remains unidentified, but the “VV” in black paint and a recessed monogram “VPC” (for Vescovo Paolo Coccapani) document its presence in Modena from the late seventeenth through mid-nineteenth centuries (see Provenance for further details).
[3] Safarik compares it to Fetti’s
Flight into Egypt (ca. 1622; Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna). Safarik 1990, p. 177.
[4] Spike 1980, p. 60; Safarik 1990, pp. 177, 180; Safarik 1996, p. 223.
[5] Safarik 1990, p. 180.
