Genoese School, circa 1630-40

Acquired by the grandfather of the present owners in Madeira in 1915;
Thence by family descent.

"The following condition report has been provided by Sarah Walden, an independent restorer who is not an employee of Sotheby's. This painting has a very old lining, probably eighteenth century, onto striped canvas, and very old stretcher with a single vertical cross bar. There is an original seam across the centre. The original tacking edges appear to have been cut and the extreme edges of the painting appear to have been turned over at the sides. The oldest layer of darkened varnish and various fairly minor knocks date back to that period, when there was clearly also some brittleness. Other later varnishes and rough old retouching over earlier retouches have been added. However large areas of the painting appear beautifully rich and intact. The heads are all unworn and complete, with splendidly firm uncrushed impasto especially in the head of Tobit, and only an occasional little retouched flake or dab of rough retouching in his neck. The head on the left seems to have some fairly minor fractured paint in the lower part and surrounding background with rather more just below with some relatively small patches of old retouching. The most serious of the old knocks (perhaps four by two inches of irregular broken paint) seems to be in the lower centre just below the seam in the lower body of Tobit and his drapery. The white drapery has several heavy old repaints, clearly overlapping original paint, at the shoulder of Tobit, near the face of the old woman in the centre and in various places in the angel's white drapery. There is a small retouching at the top of the angel's wing, a few fairly minor retouchings in the upper background, two rough daubs on the beautiful carpet probably over a little broken paint which is generally in very good condition. The central seam is rather raised and cockled, and has various old retouchings, probably wider than necessary, and there is a certain amount of brittleness and lost flakes particularly in the lower left area. The painting has escaped radical restoration and the underlying paint is rich and unworn. The old accidental damages are comparatively slight, and they are old with little having happened apparently over a long period. Even along the base edge there is surprisingly little loss. The main heads with much of the splendidly voluptuous drapery remain beautifully intact. This report was not done under laboratory conditions."
"This lot is offered for sale subject to Sotheby's Conditions of Business, which are available on request and printed in Sotheby's sale catalogues. The independent reports contained in this document are provided for prospective bidders' information only and without warranty by Sotheby's or the Seller."

The style and overall type of the painting point to its likely execution in Genoa during the 1630-40s. The work can be compared closely on stylistic and compositional grounds to treatments of the subject by other Genoese masters, notably a work by Gioacchino Assereto today in the Musée des Beaux-Arts, Marseille,¹ and a painting by Giovanni Battista Carlone, recorded as in a private collection.²

Although the precise identity of the author has yet to be satisfactorily resolved, a plausible attribution to Luca Saltarello (Genoa 1610 - circa 1640 Rome) has been proposed. Only one securely documented work by the artist is known however, a large altarpiece representing Saint Benedict Reviving a Fallen Worker, which was painted for the Chiesa di Santo Stefano in Genoa in 1632.³ A comparison between the altarpiece and the present work reveals a similar spirit and vigour to the brushwork, a comparable treatment of light and a similar characterisation of the figures, notably in the definition of their faces and highly expressive hands.

¹ See Kunst in der Republik Genua 1528 - 1815, exhibition catalogue, Frankfurt, Kunsthalle, 5 September - 8 November 1992, p. 81, cat. no. 20,  reproduced plate 21.

² See ibid., p. 119, no. 52.1, reproduced.

^3. See P. Pagano & M. Clelia Galassi, La pittura del '600 a Genova, Milan 1988, no. 514, reproduced.