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Giovanni Battista Passeri , Italian, c.1610-1679

Title

Party Feasting in a Garden

Datec.1645-1655

MediumOil on canvas

Dimensions

76 x 61.5 cm

Signedlower left: Io: Baptista Passarus Rom Facie. a.

Credit LinePurchased, 1937

Object numberNGI.993

DescriptionThis pleasant scene shows a group of elegantly dressed guests gathered together for a picnic in the garden of a Roman villa. A Spanish guitar is being played by one woman and another has a tambourine. A few classical statues, memories of a glorious past, emerge from the bushes. Curiously, the company does not appear to enjoy the moment, and an air of melancholy pervades the group. The reason for their pensive expressions is revealed by the Latin inscription on the emblem at the side of the table:‘cadunt et remanent’ (they fall and they remain). Apparently referring to the roses on the shield, which are starting to lose their bloom, the motto alludes to the young guests and is a warning of the transitory nature of human existence. In seventeenth-century Italian art, moralising concepts were frequently used in paintings, but were more commonly confined to biblical subjects or to still lifes.
The artist of this composition is principally known as the author of the volume on the lives of painters, sculptors and architects practising in rome from 1641–73, which is considered one of the most important contemporary sources. He became a priest at the end of his life. Only a half dozen pictures by Giovanni Battista Passeri have so far been identified, and this canvas is the only one which carries his signature.

March 2016
ProvenanceMessrs Sabin, London; Messrs P. & D. Colgnaghi, London; puchased, P. & D. Colgnaghi, London, 1937 Exhibition HistoryCollection of the National Gallery of Ireland, Belfast Museum and Art Gallery, 1958

Masterpieces from the National Gallery of Ireland, 1985

Label TextA curiously solemn group of people are gathered together for a picnic in the garden of a villa. A Latin inscription on the side of the table - cadunt et remanent (they fall and they remain) - may provide a reason for their pensiveness. The motto is a reminder of the transience of life. This is the only known painting by Passeri that includes his signature. He is best known as the author of a collection of biographies of artists who worked in Rome between 1641 and 1673.