Bartolomeo Passerotti in the parish church of Vico, Corsica

Abstract

In the very rich collection of paintings, assembled in the first decades of the nineteenth century by Cardinal Joseph Fesch, Napoleon's maternal uncle, the altarpiece with the Christ between S. Girolamo and S. Francesco bearing the cross and followed by a procession of Franciscans carrying the cross by Bartolomeo Passerotti was kept. With the passage of time and with the transfer, which took place in 1864, from the museum of Ajaccio - where a part of the Fesch collection was brought- to the parish church of Vico, a mountain village near the Gulf of Sagone in Corsica, the name of the author of the altarpiece was lost. It was found some years ago, but Vico's altarpiece is still ignored by the artist's catalogs, nor has it been the subject of specific studies. This contribution proposes a new reading of the altarpiece, based on iconographic and stylistic analysis, and indicates a more ancient provenance from the collection of Prince Filippo Hercolani.