Carlo Maratta

Anonymous sale, Rome, Finarte, 27 November 2018, lot 224 (as Emilian School, 17th century);

Where acquired by the present owner.

Hitherto unpublished, this vividly painted work has recently been identified by Francesco Petrucci as a significant addition to the œuvre of Carlo Maratta (1625–1713), arguably one of the most highly regarded and influential artists working in Rome in the latter half of the 17th century.¹ It is an autograph variant of a picture of near identical dimensions and design commissioned in the 1680s by Marchese Niccolò Maria Pallavicini in the Hermitage Museum, Saint Petersburg.² Petrucci notes that the looser, and more confident handling of the present work, suggest it may pre-date the aforementioned painting.

¹ A copy of the expertise by Francesco Petrucci, dated October 2023, is available upon request.

² Inv. no. ГЭ-8724; oil on canvas; 72 x 58; S. Vsevolozhskaya in A Capital Collection. Houghton Hall and the Hermitage, L. Dukelskaya and A. Moore (eds), London 2002, p. 142, no. 48, reproduced; https://www.hermitagemuseum.org/wps/portal/hermitage/digital-collection/01.+paintings/31704