TOMASSO BROTHERS FINE ART ANNIBALE CARRACCI (1560 – 1609) (attributed to) Circa. 1585 PORTRAIT OF AN AFRICAN WOMAN HOLDING A CLOCK OIL ON CANVAS 74.5 cm (29 ¼ in.) high – including frame 53 cm (21 in.) wide – including frame 60 cm (23 ¾ in.) high 39.5 cm (15 ½ in.) wide.

• PROVENANCE Carlo Maratti (1625-1713), mentioned in his inventory of assets ritratto d’una mora che tiense in mani orologia (portrait of a black woman holding a clock). Philip V of Spain, upon his death in 1745, mentioned in the Queen’s antechamber. Given by the Quartermaster General for the province of Segovia, Ramón Luis de Escobedo to Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington, just prior to August 1812. Private collection, England until 2005. 
• EXHIBITED ‘Revealing the African presence in Renaissance Europe’ The Walters Art Museum, Baltimore, USA. October 2012 – January 2013. Princeton University Art Museum, Princeton, USA. February 2013 to June 2013. This wonderful picture is an extremely rare individual portrait of a black woman dating from the late 16th century. This finely dressed female sitter holds the viewer's gaze with a commanding directness, endowing the picture with an unusual immediacy and intensity of expression. The woman wears an expensive coral necklace, pearl earrings and intriguingly, holds and presents to the viewer a beautifully gilded table-clock. In 16th century Renaissance Europe, such an object was an extreme luxury. It is also an item that exhibits functions of the highest technological order for the period. Its hexagonal shape suggests that it was made in Germany, around 1550-1600. It is made up of an outer hour ring with Roman numerals, for showing the time, and an inner ring with faint indications of Arabic numerals, suggesting that the clock also had an alarm function. It even appears to have been equipped with touch pieces for telling the time at night. The clock therefore exists not just as an audacious display of wealth but also as a clear signifier of the sitter, or patron’s, modernity and perhaps even intellectual advancement because of the interest in complex horological technologies. One could also interpret the clock - a signifier of the passing of time and the transience of life - as a ‘momento mori’ charging the image with a moralistic overtone, in a similar way to the works of the ‘vanitas’ genre. A clock, also symbol of a wellregulated life, was an attribute of Temperance (which with the female personifications of Justice, Prudence and Fortitude was one of the four cardinal virtues). Indeed, the hand of the clock appears to be broken, making it impossible to read the time, which adds further intrigue and allusion to the symbolic function of the clock in this work. The sitter's coral necklace can be interpreted in a similarly symbolic way, and encourages an allegorical reading of the painting, for a coral necklace is often an attribute of Africa personified. The style of the work is very reminiscent of the head studies Annibale Carracci made from life during the 1580s. Annibale Carracci was the most admired painter of his time and the vital force in the creation of Baroque style. He championed a return to nature but was also influenced by the great northern Italian painters of the Renaissance, especially Correggio, Titian, and Veronese. During the 1580’s, Carracci was painting the most radical and innovative pictures in Europe. He introduced a new, broken brushwork technique to represent the effects of light on form and this gave his pictures an intimacy and an actuality. Through these means Carracci set the technical and artistic foundations for Caravaggio who worked a decade later. Carracci was influenced by the history of northern Italian painting and travelled to Parma and Venice to study the work of Correggio, Titian, Tintoretto, and Veronese. Whilst in Rome, Annibale's painting was transformed through his first-hand encounter with classical antiquity and the art of Michelangelo and Raphael. It is possible to identify this as a painting that was recorded in the inventory belonging to the painter Carlo Maratti (Camerano 1625 - Rome 1713). There was a work entitled Ritratto d’una mora che tiene in mano un orologio (Portrait of a black woman holding a clock). The subject is fairly significant and rare enough to be able to relate the work to this piece. The painting of la mora was among the 124 paintings listed as being acquired for the Spanish crown in 1722. The works were acquired through one of Maratti’s disciples, Andrea Procaccini (Rome 1671-1734), who was painter to Philip V and in charge of decorating the new palace that the monarch was having built outside of court. The Maratti collection arrived in Barcelona around February 1723 and was sent to this King’s new residence, called the Real Sitio de la Granja de San Ildefonso (the San Ildefonso Palace, in Segovia). There, la mora is recorded in the various inventories taken of his furniture during the XVIII century. The most comprehensive inventory of the San Ildefonso palace is one that lists all the works in the palace at the time of King Philip V’s death in 1745. It states that the portrait of la mora was in the Queen’s antechamber, together with works by Domenichino, Agostino Carraci, Wouwerman and Rosa da Tivoli, among others. It remained in this room until Sir Arthur Wellesley, the 1st Duke of Wellington (Dublin 1769 – Walmer Castle 1852) stayed at San Ildefonso during the Spanish War of Independence. The then Quartermaster General for the province of Segovia, Ramón Luis de Escobedo, presented Wellington with a gift of twelve paintings from the palace’s interior. One of the paintings contained in the gift from the Quartermaster General for Segovia was the portrait of the black woman, together with works by Murillo, Annibale Carracci, Rafael Sanzio and Guido Reni, amongst others. This is the last known reference to the painting. RELATED LITERATURE The Age of Correggio and the Carracci: Emilian Painting of the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries. Exhibition catalogue. Washington, D.C.: The National Gallery of Art, 1986. Posner, Donald. Annibale Carracci: A Study in the Reform of Italian Painting Around 1590. 2 vols. London: Phaidon, 1971. N.B. Keith Christiansen has accepted the attribution and dated the work to 1583 - 1584 
• CHRONOLOGY OF DOCUMENTS FOUND I. Rome, the Collection of Carlo Maratti. 1712. Un quadro di grandezza di testa, rappresentante un ritratto d’una mora che tiene in mano un orologio, con altra testa tagliata; et è dipinto da Titiano con cornice bianca. Rome, State Archive. Not. A.C. Francischinus, Franciscus; vol. 3.267. Bibliography: Romeo Galli, “I tesori d’arte di un pittori del Seicento (Carlo Maratta)”, L’Archigimnasio, 1927, pp. 217-238; 1928, pp. 59-78; David L. Bershad, “The newly discovered testament and inventories of Carlo Maratti and his wife Francesca”, Antologia di Belle Arti, 1985, pp. 65-84 (p. 73) II. Rome, sale of paintings by Faustina Maratti to King Philip V of Spain. 1723. 176. Vna Mora con un orologio mano di Tiziano Simancas (Valladolid), General Archive of Simancas. State Section, file 4.807. Bibliography: P. de Nolhac, “Variedades: Nota delli Quadri, che si ritrouano nella cassa de Maratti, per la Maestá de Filippo Quinto”, Revista de Archivos, Bibliotecas y Museos1, VI, 1876, pp. 128-129 and 143-144 (p. 144); E. Battisti, “Postille documentarie su artisti italiani a Madrid e sulla collezione Maratta”, Arte Antica e Moderna, n.º 9, 1960, pp. 77-89 (p. 89); Ángel Aterido, “No sólo aspas y lises: señas de las colecciones de pinturas de Felipe V e Isabel Farnesio2”, in Ángel Aterido, Juan Martínez Cuesta and José J. Pérez, Inventarios Reales. Colecciones de pinturas de Felipe V e Isabel Farnesio3, Madrid, Foundation in Support of Hispanic Art, 2004, vol. I, pp. 25-310 (p. 99) III. Palace of la Granja de San Ildefonso, Segovia. Collection of King Philip V. 1747. 107 X otra Pintura origl en Lienzo, de mano de Ticiano, qe representa una Negra con un Relox en las manos. tiene dos tercias, y un dedo de alto; y media vara de ancho. Marco dorado con targetas como el antecedente4.... 1 [57.46 x 41.79 centimetres approximately] 1 Review of Archives, Libraries and Museums 2 Not just swords and fleur de lis: details of the collections of paintings of Philip v and Isabel Farnesio 3 Royal Inventories: Collections of paintings of Philip V and Isabel Farnesio 4 Another original painting on canvas, by the hand of Tiziano, representing a black woman holding a clock. Measuring two tercias and one dedo high, and half a varo wide. Gold frame with targetas as above General Archive of the Royal Palace in Madrid. Royal Sites Section, San Ildefonso, box 13.568. Inventory of paintings at the Palace of San Ildefonso, f. 9v. Bibliography: Ángel Aterido, Juan Martínez Cuesta and José J. Pérez, Inventarios Reales. Colecciones de pinturas de Felipe V e Isabel Farnesio, Madrid, Foundation in Support of Hispanic Art, 2004, vol. II, p. 15. IV. Palace of la Granja de San Ildefonso, Segovia. Inventory of the goods of Charles III. 1794. 107 Otra en lienzo de Dos pies de ancho, por dos y tres quartos de alto marco dorado con talla en las esquinas, representa una negra con un relox en las manos5 en seiscientos reales.... 600. Madrid, General Archive of the Royal Palace. Inventory of Charles III. Bibliography: Inventarios Reales6. Carlos III. 1789, Madrid, National Heritage, 1989, vol. II, p. 231. V. Paintings given by the Quartermaster General of Segovia, Ramón Luis Escobedo, to the Duke of Wellington on 15 August 1812, following his stay at San Ildefonso Palace. Case 3: [...] Otra: una Negra con un relox dorado en las manos7 Madrid, General Archive of the Royal Palace. Historical Section, box 129. Bibliography: Ángel Aterido, “No sólo aspas y lises: señas de las colecciones de pinturas de Felipe V e Isabel Farnesio”, in Ángel Aterido, Juan Martínez Cuesta and José J. Pérez, Inventarios Reales. Colecciones de pinturas de Felipe V e Isabel Farnesio, Madrid, Foundation in Support of Hispanic Art, 2004, vol. I, pp. 25-310 (p. 290; transcribed in note 192) 5 Another canvas measuring two feet wide, by two and three quarters high gold frame engraved at the corners, representing a black woman holding a clock 6 Royal Inventories 7 Other: A black woman holding a gold clock