Ciro Ferri (Rome, 1634 – 1689), The Expulsion of Hagar

Ciro Ferri (Rome, 1634 – 1689)

The Expulsion of Hagar

Oil on canvas, 69 x 58,5 cm

With frame, 81 x 70 cm

The subject of the work belongs to the stories of the Old Testament: Hagar was the Egyptian slave of Sarah, barren wife of Abraham, who, unable to have children with his wife, fathered his firstborn, Ishmael, with Hagar. Later, Sarah gave birth to Isaac, Abraham's legitimate son, whom she ordered to chase away Hagar and Ishmael. The divine rescue of the mother and son, condemned to wander in the desert, highlights God's attention to individuals that the current mentality considers inferior in the social hierarchy. Returning to the artist, he can be considered a leading exponent of the Roman Baroque, so much so that he was first a student and then a collaborator of Pietro da Cortona, with whom he frescoed the Palazzo del Quirinale in Rome and Palazzo Pitti in Florence, and under whose direction he worked on the design of the eighteen prints of the Missal of Alexander VII Chigi, published in Rome in 1662. In addition to his collaborations with the great master from Cortona, Ferri is remembered for the magnificent frescoes in the Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore in Bergamo, as well as for a series of altarpieces created for the churches of the city of Rome and the surrounding areas. The dynamism of the scene, which is structured around the central figures, the fulcrum of the story and the composition, then finds a continuation on the sides with the figure of Sarah looking out of a window in the background and the wild landscape on the right, where Abraham leads the two unfortunates. The neo-Venetian tonality, which spread in Rome during the seventeenth century, is reflected in the rich and bright colours of the clothes and also in the natural elements of the panoramic view: the stormy clouds, the treetops and the blue mountains on the horizon are composed of vibrant and iridescent colours depending on the different levels of lighting while the contours are blurred in the intense and full-bodied glazes. Although Ferri's major works are linked to the fresco technique, here he gives an example of pictorial skill on a different material, reminiscent of the religious, historical or mythological paintings created during his career, many of which are now exhibited in prestigious museums around the world: Moses Defending the Daughters of Jethro at the Museo d'Arte di San Paolo, the Marriage at the Galleria Capitolina, the Vestals at Palazzo Spada, also in Rome, Alexander the Great at the Uffizi, where his self-portrait is also found, and the Miracle of Saint Martin in Vienna.