Giuseppe Bartolomeo Chiari

Possibly B. Kerber and R. Franciscono, 'Giuseppe Bartolomeo Chiari', in The Art Bulletin, vol. 50, no. 1, March 1968, p. 80.

The composition derives from Carlo Maratti's designs for two of his paintings of the same subject. The first was created for the Prince of Liechtenstein and the second for the Marchese Niccolò Maria Pallavicini.¹ Chiari was Maratti's close collaborator in the latter three decades of Maratti's life, and it is not unlikely that he had a hand in the execution of the Pallavicini picture.

In the present picture, and in a second rectangular version in the Metropolitan Museum of Art,² Chiari changes some of the details, lightens the overall palette, and enhances the sensous nature of the scene. 

1. See H. Voss, Die Malerei Des Barock in Rom, Berlin 1924, p. 345, reproduced; and sale, London, Christie's, 9 April 1990, lot 66a, reproduced.
2. See K. Christiansen, 'Recent Acquisitions, A Selection: 1933-1994', Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin, no. 52, New York 1994, p. 34, reproduced.