Attribué à CHERUBINO ALBERTI (1553-1615) d’après TADDEO et FREDERICO ZUCCARI

The Conversion of St. Paul with God the Father and Angels above Oil on panel reinforced Numbered in ink with stencil on the back 164SO with collection stamp and handwritten inscription. Size : 108 x 82 cm This painting is attributed to Cherubino Alberti after his engraving made in 1775, a copy of which is kept at the Metropolitan Museum in New-York. It is a free composition after the fresco by Taddeo and Frederico Zuccaro which was painted between 1557 and 1564. It is located in the Frangipani Chapel of San Marcello al Corso in Rome. The engraving by Cherubino Alberti is done in a format reversed horizontally with respect to the original composition and with modifications in the perspectives, the position and the clothes of some characters but also in the number of angels in the upper part. The painting we are presenting was most probably painted at that time by Alberti and strictly according to his engraving. If it does not reach the power of the Zuccari fresco, this painting is still of exceptional workmanship. Condition postponed : Wear, small misses in the pictorial layer and vertical cracks, one of which is important in the left part. The panel has been reinforced at the back by two lateral laths at the top and bottom. Not framed. Provenance: Acquired from the Fischer Gallery in Luzern, catalogue of the 1970 summer sale. The painting has remained in the buyer's family ever since. Private collection Switzerland and Monte Carlo Engraving kept at the Metropolitan Museum Documentation : Purchase invoice dated 13 June 1966. Italian painter, copper engraver and military engineer born in Borgo Sansepolcro in Tuscany, Zaccaria Mattia known as "Cherubino" Alberti is also nicknamed "The Borghegiano" because of his birthplace. He came from a family of artists and was the second son of Alberto Alberti, a sculptor. His brothers Alessandro Alberti and Giovanni Alberti were also artists. Alberti studied in Rome with Cornelis Cort and later worked as an engraver studying the works of Agostino Carracci and Francesco Villamena. Between 1571 and 1575 he painted and engraved mainly after works by Federico and Taddeo Zuccari (Zuccaro). During the next ten years, his engravings included works based on the creations of Raphael, Michelangelo, Polidoro da Caravaggio, Andrea del Sarto, Rosso Fiorentino, Marco Pino, Pellegrino Tibaldi, and Cristofano Gherardi. Later, Cherubino Alberti decorated palaces and churches with frescoes. Although he also painted for the church of Santa Maria in Via Lata, his most famous work, done with his brother Giovanni, will remain the fresco that still decorates the Sala Clementina in the Vatican.