An Angel by Giovanni Battista Paggi

This painting, depicting an angel holding a rope and stepping forward with his left foot towards the head of a man lying face down, suggests a larger composition, as confirmed by its dimensions, the work being considerably narrower than it is tall. It brings to mind the iconography of a Conversion of Saint Paul, which would thus place the angel further towards the edge of the painting.

Giovanni Battista Paggi has been suggested as the artist of this work, given his frequent depictions of graceful angels in his religious works. The work also bears strong stylistic similarities to a Sleeping Putto that was sold at public auction in Genoa (Cambi Casa D’Aste auction, Genoa, 26 May 2010). Giovanni Battista Paggi’s *Saint Christopher and the Infant Jesus*, held at the Musée des Beaux-Arts in Saintes, also displays interesting compositional similarities. The scene occupies the entire surface of this large canvas, with no background or landscape visible, thereby making an even stronger impression on the viewer.

Giovanni Battista Paggi was a Genoese painter with a vast literary education, who was very quickly influenced by the painter Luca Cambiaso (1527–1585), who acted as his mentor. After a promising start in his hometown, he was later forced to flee to Tuscany following a conviction for murder (1581). Throughout his twenty-year exile in Tuscany (1579–1599), the artist was influenced by the new trends in Florentine art, notably those of Cigoli and Passignano. In the Tuscan capital, Paggi immediately secured major commissions, largely from ecclesiastical clients. The works he painted in Florence for various churches were so successful that they were engraved by the Flemish artist Cornelis Galle and circulated throughout Europe. After being granted permission to return to Genoa, he worked there until his death in 1627. Paggi’s presence in the Ligurian capital in the early 17th century paved the way for many local painters who, within a short space of time, would usher in the golden age of Genoese Baroque.

Works documented or dated from the early part of the century suggest that this angel was painted towards the end of his stay in Tuscany, a period when his painting was characterised more by poetic touches than by the erudite literary references typical of the intellectual circles of his time.