Giovanni Bilivert

In the possession of the present owner's family for at least the last one hundred years.

The following condition report is provided by Hamish Dewar, who is an external specialist and not an employee of Sotheby's. UNCONDITIONAL AND WITHOUT PREJUDICE Structural Condition The artist's copper panel is providing a sound and secure structural support. Paint Surface The paint surface has an even varnish layer and inspection under ultra-violet light shows just very small scattered spots of inpainting covering what I assume are old flake losses and very small abrasions. There are also some older retouchings around the framing edges. Summary The painting would therefore appear to be in very good and stable condition and no further work is required.
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Giovanni Bilivert was born into an artistic family: his father, Jacques Jansz. Bijlevelt, was of Dutch origins but enjoyed success in Florence during the last quarter of the 16th century as goldsmith to the Medici. Indeed it was upon Ferdinando I de' Medici's recommendation that Giovanni Bilivert was successfully apprenticed to Lodovico Cardi called il Cigoli in Florence and was chosen to accompany his master to Rome between 1604 and 1608. Apart from this Roman sojourn and a brief stint in Siena some time before 1603 Bilivert was active in Florence, where he was later to head up one of the most successful workshops in the city. Among his talented pupils he counted Francesco Furini, Orazio Fidani, Sigismondo Coccapani and Baccio del Bianco. Indeed it was Furini who was to greatly influence Bilivert's works from circa 1630 onwards, and the younger artist's sensual interpretation of well-known themes certainly seems to have inspired the present painting of Venus bathing.

Like Furini, Bilivert was more accustomed to working on a large scale and it is no surprise to find that this composition of Venus, Cupid and Pan is known in a larger variant on canvas in the Gemäldegalerie, Dresden (see fig. 1),¹ for which there is also a preparatory drawing in the Gallerie degli Uffizi, Florence (see fig. 2).²  Orazio Fidani records, some time before 1656, that Bilivert executed a pair of pictures - each measuring four braccia high - for Charles I, King of England: "Fece per il re d'Inghilterra due quadri di quattro braccia, dentrovi in uno il consiglio di Psiche e ne l'altro una Venere che Amore gli lava le gambe e ci è un Dio Pane che li serba il manto. Dipinse questi quadri con una dolcezza straordinaria, e piaqquono sì che ne fu fatte fare molte copie per diversi amici sua" ["He painted for the king of England two paintings four braccia high, one showing the council of Psyche and the other Venus with Cupid washing her legs, and the god Pan is also there holding up a cloak. He executed these paintings with extraordinary sweetness, and they were so well liked that he had numerous copies made for various friends of his"].³  The popularity of this composition is attested to by the numerous contemporary copies, amongst which are: the painting sold, New York, Christie's, 9-10 February 2009, lot 58 (as Circle of Bilivert; oil on canvas, 191.7 by 146.1 cm.); and that formerly at Potsdam, Bildergalerie von Sanssouci (inv. no. 7623), almost certainly painted in Bilivert's studio and with possible participation of the master himself (oil on canvas, 207.5 by 168 cm.).⁴  Furthermore a painting of the same subject and of similar dimensions was in the collection of Giovan Carlo de' Medici and is recorded in inventories of 1637, 1646 and 1663; the first of these providing a likely terminus ante quem for the design.⁵

A date of execution at various points throughout the 1630s has been suggested for the Dresden painting but Contini convincingly argues for a date between 1630 and 1633. Mina Gregori was the first to draw parallels between Venus, Cupid and Pan and Narcissus and Echo in the Staatsgalerie in Schleiβheim, which is signed and dated 1633.⁶  The female figures of Venus and Echo in their respective pictures do resemble each other physically and both compositions are conceived along strong diagonals, with the female nude in the foreground, set against a backdrop of trees, with another figure standing before an opening in the woodland.

This variant on copper was almost certainly executed for a private patron shortly after the larger painting was completed and was perhaps commissioned in the light of the latter's success. The painting's high quality and copper support, unusual for Bilivert, together with the minor subtle adjustments to the design, all point to the work being entirely autograph. This means that the inscription scratched into the reverse of the copper plate - 'originale di Giovanni Biliverti/ Fiorentino' - is likely to be original and may even have been written by the artist himself, to distinguish this work from the numerous copies coming out of his studio. The intimate scale of this painting is befitting for its sensual subject matter and the highly polished surface of the copper medium is perfectly suited to Bilivert's careful brushwork and vivid colour palette. The artist brilliantly conveys different textures: the fleshy body of Venus contrasts with the crystalline water around her legs, gathering in ripples around her ankles, whilst the sheen of her hair, like that of Cupid's, contrasts with the shiny pearls of her headdress. This is one of only two known paintings by Bilivert on copper; the other, also of secular subject matter, shows The Temptation of Charles and Ubaldo from Tasso's Gerusalemme Liberata (Musée du Louvre, Paris).⁷  Although the composition of this and the Dresden painting is essentially the same, the latter is of squarer format and the Uffizi drawing follows the shape of the present copper more closely.

The Uffizi drawing appears to be a first compositional idea for the painting for it differs in a number of details: the naked Venus sits on a rock washing her left leg in both designs but her pose is rather more hunched in the drawing; Cupid bends down to assist her but looks up at Venus rather awkwardly (in the painting Bilivert was to bring Cupid closer to her and place him in a slightly more upright position); and finally Pan, who in the final painting could be mistaken for any faun or satyr holding up Venus' red drapery and leaning on a stick, whilst in the drawing he is seen holding two reeds that must surely represent the syrinx; the attribute with which Pan is normally identified. The three figures are brought together in the final composition to form a more coherent group in the rough shape of a pyramid: this serves to draw attention to Pan who would otherwise remain almost unnoticed, his dark skin blending into the background in sharp contrast to the pale, sensual flesh of Venus and the naked Cupid in the foreground.

Two other drawings have been associated with this composition. The first, in the Musée du Louvre, Paris, shows a study for a female head turned in profile and looking slightly downwards, at an angle very similar to that of Venus here, and is likely therefore to have been executed in preparation for this figure.⁸  The second, in the National Gallery of Scotland, Edinburgh, relates to the whole composition but is certainly a copy.⁹

We are grateful to Dott.ssa Francesca Baldassari for endorsing the attribution to Bilivert from photographs.

1.  Inv. no. 386; oil on canvas, 191 by 165 cm.. See R. Contini, Bilivert, Florence 1985, pp. 39-40, and 102-3, cat. no. 38, reproduced fig. 50b.
2.  Inv. no. 9648 F; red chalk and wash on paper. See Contini, op. cit., p. 102, under cat. no. 38, reproduced fig. 50a.
3.  O. Fidani, in F. Baldinucci, Notizie dei Professori del Disegno da Cimabue in Qua, ed. P. Barocchi, Florence 1975, vol. VII, p. 70. The disparity between the Dresden painting's dimensions (191 cm.) and those recorded by Fidani as four braccia (approx. 232 cm.) may be explained by the fact that the Dresden painting has been reduced, particularly along the top. Its appearance was probably more like that of the Potsdam copy mentioned above.
4.  The Potsdam painting was destroyed during the Second World War; see Contini, ibid., p. 136, cat. no. 83, reproduced fig. 98c.
5.  Ibid., p. 103, under cat. no. 38, citing information provided by Silvia Mascalchi.
6.  Oil on canvas, 206 by 166 cm., monogrammed and dated 1633 lower left; ibid., pp. 105-6, cat. no. 41, reproduced fig. 55.
7. Inv. no. R.F. 1986-65; 37 by 28 cm.. The painting, not included in Contini's monograph on the artist, also shows the marked influence of Furini and is datable to circa 1630.
8.  Inv. no. 563; black chalk with highlights, 145 by 134 mm.: first published by C. Monbeig Goguel & C. Lauriol, "Giovanni Bilivert. Itinéraire à travers les dessins du Louvre", in Paragone, vol. XXX, no. 353, 1979, pp. 3-48, and more recently by C. Monbeig Goguel, Musée du Louvre, Département des Arts Graphiques. Dessins Toscans XVIe-XVIIIe Siècles. Tome II. 1620-1800, Paris 2005, p. 118, cat. no. 86, reproduced.
9. Inv. D 1639; red chalk (arched top), 124 by 223 mm.. Considered a copy by K. Andrews, National Gallery of Scotland. Catalogue of Italian Drawings, vol. I, Cambridge 1968, p. 20, no. D 1639.