About the Artwork
Manfredi's rendition of deception in this picture is particularly poignant. The young man, so intensely curious about his future, is oblivious to the theft of his money by the fortune-teller's accomplice. The fortune teller herself, so eager to captivate the young man's attention, does not notice that his friend is relieving her of a chicken. It is perhaps less a moral lesson that is given here than a matter-of fact pessimistic description of human relationships. Manfredi used dark tonalities to give the scene a sense of a seedy locale, while the life-size scale of the figures makes them part of our world and allows us to participate in their drama.
The Fortune Teller
ca. between 1616 and 1617
Bartolomeo Manfredi
1582-1622
Italian
Unknown
Oil on canvas
Unframed: 48 1/8 × 60 13/16 inches (122.2 × 154.4 cm) Framed: 62 1/2 × 75 × 4 inches (158.8 × 190.5 × 10.2 cm)
Paintings
European Painting
Founders Society Purchase, Acquisitions Fund
79.30
This work is in the public domain.
Markings
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Provenance
October 24-25, 1977, sold by (Nouvel Hôtel des Ventes, Lyon, France) auction
[as Regnier] 1979, (Heim Gallery, Paris, France)
1979-present, purchase by the Detroit Institute of Arts (Detroit, Michigan, USA)
For more information on provenance and its important function in the museum, please visit:
Provenance pageExhibition History
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The exhibition history of a number of objects in our collection only begins after their acquisition by the museum, and may reflect an incomplete record.
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Cosnac, G.J. De les richesses du palais Mazarin. Paris, 1885, no. 1261
Grouchy, vicomte de. "Everhard Jabach collectionneur parisien (1695)." Memoirs de la société de l'histoire de Paris et de l'Île de France 21 (1894): p. 601.
Davies, R. "An Inventory of the Duke of Buckingham's Pictures, etc., at York House in 1635." Burlington Magazine 10 (1907): pp. 376-382, pp. 379-380.
Voss, H. Die Malerei des Barock in Rom. Berlin, 1924, p. 453.
Garas, K. "The Ludovisi Collection of Pictures in 1633." Burlington Magazine 109 (1967): pp. 339-348, p. 339.
Cuzin, J.-P. "La diseuse de bonne aventure de Caravaggio." Les dossiers du départment des peintures 13. Paris, 1977, pp. 3-52, pp. 27-29.
Cuzin, J.-P. "Manfredi's Fortune Teller and Some Problems of 'Manfrediana Methodus.'" Bulletin of the DIA 58, no. 1 (1980): pp. 14-25 (ill.).
The Detroit News, June 25, 1980, p. E9 (ill.).
Hibbard, H. Caravaggio. New York, 1983, p. 27 (fig. 13), pp. 277-278.
Dopo Caravaggio: Bartolomeo Manfredi e la Manfrediana Methodus. Exh. cat., Museo Civico Ala Ponzone. Cremona, 1988, pp. 29-30, 78-79, cat. 11, (ill.).
Nicolson, Benedict and Vertova, Luisa ed. Caravaggism in Europe, Vol. I. Turin, 1990, p. 145.
Fransk Guldalder: Poussin og Claude og maleriet i det 17. arhundredes Frankrig: mestervaerker... [Poussin and Claude and French Painting of the 17th Century]. Exh. cat., Statens Museum for Kunst. Copenhagen, 1992, p. 204 (fig. 2).
Georges de La Tour and His World. Exh. cat., National Gallery of Art and Kimbell Art Museum. Washington, D.C. and Fort Worth, 1996, pp. 170-171, 283, cat. 43, color pl.
Cuzin, J.-P. and D. Salmon. Georges de La Tour: histoire d'une redécouverte. Paris, 1997, pp. 32-33 (ill.).
Masters of Light: Dutch Painters in Utrecht During the Golden Age. Exh. cat., Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, et al. San Francisco, 1997, pp. 106-108 (fig. 8).
Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio e i suoi primi seguaci. Exh. cat., Salonika, 1997, p. 216.
Caravaggio and His Italian Followers from the Collections of the Galleria Nazionale d'Arte Antica di Roma. Exh. cat., Wadsworth Atheneum. Hartford, 1998, p. 83.
Italian Paintings from the 14th-18th Centuries. Exh. cat., Trafalgar Galleries, London, 2000, p. 54 (fig. 5).
Brown, B.L., ed. The Genius of Rome, 1592-1623. Exh. cat., Royal Academy and Palazzo Venezia. London and Rome, 2001, p. 53 (fig. 17), p. 55, (ill.).
Nicolas Tournier 1590-1639, un peintre caravaggesque. Exh. cat., Musée des Augustins.Toulouse, 2001, pp. 22, 38 (fig. 11), 39-40, 48, note 58.
Bandes, S.J. Pursuits and Pleasures, Baroque Paintings from the Detroit Institute of Arts. Exh. cat., Dennos Museum Center, et al. Traverse City, 2003, pp. 5 (ill.), 9, 26, 27 (ill.).
Hartje, Nicole. Bartolomeo Manfredi (1582–1622): Ein Nachfolger Caravaggios und Seine Europäische Wirkung, Monographie und Werkverzeichnis. Weimar, 2004, p. 186; pp. 333–335, no. A20; p. 475 (ill.).
Rousová, Andrea. Petr Brandel: A Painter of Worldly Vices. Exh. cat., National Gallery. Prague, 2004, pp. 50-51, (ill.) p. 51 (fig. 19).
Bissell, R.W., A.Derstine, and D. Miller. Masters of Italian Baroque Painting: The Detroit Institute of Arts. London, 2005, pp. 10, 126-29, cat. no. 40.
Conisbee, Philip. French Paintings of the Fifteenth through the Eightenth Century. Exh. cat., National Gallery of Art. Washington, D.C., 2009, p. 417.
Franklin, David and Sebastian Schütze. Caravaggio & His Followers in Rome. Exh. cat., National Gallery of Canada and Kimbell Art Museum. Ottawa and Fort Worth, 2011, pp. 160-161, 161 (ill., fig. 52).
Treves, Letizia. Beyond Caravaggio. Exh. cat., National Gallery. London, 2016, p. 54-57 (pl. 6).
Derstine, Andria. "The Detroit Institute of Arts and Italian Baroque Painting." In Buying Baroque: Italian Seventeenth-Century Paintings Come to America, ed. Edgar Peters Bowron. University Park, 2017, p. 102.
Gash, John. "Caravaggism." The Burlington Magazine 159, no. 1367 (February 2017): p. 164.
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Credit Line for Reproduction
Bartolomeo Manfredi, The Fortune Teller, ca. between 1616 and 1617, oil on canvas. Detroit Institute of Arts, Founders Society Purchase, Acquisitions Fund, 79.30.
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