PAOLO FARINATI (Verona, 1524 - 1606) Saint John the Evangelist Oil on panel, 60.5X47 cm Provenance: Milan, Firmian collection (until 1782) Paris, probably the Jean-Baptiste-Pierre Lebrun collection (until 1809) Paris, probably from the Louis Pillivuyt Collection Graz, private collection Vienna, Dorotheum, 25 April 2017, lot 13 Private collection Bibliography: J. B. P Lebrun, Collection of line etchings, etchings and shaded engravings, based on a selection of paintings of all schools, collected during a trip to Spain, the south of France and Italy in the years 1807 and 1808, Paris 1809, Book I, p. 90, table 67 (as Francesco Maria Mazzola, known as Parmigianino) R. Pancheri: La pittura veneta nella collezione di Carlo Firmian, in Le raccolte di Minerva. Le collezioni artistiche e librarie del conte Carlo Firmian, Trento 2013, p. 116-117 (cited on p. 116) R. Pancheri: Carlo Firmian 'avid collector' of art: the failure to purchase the Cremia altarpiece and Paolo Farinati's Saint John the Evangelist, in Studi trentini, 96 (2017), 2018, p. 440-451 R. Pancheri, in Giovanni Demio e la maniera moderna tra Tiziano e Tintoretto, exhibition catalogue edited by V. Sgarbi and P. Di Natale, Laurenzana 2018, pp. 150-151, no. 32 In terms of quality and historical importance, the painting is a significant addition to Paolo Farinati's catalogue and only the printed translation of which was known, judged by critics to be one of the most brilliant works by the artist who, let us not forget, was an extraordinarily talented draughtsman (cf. Paolo Farinati, 1524-1606, pp. 209-210, no. 194). The sepia and watercolour sheet shortly before 1567 now in the British Museum (cf. G. Albricci, Le incisioni di Paolo e Orazio Farinati, in Saggi e Memorie di Storia dell'Arte, 12, (1980), p. 19, n. 3) and the drawing sold at Sotheby's in New York on 13 January 1989, lot 162, should be mentioned in this regard. Having said this, it is due to Roberto Pancheri to have identified the painting in the catalogue dedicated to the collection of Count Karl Gotthard von Firmian (Trento, 1716 ; Milan, 1782), Minister Plenipotentiary and Governor General of Austrian Lombardy under Maria Theresa of Austria from 1758, who was also known for his collection. In the inventory compiled at his death in 1782 is recorded as 'FARINATO PAOLO' 'a St. John the Evangelist, full figure, seated on the clouds holds on his knees a book, on which he is disposed to write what the Dator of Enlightenment the Holy Spirit is about to dictate to him. We believe we say it all, asserting that he himself was pleased not only with the exactness with which he finished it, but that he still engraved it by his own hand and published it'. Returning to the author, according to Vasari, he was a pupil of Nicola Giolfino, but certainly trained in his father's workshop and then looked to Giulio Romano's Raphaelism to achieve a similarity of expression with the younger Paolo Veronese. The panel under examination, in fact, expresses a common pictorial sensibility, without forgetting the influence of Domenico Brusasorci, for the chromatic intonation of silvery luminosity. Reference bibliography: Paolo Farinati, 1524-1606, paintings, engravings and drawings for architecture, edited by G. Marini, P. Marini, F. Rossi, Venice 2005, ad vocem