Jana Zapletalová — Alessandro Nesi

The Painting by Ulisse Ciocchi from the Archbishops' Collection in Kroměříž

The painting of Christ as the Good Shepherd among Angels from the chateau in Kroměříž was purchased in 1901 from an antiques dealer in Rome, Othmar Schmidt, by the Olomouc Archbishop Theodor Kohn, who was trying to enlarge the painting collection of the Olomouc Archbishops with new acquisitions. The painting soon lost its original attribution to Parmigianino, under whose name it was purchased in Rome, and until now it has been listed as the work of a Venetian-Dutch painter. In this article we have a new attribution of the painting to the Tuscan artist Ulisse Ciocchi (circa 1570–1631), a pupil and colleague of Bernardino Poccetti (1548–1612). The wooden panel is painted on both sides. The front depicts the Resurrected Christ as the Good Shepherd, surrounded on each side by a trio of beautifully clothed Angels playing various musical instruments. Within the framework of Ciocchi’s work we can find a parallel on the iconographic side to this quite uniquely formed theme, situated in a landscape that is northern in tone. The same scene, although treated differently, was created by the painter using the mural technique in the years 1613–1614 in the former Dominican Convent of San Jacopo di Ripoli in Florence. At the request of six Sisters of the Order he painted in 1614 a picture for the main altar of Saint James Baptising Josiah shortly before his Execution. The six lilies along the lower edge are a reference to the six nuns who financed the painting on the occasion of their consecration. In the case of the Kroměříž painting the question arises of whether the painting does not contain some analogous hidden symbolism. The six women who had decided to dedicate their lives to Christ would, under his pastoral guidance, just like the Angels, emanate beautiful music, i.e. spread the faith, just as pure lilies give out a beautiful scent. Christ would then, figuratively speaking, accompany the novices through their spiritual life as the Good Shepherd. On the reverse side of the panel Ulisse Ciocchi depicted the family coat of arms of a so-far unidentified member of the Birago family. With regard to the dimensions of the panel and the fact that the scenes on the front and back are depicted in reverse, it may be assumed that the painting formed the lid of some keyboard instrument or possibly of some kind of chest.

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