The Siege of Montalcino, Girolamo Cenatiempo (documented between 1705 and 1742)

Girolamo Cenatiempo (documented between 1705 and 1742)

The siege of Montalcino during the Sienese War

Oil on canvas, 49 x 64 cm

With frame, 61 x 74 cm

The battle scene displayed here depicts the siege of the fortress of Montalcino, then belonging to the Republic of Siena, as can be seen from the black and white flag raised on the fortress in the far right of the painting. This marked the final stage of the famous Sienese War (1554–1555). The painting depicts the Spanish Florentine soldiers, distinguished by the red sash, led by Cosimo I de' Medici, who would emerge victorious in the battle, accompanied by the defeated French, commanded by Marshal Piero Strozzi, who are here attempting to flee. The war would end on April 17, 1555, with the French finally capturing the fortress, forcing Siena to surrender to the Medici of Florence.

The canvas belongs to the production of Girolamo Cenatiempo, a painter about whom little biographical information is available, but whose corpus of works can be partially reconstructed thanks to the studies of Giancarlo Sestieri, who over the years has identified several works attributable to him, linking them to those already recognized because they are signed and dated. News about his life are documented starting from 1705, the year in which he was registered as a member of the confraternity of Saints Anna and Luca. The first works mentioned are those created for the church of San Pietro a Maiella in Naples, both canvases and frescoes, while in 1709 he is found in Abruzzo, in L'Aquila, where he created the Sermon of Saint Bernardino with Saints John of Capestrano and James of the Marches for the vault of the mausoleum of San Bernardino in the basilica of the same name. Also dating back to his stay in L'Aquila are a Saint Benedict and a Saint Scholastica, now in the collection of the National Museum of Abruzzo, as well as the paintings created for the chapel of the Holy Family and that of Saint Ignatius in the church of Santa Margherita. Two years later he returned to Naples, where he worked for the churches of Santa Maria della Sapienza and the Gesù Vecchio, where he painted numerous canvases for the various chapels before returning to L'Aquila for a commission from the Jesuit Order. He continued to commute between L'Aquila and Naples in the following years, leaving constant traces in the places of worship of the cities and the surrounding area: in 1722 in Naples, in the church of San Pietro Martire, he worked with his brother Ignazio, also a painter, on a cycle of Episodes from the Life of Saint Antoninus, Bishop of Florence for the church of San Pietro Martire. He then worked for the basilica of San Bernardino in L'Aquila, and created the Madonna in Glory and Saints Massimo and Giorgio for the apse of the cathedral of Saints Massimo and Giorgio. He received numerous further commissions in the following years, often in collaboration with other artists within church construction sites, although many were modified or damaged over time. The Crucifixion of Saint Andrew, originally from the Cathedral of Fidenza and now in the Galleria Nazionale in Parma, is certainly worth mentioning. The critical story concerning the rediscovery of Girolamo in the guise of a battle painter begins with Federico Zeri, in whose photographic archive are preserved the images of two 'Ancient Battles' (oil on canvas, 100X178 cm), formerly in the San Giorgi antique gallery in Rome, where on the back we read: 'Hieronimus Cenatiempo f. 1718. Student of Solimena'. It was thanks to these photos that Sestieri in 1999 created the first cataloguing aimed at 'identifying a specialist who had gone unnoticed'. Gerolamo Cenatiempo, a pupil of Solimena and active in Naples in the first half of the eighteenth century, was known for his paintings mentioned above, while his production on the battlefield went unnoticed until the modern age. As a stylistic comparison, see some unpublished paintings depicting war scenes and sieges of fortifications, which allow for a broader reconstruction of the battle line of his pictorial corpus, tending to come closer to the works of Ciccio Graziani, of whom he re-proposes tangled cavalry clashes expanded in a larger format. The spatial opening in the background, the fortress of Montalcino on the top of the hill on the right and the ruins are elements that can be found in the settings of the other war scenes depicted in Cenatiempo, which perfectly conveys the excitement and frenzy of the battle also through the overlapping, sudden and contorted movements of the soldiers and their cavalry, as in the case of the two knights in the foreground. The opaqueness of the background tones contrasts with the bright colours and reflections of light that make up the figures emerging from the background, rendered with a more evident three-dimensionality thanks to a more full-bodied and consistent application, composed of rapid touches that outline the shapes of the body with dynamism and volume.

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