Circle of Giorgio de Castelfranco called Giorgione

The following condition report has been provided by Simon Parkes of Simon Parkes Art Conservation, Inc. 502 East 74th St. New York, NY 212-734-3920, simonparkes@msn.com , an independent restorer who is not an employee of Sotheby's. This interesting picture requires some attention, most obviously to a large tear running vertically down the right side and horizontally from that tear through the cheek of the figure on the right, and also through his chest. The lining on the reverse could be removed and a fresh lining would resolve the surface issues. The paint layer is quite dirty and if cleaned, it would brighten the palette and remove a lot of the very brown dirt visible in many areas. In addition to the dirt layer there is some thinness, which is clearly visible in the beard of the figure on the left and all around the tear on the figure on the right. Cleaning the paint layer and changing the lining would present one with an opportunity to properly retouch the picture. There is a tear in the figure on the right side where some damage to the eye will need to be very carefully resolved with retouching. Nonetheless, this picture is quite well preserved in many areas, particularly in the scroll where all of the calligraphy seems to be healthy and in the face of the figure on the left.
"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."

That this intriguing and enigmatic painting is meant to represent two astronomers or philosophers is confirmed by an 18^th or early 19^th Century inscription on the reverse of the canvas which reads: Due Filosofi/ Sebastiano d.Piombo.  The two figures are shown in exotic or classical dress, and the younger man is holding a pair of calipers or a compass.  Below and between them rises a strangely curving and inscribed scroll, the symbols and inscriptions on which can only be partly deciphered.  Some of them certainly are meant to represent heavenly bodies—the sun, the moon, stars—and some are numbers.  Some, however, appear to be rather stylized gibberish, as if to convey to the viewer the absolutely arcane nature of the two men's discipline.  A small round drawing with numbers rendered on the dark underside of the scroll seems to resemble the diagram of a nocturnal or star clock, thus further suggesting that the two men must have an interest in astronomy. 

Depictions such as this are not rare in 16^th Century Italian art, and were popular with collectors as displays of classical erudition; these two figures could represent ancient scholars such as Pythagoras and Ptolemy.  The disposition of the figures together, half length against a dark background, however, appears to display a particular awareness of the paintings of the Giorgione circle, and in particular the Portrait of Giovanni Borgherini and Niccolo Leonico Tomeo (National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC, inv. 1974.87.1) which has been attributed by some scholars to Giorgione himself.   The Washington picture, while an actual portrait of a boy and his tutor, is very reminiscent of the present composition; although the two figures are further apart in the picture plane, they are also half length and set against a black ground.  The boy holds scientific instruments while between the two is an armillary sphere and a similar curling scroll, although in this case inscribed with a Latin motto.  There is some similarity also with Giorgione's great masterpiece of the Three Philosophers (Kunsthistoriches Museum, Vienna) where the figure on the right, a bearded and robed figure, holds a tablet inscribed in much the same manner as the present work.       

The traditional attribution to Sebastiano del Piombo should in fact not be entirely dismissed; the facial types of the philosophers are very similar to that of the artist during his Venetian period.  It is also intriguing to note that Sebastiano was commissioned by Giovanni Borgherini's older brother Pierfrancesco to paint one of his greatest works, the chapel in San Pietro in Montorio, Rome.  It seems very possible that the artist could have known both the Borgherini brothers when they were in Venice years earlier (the family had a branch of their bank there) and may indeed have seen Giorgione's portrait of the younger brother there.