Simone Pignoni

(Firenze, 1611 - Firenze , 1698)

The present work is accompanied by an expertise by Prof. Sandro Bellesi.

The lamb and the palm branch in the girl's right hand identify certanly the leading figure of this beautiful painting with St. Agnes. She was a Christian virgin and martyr who lived in Rome at the time of Diocletian's persecution. The appearance of the girl, the style, and the precious enameled effect of the colors traced surely the work to the catalog of Simone Pignoni, one of the most charismatic personalities of Florentine painting in the second half of the Seventeenth Century. A pupil first of Passignano and then of Francesco Furini, from the latter Pignoni assimilated a marked propensity for depicting female figures in languid and persuasive poses that made him, along with his master, Cecco Bravo and Felice Ficherelli, the protagonist of the most sensual current in Florentine painting. Our unpublished painting finds adequate terms of comparison with various works executed by the artist, dedicated, for the most part, to graceful figures of martyred saints, with perfect features and imbued with subtle languor: one need only think of paintings such as Saint Ursula in the Luzzetti collection in Florence or the Comunione di Santa Lucia in the Cei collection also in Florence.