Images(2)

Memento Mori: Death Comes to the Table

Artist Monogramist DC (Domenico Carpinoni?) Italian, 1566–1658

Datecirca 1630–1640

MediumOil on canvas

Dimensions44 15/16 x 62 3/16 in. (114.1 x 158 cm)
Frame: 52 3/4 x 70 1/8 in. (134 x 178.1 cm)

ClassificationsPaintings

Credit LinePurchased with funds from the State of North Carolina and the North Carolina State Art Society (Robert F. Phifer Bequest), by exchange

Object number2013.17

On View

Not on view

ProvenanceCreated on the Italian peninsula about 1630 to 1638. Private collection, Bergamo, IT, by 1984 [1]; [Porro & C., Milan, IT, May 9, 2007, lot 33]; [Galerie G. Sarti, Paris, 2007–2013]; sold to NCMA, December 11, 2013.
[1] Ugo Ruggeri, “Domenico Carpinoni,” in I Pittori Bergamaschi dal XIII al XIX secolo. II. Il Seicento (Bergamo, IT, 1984), 242–243 and 268; Franco Moro, entry in Il Seicento a Bergamo, exh. cat., ed. F. Rossi (Bergamo, IT, 1987), 245; Valeria Messina, Domenico Carpinoni, Pittori bergamaschi, 11 (Bergamo, IT: L’eco di Bergamo and Museo Bernareggi, 2009), 56, cat. XII; plate XII.Published ReferencesUgo Ruggeri, “Domenico Carpinoni,” in I Pittori Bergamaschi dal XIII al XIX secolo. II. Il Seicento (Bergamo, IT 1984), 242–243 and 268 (entries for La morte appare a un banchetto [private collection, Bergamo, IT] and La partita di carte [private collection, Milan]).

Franco Moro, entry in Il Seicento a Bergamo, exh. cat., ed. F. Rossi (Bergamo, IT 1987), 245, cat. 68 (exhibited as a pendant with cat. 67, La partita a carte; both paintings attributed to Domenico Carpinoni).

Benedict Nicolson, Caravaggism in Europe, 3 vols., ed. L. Vertova (Turin, IT 1990), vol. 1, 104–105 at 104, no. 360; vol. 2, fig. 360 (referring to the Memento Mori formerly in a private collection in Bergamo, IT whose pendant, the Gamblers, is in a private collection in Milan, IT and inscribed DC. He also refers to the versions of the six figures plus death, the one that was then in a Florentine collection [ex-Pistoia, Forteguerri] plus a copy formerly in a collection in Modena and an unpublished replica in a private collection, Florence, 119 x 174, which cannot be ours because ours is 114 x 158).

Porro & C., Milan, IT Dipinti Antichi, Asta 36, May 9, 2007, vol. 1, 48–49, lot 33 (114.5 x 160).

Francesca Baldassari, La pittura del Seicento a Firenze. Indice degli Artisti e delle loro Opere (Milan, IT or Turin, IT: Robilant & Voena, 2009), 524–527 at 526 (Under Giovanni Martinelli, lists our painting as in Galerie Sarti, Paris, and previously in Porro & C., Milan, IT, n. 33; signed “DC”).

Messina 2009a: Valeria Messina, Domenico Carpinoni, Pittori bergamaschi, 11 (Bergamo, IT: L’eco di Bergamo and Museo Bernareggi, 2009, 56, cat. XII; plate XII.

Messina 2009b: Valeria Messina, Domenico Carpinoni, 1566–1658: un artista rudolfino nel Seicento bergamasco (Clusone, IT: Moma edizioni, 2009), fig. 66 and surrounding pages.

Claire Sarti, entry in C’est la vie! Vanités de Pompeii à Damien Hirst, exh. cat. (Paris: Skira Flammarion, 2010), 42–43 (as Giovanni Martinelli).

Alain R. Truong, “‘C'est la vie, Vanités de Caravage à Damien Hirst’ @ Fondation Dina Vierny - Musée Maillol,” blog post, February 4, 2010, https://www.alaintruong.com/archives/2010/02/04/16794853.html.

Gianni Papi, entry [New Orleans Museum of Art version] in Caravaggio e caravaggeschi a Firenze, exh. cat. (Florence: 2010), 302.

Gianni Papi, “Giovanni Martinelli, tra Artemisia e Vouet,” in Giovanni Martinelli da Montevarchi pittore in Firenze, eds Luca Canonici, Liletta Fornasari, Sandro Bellesi, Giovanni Pagliarulo (Montevarchi, IT: Aska, 2011), 33–47 at 38–39, 47n16.

Francesca Baldassari, entry in Caravaggesque Italian Painters. Painters of Reality, exh. cat. (Paris: Galerie G. Sarti, 2013), 21, 134–143, cat. 16 (incorrectly described as previously in the collection of Roberto Longhi (1890–1970), Florence in the 1940s. 140: “In fact, together with its pendant, the Card Sharps (fig. 3), the Sarti Death Comes to the Table belonged to the most celebrated and genial Italian painting scholar of the twentieth century, Roberto Longhi (1890–1970).” This is incorrect, as confirmed by Paolo Benassai, Fondazione Longhi, letter to David Steel, November 11, 2013. Longhi owned the presumed pendant painting, The Card Sharps, whose present whereabouts are unknown, but not the canvas now in the NCMA.

“A Conversation with Claudio Strinati: As Recorded by Frank Dabbell,” in Caravaggesque Italian Painters. Painters of Reality, exh. ca.t, (Paris: Galerie G. Sarti, 2013), 21.

David Steel, “New and on View at the NCMA: Giovanni Martinelli, Memento Mori: Death Comes to the Table, circa 1630–38,” in North Carolina Museum of Art Preview (Summer 2014), discussed 15, illus. (color) 14.

Exhibition HistoryBergamo, IT, Palazzo della Ragione, Il Seicento a Bergamo, September 26 to November 29, 1987 (as Domenico Carpinoni).

Paris, Fondation Dina Vierny Musée Maillol, C’est la vie! Vanités de Pompeii à Damien Hirst, February 3 to June 28, 2010 (as Giovanni Martinelli).

Ajaccio, Corsica, Palais Fesch-Musée des Beaux-Arts, Réflexion sur la mort, July 1–October 2, 2011 (as Giovanni Martinelli, exhibited together with ceramic works by Bertozzi & Casoni, aka Giampaolo Bertozzi and Stefano Dal Monte Casoni).

Paris, Galerie G. Sarti, Peintres caravagesques italiens : peintres de la réalité, April 11 to July 12, 2013, cat. 16.
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