di Rischard Spear
Il nostro amico, Prof. Richard Spear- attentissimo lettore di About Art (per la quale ha firmato di recente una notevole recensione (cfr https://www.aboutartonline.com/unattenta-analisi-di-richard-spear-sul-iv-volume-dedicato-a-guido-reni-della-felsina-pittrice-english-text-with-a-large-italian-abstract/ ) – noto a tutti gli addetti ai lavori come uno dei massimi studiosi statunitensi di arte e pittura in particolare del XVII secolo, ed autore di studi e pubblicazioni molto importanti, ci ha mandato una breve nota concernente l’articolo di Rita Randolfi pubblicato lo scorso numero (cfr. https://www.aboutartonline.com/domenichino-e-il-dualismo-tra-bene-e-male-nel-rimprovero-e-la-cacciata-dal-paradiso-di-adamo-ed-evaoggi-a-dublino/) ; volentieri pubblichiamo la nota di Richard ribadendo la logica che caratterizza la rivista dalla sua nascita cioè essere punto di confronto tra studiosi e di approfondimento nella prospettiva di contribuire allo sviluppo degli studi e della ricerca in un campo, quello della storia dell’arte ma della cultura in generale, in cui troppo spesso è prevalso e prevale un malinteso spirito di corpo.
Regarding Rita Randolfi’s “Domenichino e il dualism tra bene e male…”, readers of About Art Online might wish to correct many statements and be aware of many omissions in the article, which unfortunately confuses more than contributes to an understanding of Domenichino’s paintings of The Rebuke of Adam and Eve. To cite just some representative examples, Domenichino’s ex-Barberini canvas is not in Dublin or in Ireland, as repeatedly the author says it is, but is in the National Gallery of Art, Washington. Despite what she read in the Zeri archive, and assumed uncritically must be correct (clearly, the author has never seen the painting in Washington, yet passes judgment on it), the picture is fully autograph. Domenichino’s version of the subject at Chatsworth is not on canvas, but on copper. Stephen Pepper did not contribute to the Domenichino exhibition catalogue (Palazzo Venezia, Rome, 1966-67). I wrote its catalogue of paintings and therefore the entry she cites was not, as she says, written by Pepper. The iconography of the Grenoble copper and Domenichino’s variants, including his signed cartoon in the Louvre (incorrectly referenced in Randolfi’s footnote), is very interesting and unusual. It draws on the text in the “Book of Adam and Eve,” which is part of the Old Testament pseudepigrapha. Randolfi would have known that, which is essential for, but absent from, her stated aim to discuss the “invenzione di Domenichino in relazione alla fonte biblica,” had she consulted my monograph with catalogue raisonné of Domenichino’s work, which is absent in her bibliography.
Richard SPEAR Washington DC november / 1 / 2020