Jacopo Amigoni

Anonymous sale, London, Phillips, 16 May 1798, lots 20 and 21;
De La Hairte collection;
Private Collection, Lyon.

London, Walpole Gallery Ltd., Venetian Baroque and Rococo Paintings, 13 June - 20 July 1990, no. 20 (only Venus and Adonis);
London, Walpole Gallery Ltd., The Settecento in Venice, 28 June - 28 July, 4-9 September 2000, nos. 8-9.

G. Hennessey, in Venetian Baroque and Rococo Paintings, exhibition catalogue, London 1990, cat. no. 20 (only Venus and Adonis);
A. Scarpa Sonino, Jacopo Amigoni, Soncino 1994, pp. 114-15, reproduced in color (only Venus and Adonis);
A. Scarpa Sonino, "Aggiunte al catalogo di Jacopo Amigoni", in La pittura Veneziana. Studi di Storia dell'Arte in onore di Egido Martini, Venice 1999, pp. 217-20;
A. Scarpa Sonino, "Ancora aggiunte all'Amigoni inglese", in Studi di Storia dell'arte in onore di Giuseppe Maria Pilo, Venice 1999, p. 219;
The Settecento in Venice, exhibition catalogue, London 2000, cat. nos. 8-9, reproduced.

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. The condition of both of these pictures is particularly good. Both canvases show restorations which are very effective. The works should be hung as is in their beautiful frames. In the composition of Bacchus and Ariadne, there is a significant loss immediately to the left of Bacchus's head in the sky and in the trees. This loss measures about two by four inches, but does not interrupt the face in any way. Elsewhere, in both pictures, there are a few isolated restorations as one would expect. However, the paint layers are not abraded and the texture of the paintings is very good. The condition in both paintings is lovely, and the works look very well.
"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."

These elegant and grand pair of canvases are among the most exciting mythological works by Jacopo Amigoni to appear on the market in recent years.  The two pictures appear to have been paired together since at least 1798 (see Provenance), and have remained together in private collections until the present day.  Together they represent one of the most important works by Amigoni from his seminal English sojourn.¹

Amigoni had spent his early career in Venice, but following the example of older Venetian painters such as Gian Antonio Pellegrini, he left the city to make a name for himself as an international artist, quickly finding an avid audience in the various courts of Europe which had developed a taste for the charm of the Venetian Rococo.  In 1730, Amigoni arrived in London fresh from a series of pictorial triumphs in Venice, Rome and at the court of the Elector of Bavaria, and soon had eager patrons amongst the English nobility and even royalty.¹  Although he appears to have been chiefly occupied with portrait commissions, his mythological paintings, such as the present pictures, are amongst his most admired works from this period.  Of the few decorative pieces in this genre he executed whilst in England most are still in situ in the houses for which they were commissioned.  Perhaps the most notable example of this is the series of four canvases depicting episodes from the story of Jupiter and Io commissioned by Benjamin Hoskins Styles for his house Moor Park in Hertfordshire (see fig. 1).²

Given the rarity of extant, large scale canvases from this illustrious period in Amigoni's career, it is of particular importance that these two magnificent pictures have remained together for most of their history. Their subjects - Venus and Adonis and Bacchus and Ariadne - represent two of the most recognizable and classic of all mythological stories, both with a rich history of pictorial representation in Venetian art. They are taken from Ovid's Metamorphoses, and in the case of Venus and Adonis, Amigoni returned to the subject throughout his career.³ Though more rare, he painted the subject of Bacchus and Ariadne in a later picture from circa 1740-2, which is also of horizontal format but of smaller dimensions (Art Gallery of New South Wales). More contemporaneous with the present pair however is his treatment of another Venus and Adonis (Private Collection, see R. Pallucchini, La pittura nel Veneto: il Settecento, Vol. I, Milan 1995, p. 113, reproduced p. 118, fig.163), a work which was similarly executed during his English sojourn.  That picture is executed in a vertical format, but while in that work the interaction between Venus and Adonis is physical and dramatic, in the present canvas Adonis leaves for hunting whilst Venus is asleep.  The interplay is psychological and extremely subtle: Adonis tenderly reaches for the defensless and reclining Venus, his hand held back by a putto as he prepares to embark on his fateful final hunt.  In yet another, earlier, horizontal canvas in the Accademia, Venice, Amigoni has interpreted the narrative again in a very different light. Adonis seems much more eager to depart from his lover and looks at her with an almost impatient gaze as he tears himself from her embrace.⁴

As pendants, the two pictures unsurprisingly complement each other in a multitude of ways. The lush red of Adonis' robe plays off against the same material at Bacchus' feet. A similar interplay of color is found in the cobolt blue of both Venus and Ariadne. Seen together, the reclining female figures form a classic and harmonious triangle, their forms complement each other as they engage, both passively and actively, their male counterparts. Bacchus and Ariadne is a study in physical connectivity, while Venus and Adonis utilizes distance and longing as its main emotional vehicle, however they are connected by their nuances and elegance. By using subtle emotion rather than overt drama to define the narrative, Amigoni has created a most tender and beguiling depiction of both myths.  His use of soft contours and bright colors articulated with a delicate touch give an overall impression of light-hearted grace, and through such an achievement, one is fully able to understand why Amigoni was rightly one of the foremost and highly sought after decorative artists of his generation.

1. See Literature, op. cit., Hennessey 1990. 
2.  See for example his portraits of Frederick, Prince of Wales in the National Gallery, London and of Queen Caroline in the National Portrait Gallery, London in A. Scarpa Sonino, Jacopo Amigoni, Soncino 1994, pp. 33-34, reproduced.
3. J.B Shipley, 'Ralph, Ellys, Hogarth, and Fielding: The Cabal Against Jacopo Amigoni' in Eighteenth-Century Studies, vol. I, 1968, pp. 321-4, reproduced figs. 1-4.
4.  See Scarpa Sonino, op. cit., p.58, reproduced fig. 28.