Giovanni Battista Pittoni

Avogadro collection, Brescia, before 1760;
Thence by descent in the family through Paola Avogadro, who married in 1747 Bartolomeo Fenaroli, to her great-grandson;
Gerolamo Fenaroli, Brescia (d.1880),;
His sale, Brescia, 20 April, 1882, lot 121;
Robiati collection, Milan;
Anonymous sale, London, Sotheby's, 9 December 1992, lot 74;
There purchased by Patrick Syz;
From whom acquired by the present owner.

G.B. Carboni, Pitture e Sculture di Brescia, 1760, p. 180 (listed under "Pitture del Palazzo dei Signori Conti Avogadri appresso a S. Bartolomeo");
Galleria dei nobili Signori Conti Avogadri, MS, no date, but probably circa 1785/97, cat. no. 92-84;
Galleria di quadri esistenti in Casa Fenaroli in Brescia, Brescia 1820, cat. no. 124;
A. Barigozzi Brini, "Contributo al Catalogo del Pittoni," in Arte in Europa, Scritti di Storia dell'Arte in onore di Edoardo Arslan, 1966, reproduced vol. I, plate 552; vol. II, pp. 818-9;
F Zava Boccazzi, Pittoni: L'opera completa,  Venice 1979, p. 142, cat. no. 109, reproduced, fig. 178, and p.209, under cat. no. D.12;
A. Perissa Torrini, Disegni di Giovan Battista Pittoni, Milan 1998, p. 53;
M. Alatohlávek, Anton Kern, Prague 2009, pp. 291-3, under cat. no.s PP2, PP3;
G. Lechi, A Conconi Fedrigolli, P. Lechi, La Grande Collezione: Le Gallerie Avogadro, Fenaroli Avogadro, Maffei-Erizzo: Storia e Catalogo, Brescia 2010, p. 158, cat. no. 112 (where is also published a number of inventories of the collection before the 1882 sale which include the present work).

 

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 painting has been fairly recently restored and although a couple of adjustments could be made, it should probably be hung as is without further retouching. The lining is European and the restoration is competent. The condition of the paint layer in the figures in the lower portion and in the architecture in the lower half of the painting is very good. In the sky in the upper left, lower center and in a couple of areas in the upper right there are slightly broader retouches. The lining has pressed the impasto quite noticeably in places, but there is still a lively quality to the work which is very apparent.
"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."

This dramatically and beautifully rendered Massacre of the Innocents dates to circa 1730, during Pittoni's early maturity.   It was first recorded by Giovanni Battista Carboni when it hung in the seconda camera of the Palazzo Avogadro in Brescia (see Literature) and where it was paired with a Christ driving the Money Changers from the Temple (now lost), as well as near another, unrelated picture by Pittoni of the Mater Dolorosa.¹  The Avogadro collection was one of the best private collections in Northern Italy in the 18^th century, and included works by artists as diverse as Rubens, van Dyck, Reni and Velasquez.  In addition to a number of Lombard paintings, including such masterpieces as Moroni's Portrait of a Knight and Moretto's Portrait of Man (both now in the National Gallery of Art, London, inv. nos. NG1022 and NG1025 respectively), the collection also contained a number of contemporary Venetian paintings: views by Canaletto, canvases by Piazzetta and Tiepolo, as well as five works by Pittoni himself.

That Pittoni would have found a place in an important Brescian collection is hardly surprising; he had produced no less than twelve major altarpieces for churches in the city.  Indeed, he had achieved an international fame during his lifetime that rivaled that of his compatriot Tiepolo.  His celebrity attracted a number of students, including the Bohemian painter Anton Kern who in fact made copies of the present painting (see fig.1) and its lost pendant (both Muzeum Narodowe, Warsaw, inv. nos. 77811/77810).  The copy by Kern diverges from the present composition in a number of details; it is of more vertical format and thus there is more empty space above the figures and the architecture is somewhat compressed.  Other details, such as the columns which Pittoni places at the extreme right of the canvas to define the edge of the composition have been removed and the statues at the top of the balustrade above the arch replaced with stone urns, matching one further along the railing.   

The Kern copies, however, do provide important information about the originals.  Not only do they preserve the composition of the lost Christ in the Temple, but the pair also confirms that the present picture was the one listed in the Avogadro collection.  In addition, they give a firm terminus post quem the present picture cannot be dated; in 1735 Kern left Pittoni's studio, returning north first to Prague and later Dresden.  Zava Bocazzi notes (see Literature) that this dating would appear to work for the present painting on stylistic grounds.²  She further notes that the elaboration of the composition and the figures within it relate to the various depictions of the Sacrifice of Polyxena, and indeed that the figure of soldier on horseback with the banner (as seen at the upper left of the present canvas) appears in some of these.  This standard bearer also appears in the bozzetto for the Sacrifice of the Daughter of Jephthah painted for the Duke of Savoy, a commission which can be dated to 1732/33 on documentary evidence. While the final picture painted for the Duke (now Palazzo Reale, Genoa) has been altered and the right part of the composition is no longer extant, the bozzetto clearly shows the same figure as in the present composition.³ There is a preparatory drawing for the head of the frightened mother at lower right in the Accademia, Venice (see Torrini, under Literature); ever economical with his invention, the same figure exists in the Jephthah picture mentioned above as well as some of the Polyxena examples from these years.    

1.  "La Strage degl'Innocenti./ Cristo che scaccia dal Tempio gli Ebrei./La B.V. Addolorata: tutti tre del Pittoni" (Carboni, op. cit. p. 180).
2. Although she erroneously notes the date of Kern's departure as 1730 rather than 1735.
3. This bozzetto was formerly in the Fernando Colonna collection, Turin, and subsequently in that of Bernard Solomon, Los Angeles, until sold by Christie's, New York, May 25, 2005, lot 53.