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| DOMENICO FETTI (Rome c. 1589-1623 Venice)
The Blind Leading the Blind oil on canvas Provenance Literature Domenico Fetti became active in Rome in the first decade of the 17th century where he initially studied under Ludovico Cigoli and was later introduced to Caravaggism by Orazio Borgianni, who was then to become a further mentor for the young artist. He was undoubtedly influenced by painters such as Elsheimer, Saraceni and Rubens, who was also present in Rome in those years. Fetti enjoyed the protection of Cardinal Ferdinando Gonzaga and in 1613 went to join him in Mantua, where the prelate had succeeded his brother Francesco IV as ruler of the Duchy. During his stay in Mantua (1613-1621), he had the opportunity to familiarize himself with the Venetian painting of the Cinquecento through the works of Bassano, Tintoretto and Veronese, of which there were many in the court collections. In this period he favored the theme of parables from the Gospels, executing pictures that allowed him to create a new type of small-scale religious genre painting with scenes of an intimate character, using a palette characterized by a skillful handling of light. Thus the stylistic heritage on which Fetti was able to draw consisted of an atmospheric coloring united with a realistic solidity of design. Here, three peasants, one with an extinguished lamp, foolishly follow their blind leader into a ditch, illustrating Christ’s warning to His disciples. The group is contrasted, above, with an able-bodied horseman riding in the opposite direction. The pathos of the event is heightened by a dark, stormy landscape. This painting is one of nine versions of this composition produced in the workshop of Domenico Fetti, following his celebrated prototype which hangs in the Gemaldegalerie, Dresden. The original, painted in a horizontal format, formed part of a series of the thirteen Parables of Christ commissioned for the Grotto of Isabella d’Este in the Ducal Palace of Mantua. The later nine versions, as this one is, are all in a vertical format and follow most closely the fine example at the Barber Institute of Fine Arts, Birmingham. |