RKD STUDIES

Miel’s public commissions provided the best opportunity for him to come into contact with the Roman artistic milieu, through which he was able to establish his own personal style. Miel made his debut in the public arena in 1651, in the church of San Martino ai Monti, where he painted The Baptism of the Sultan of Iconium [20].¹ Although this was his first work in fresco, it already shows a mature language with few inaccuracies and signs of hesitation, and undeniable similarities with the manner of Andrea Sacchi. There is a strong connection between Miel’s fresco and the decorative cycle in San Giovanni in Fonte, which was an important site of new artistic developments in Rome. The decoration of San Giovanni in Fonte (1639–1650) was directed by Sacchi and involved the work of other established artists including Giacinto Gimignani (1606–1681), Andrea Camassei (1602–1649), Carlo Magnone (1620/1621–1653) and Carlo Maratti (1625–1713).² The composition of Miel’s fresco in San Martino ai Monti is clearly derived from the painting depicting The Baptism of Christ by Sacchi in San Giovanni in Fonte. In addition, the figure of the boy in the foreground is based on the figure with the helmet in Maratti’s fresco, Constantine establishing the Christian Religion and ordering the Destruction of Pagan Idols [21], a work that Miel clearly studied carefully in these years.

The cycle in the Lateran Baptistery also had a fundamental influence on what can be regarded as Miel’s greatest achievement in the field of history painting: the Stories of St Lambert in Santa Maria dell’Anima, the German church in Rome. Thanks to the accounts of the Monte di Pietà, it is possible to date this cycle securely to 1652–1653, just after Miel’s commission for San Martino ai Monti. The archival documents also reveal the involvement of the Genoese Monsignor Giacomo Franzone (1612–1697).³ Franzone managed the bequest of Egidius van de Vivere, the patron of the chapel, who had died in 1648, and it was Franzone who authorised the payment for the decoration of the chapel. It is therefore possible that Franzone played an active part in commissioning Miel to produce the St Lambert cycle, as suggested by Giovanni Battista Passeri.⁴ The identification of the involvement of Franzone in this matter is particularly relevant because it would be the first evidence of a close connection between Miel and the Genoese prelate. This connection is confirmed by the artist’s wills, in which he nominated Agostino Franzone (1614–1705), the brother of Giacomo, as his universal heir.⁵

As argued above, the decorative cycle at San Giovanni in Fonte played a crucial role in the development of Miel’s style. Once again we see the influence of Maratti’s work in the details of Miel’s frescoes in Santa Maria dell’Anima, such as the idea of the figure of a man destroying a Classical sculpture. In comparison to the slightly earlier fresco in San Martino ai Monti, however, here we can see a remarkable use of bright colours and a fluidity of brushwork, the result of Miel’s interest in the work of Nicolas Poussin and Giovanni Benedetto Castiglione.⁶ The latter may also have been an inspiration for Miel in his genre paintings. Miel’s attempt to elaborate on Castiglione’s style and composition is evident in his Bacchanal with Faun and Nymph from the Corsini collection.⁷ Once again the colours, the fluency, and even the subject recall the work of Castiglione, which was widely available on the Italian art market. The bacchanal subject was realized by Castiglione on more than one occasion, for example the Bacchanal at the Galleria Sabauda in Turin and the paintings in the State Hermitage Museum in St Petersburg and the Museo de Arte de Ponce in Puerto Rico.

20
Jan Miel
Baptism of a Roman General by a saint, 1651
Rome, San Martino ai Monti

21
Carlo Maratta after Andrea Sacchi
Constantine establishing the Christian religion and ordering the destruction of pagan idols, 1648
Rome, San Giovanni in Fonte

Miel’s ability to build on the most up-to-date developments in Roman art was not based only on the work of Andrea Sacchi and his workshop. In two canvases dedicated to the miracles of St Anthony of Padua [22–23], created for the chapel of that saint in the church of San Lorenzo in Lucina, Miel seems to align himself with the frescoes of the same subject in the Albertoni Paluzzi Chapel in Santa Maria Aracoeli, which were probably realized by the Lorraine artist Charles Mellin (1598–1649) [24-25].⁸ In San Lorenzo in Lucina Miel employed the same layout but emphasized the chiaroscuro effect, and, as we have seen him do in other paintings, enriched the scene with narrative details. For example, in The Miracle of the Mule Miel elaborated on the subject by including the delightful detail of the elderly man who, incredulous at what he is seeing, puts on his glasses.

Miel’s public career in Rome ended with the most important type of commission that an artist could receive at that time: three papal commissions by Alexander VII (1599–1667). In 1656 Miel was put in charge of painting the large fresco of The Crossing of the Red Sea (200 x 500 cm) in the so-called Gallery of Alexander VII in the Quirinal Palace, under the direction of Pietro da Cortona.⁹ Considering that Miel had arrived in Rome some twenty years earlier, seemingly without any experience in the field of fresco painting, his commission for the Quirinal Palace reveals both his versatility and the scale of his achievement as an artist. The fresco itself is composed of a crowd of figures, all with different poses and expressions, as was in keeping with both the subject matter and its eminent position in the Gallery. Here Miel quoted from important early 17th-century Roman sources such as St Susanne by François Duquesnoy (1597–1643), whose drapery is echoed in the figure of Moses. Another source of inspiration was the work of Annibale Carracci (1560–1609) in the celebrated Farnese Gallery: in particular, from the central scene of The Triumph of Bacchus and Ariadne Miel took the detail of the maenad carrying a wicker basket on her head, and adapted it for the woman in the background of the Crossing who is rescuing her baby.

Two other commissions further attest to Pope Alexander VII’s support of Miel: two engravings for the new edition of the Missale Romanum, published in Rome in 1662 [26–27],¹⁰ and the frescoes of biblical scenes in the private chapel of the Apostolic Palace in the Vatican, produced in February 1657. These frescoes were thought by scholars to be lost, but I successfully identified them among the paintings of the piano nobile of the palace, which were given incorrect attributions in the past.¹¹ These were Miel’s final works in Rome before he left at the end of 1658 for Turin, where he was appointed ‘pittore ordinario’ (court painter) by the Duke of Savoy, Charles Emmanuel II.¹²

26
Etienne Picart after Jan Miel
The birth of the Virgin Mary, c. 1662
Whereabouts unknown

27
Guillaume Vallet after Jan Miel
The assumption of Mary, c. 1662
Whereabouts unknown

Outside Rome: Chieri (Piedmont) and Lerici (Liguria)
Before Miel left Rome he produced two altarpieces for locations outside the city. The first was made for the Cathedral of Chieri, a small city near Turin. It is signed and dated ‘Gioa Miele fecit et inue. Roma 1651’.¹³ Its subject, The Virgin and St Anne presenting the Christ Child to St Anthony of Padua, St Barbara, St Ursula, St Agatha and St Catherine of Alexandria [28], must have been chosen by the patron, Count Baldassarre Robbio di San Raffaele (?–1662), for it was Robbio who, upon his acquisition of the Chapel of St Anne in 1648, added the dedication to St Anthony of Padua. In addition, Robbio’s first wife was called Caterina, and one of his daughters became a nun at the monastery of Sant’Andrea e Santa Maria in Chieri and took the name Orsola Caterina.¹⁴

Given the current state of research, it is not possible to establish whether there was a connection between the commission in Chieri and Miel’s nominee as court painter to the house of Savoy. Baldassarre Robbio di San Raffaele did hold the position of ‘Commissaro generale dell’Artigliera di Sua Altezza Reale’¹⁵ from at least the 1630s, but we have yet to find a stronger link between Miel and Duke Charles Emmanuel II and his entourage. Aside from this, what needs to be stressed is that the commission for the Chieri altarpiece followed swiftly on the tail of Miel’s public debut at San Martino ai Monti, indicating that by 1651 Miel was already considered to be a good history painter. The Chieri painting is particularly important because it is one of the few altarpieces by Miel. From what we know of his public commissions, it is clear that he specialized in the production of frescoes rather than altarpieces. In the context of the competitive art market of 17th-century Rome, being able to work in fresco was a crucial skill required to fulfill a patron’s requests.¹⁶ As demonstrated by Miel’s participation in the Quirinal Palace, it was also one of the best ways to take part in important collective decorative schemes.

The altarpiece in Chieri is also interesting because it can be read as a summary of Miel’s formation as an artist. In the upper register, the facial features of the saints seem to be idealized and recall the typical figures of Andrea Sacchi, such as the figures in the fresco of The Triumph of Divine Wisdom in the Palazzo Barberini or the altarpiece of St Helen and the Miracle of the True Cross now in the Chapter House of St Peter’s. In the lower register, by contrast, the figure of St Anthony is realized in a more naturalistic way; see for example the detail of the saint’s wooden clogs. In addition, the central group is presented in strong chiaroscuro, a constant trait of Miel’s pictorial production and an aspect of his work commented on by the sources.¹⁷ The altarpiece is clearly influenced by the language of Roman painting, and encouraged the diffusion of its style outside Rome. The composition of the painting, arranged along a diagonal, is influenced by contemporary works by Giacinto Gimignani that Miel had the opportunity to see in San Giovanni in Fonte and in Santa Maria dell’Anima. Miel could have been influenced by Gimignani’s Virgin of the Rosary sent from Rome to Prato Sesia (near Novara) around 1648–1649, and by the engraving of St Felix holding the Christ Child, signed and dated ‘Hycinthus Gimignanus Pistoriensis incidebat A S 1649’ [29].¹⁸ Miel and Gimignani were also both employed in the illustration of the second volume of De Bello Belgico by the Jesuit Famiano Strada, printed in Rome in 1647 [30-31]. Miel’s Chieri altarpiece would in turn become a model for other painters working in Piedmont, such as the talented Charles Dauphin (1620?–1677), court painter to the Carignano family, who realized another version of The Virgin presenting the Christ Child to St Anthony of Padua [32] for the church of the same name in Carmagnola, near Turin.¹⁹

28
Jan Miel
The Virgin and St Anne presenting the Christ Child to St Anthony of Padua, St Barbara, St Ursula, St Agatha and St Catherine of Alexandria, dated 1651
Chieri, Duomo di Chieri

29
Giacinto Gimignani
Saint Felix holding the Christ Child, dated 1649
London (England), British Museum, inv./cat.nr. 1874,0808.768

The other altarpiece that Miel produced before he left Rome, The Assumption with St Jerome, King David, Salomon and other Prophets [33], was sent to Lerici, a small town in Liguria near La Spezia. The painting is signed and dated: ‘JAN MIELE FECIT/ ROMAE 1657’. Giovanni Romano has examined in depth the circumstances of the commission by the local Botto family.²⁰ However it remains difficult to trace the link between the Botto family and Miel, although it is possible that the brothers Giacomo and Agostino Franzone, who were originally from Genoa, may have played a mediating role.

The Lerici altarpiece – which like the Chieri altarpiece is bathed in golden light, with a strong chiaroscuro – reveals another of Miel’s sources: the work of Guido Reni. It recalls Reni’s Assumption painted for the church of the Gesù in Genoa. The clear correspondence between the upper sections of the two paintings, and even the tenderness of the Virgin’s face and the inclination of her head, allow us to think that Miel may have seen Reni’s painting in person, perhaps during his trip around northern Italy in 1654.²¹ An even closer relationship can be identified between the Lerici altarpiece and another work by Guido Reni: The Fathers of the Church disputing the Dogma of the Immaculate Conception in the State Hermitage Museum in St Petersburg. Both paintings testify to the intensity of the debate surrounding the dogma of the Immaculate Conception in the 17th century.²² This would explain why Miel initially depicted an inverted crescent under the feet of the Virgin, a traditional iconographic symbol of the immaculate status of the Virgin, and later decided to partially conceal it under the clouds.²³ If we compare the two works from a stylistic point of view, we can see further evidence of the strength of Reni’s influence on Miel. This is especially evident in the choice of colours and in the poses of the prophets, such as the prophet on the left in Miel’s painting who is absorbed in reading, or the prophet in the background who has his hands on his head and is carefully reading the Holy Scriptures, both of which are taken directly from Reni. These similarities lead one to suppose that Miel was able to study Reni’s painting in person. Unfortunately we do not know who commissioned Reni’s painting, or what its original location was, although its size alone (273.5 x 184 cm) suggests that it was originally intended for an altar. If Miel did actually see The Fathers of the Church, it must have been in Rome from at least the 1650s, if not before – a helpful step in establishing the provenance of Reni’s painting.²⁴

32
Charles Claude Dauphin
The Virgin presenting the Christ Child to Saint Anthony of Padua, c. 1650-1677
Carmagnola, Sant' Antonio di Padova

33
Jan Miel
Mary of the Immaculate Conception with Saint Jerome and prophets, dated 1657
Lerici (La Spezia), San Francesco (Lerici)