Tátrai Vilmos szerk.: A Szépművészeti Múzeum közleményei 95. (Budapest, 2001)

DOBOS, ZSUZSANNA: Two hitherto unknown paintings by Flaminio Torri

No data or documents as regards the commissioner or the provenance of the painting have come down to us. Marcello Oretti reports about a Rebekah at the Well by Torri in the Bianconi collection, Bologna.

41 As no other painting with this subject matter by Torri is mentioned in the sources, I am tempted to suppose that the painting Oretti saw could be identical with the one in Budapest. Oretti's list also describes another painting, a "Vergine della Rosa" by Torri at that time in the Cavazza Collection, Bologna.

42 Although the text doesn't give any more information, the emphatic motif of the rose encourages me to identify it with the Holy Family to be found in the deposit of the Szépművészeti Múzeum under the inventory number L. 3.208 as the work of an anonymous Italian master (fig. 83).

43 The painting has come down to us in a similarly poor state of preservation as the Rebekah at the Well. Although the coat of paint, maybe due toTorri's much criticized oil technique rich in bitumen,

44 is heavily abraded, the restoration revived the aesthetic unity of the picture. The violet of the Virgin Mary's robe, the dark blue of St Joseph's mantle, the metallic tones of the flesh regained their pastosity and force and similarly to the other painting, several pentimenti became visible here, too.

45 84. Flaminio Torri: The Virgin Annunciate. Bologna, private collection 41 Oretti op.cit. (note 36) c. 156. 42 Oretti op.cit. (note 36) c. 45. 43 Oil, canvas, 125 x 99 cm. The owner, the provenance of the painting in Hungary is unknown. 44 Already in Torri's life some of his altarpieces had to be removed from their places because their colours darkened, their composition became unreadable. F. Baldinucci writes the following: "Fu solito usare quest'arteficie nel temperamente dei suoi colon molt'olio di sasso, il quale non lasciando loro far corpo, fece si che l

'opère sue, quasi tutte in breve giro di lustri assorbite dalla mestica, si son perduti di vista." (Notizie dei Professori del Disegno 4, Firenze 1681, ed. F. Ranalli, Firenze 1846, 49.) 45 The painting was restored by Erzsébet Béres in 2001.