Lodovico Cardi, called Cigoli

Private collection, Florence;
With Giovanni Pratesi, from whom acquired by the present collector in 2001.

Rome, Palazzo Venezia, Caravaggio e il genio di Roma: 1592-1623, 10 May - 31 July 2001, no. 63;
Fort Worth, Kimbell Art Museum, From the Private Collections of Texas, 22 November 2009 – 21 March 2010, no. 13.

M. Gregori (ed.), Storia delle arti in Toscana: Il  Seicento, Florence 2001, pp. 12-13;
R. Contini, in C. Strinati and R. Vodret (eds.), Caravaggio e il genio di Roma: 1592-1623, exhibition catalogue, Rome/ Milan 2001, p. 110, no. 63;
S. Matthews, "Venus and Adonis": A recently discovered painting by Ludovico Cardi Cigoli, M.A. thesis, Texas Christian University, Fort Worth 2004;
F. Baldassari, La Pittura del Seicento a Firenze, Turin 2009, p. 182;
S. Bellesi, Catalogo dei Pittori Fiorentini del '600 e '700, vol. I, Florence 2009, p. 99;
R.R. Brettell, C.D. Dickerson III, From the Private Collections of Texas, exhibition catalogue, Fort Worth 2009-10, pp. 130-33, no. 14, 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. This work has not been recently restored. The copper plate is flat and has a wooden reinforcement around the edges that is not attached to the copper. The paint layer is slightly dirty, and the restoration is not particularly good. Under ultraviolet light, one can see a few retouches in Venus' stomach and in a few tiny losses in the remainder of her body. There are restored losses in the darker colors to the immediate right of Venus's head, to the right of the putti in the lower left and to the right of Adonis. The texture of the work is quite rough, and there may be older restorations that are not visible under ultraviolet light. Much of the illuminated areas of the work are in very good condition. The restorations could be improved, or the work could be cleaned and completely re-approached.
"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 beautiful Venus and Adonis is one of the few surviving works by Cigoli on copper and displays the artist's idiosyncratic use of strong primary colours and soft handling of paint. The preparatory drawing of almost identical dimensions (fig. 1) confirms the attribution and gives us a useful insight into the artist's working process. The main difference between the two is in the positioning of Venus's arm: in the painting it is lower, and pulls back Adonis's clothing to reveal his wound. The significance of the wound, which is soon to cause Adonis's death, is also emphasised by the way Venus specifically directs her gaze at it rather than look at his face, as she does in the drawing. 

The central structure of the design is provided by Venus, whose arched back forms the left side of a neat pyramid, in the frustrated figure of Cupid seen attempting to break his bow, and completed on the right by a diagonal line extending through Adonis's face and outstretched limbs. Looking down over the scene from the apex of the pyramid is Venus' horrified face as she contemplates her lover's fate.  The anguish, frustration and pain of the protagonists is, however, offset by the serenity of the swan to the left, and the peacefully drinking hounds to the right, while the wild boar, the perpetrator of the mortal wound, scurries away unnoticed.

Cigoli's best known work on copper is a Flight into Egypt in the Musée Fabre in Montpellier and of which numerous variants and copies are known.¹ It dates from after 1607 and provides a useful comparison to the present painting. Both works are rich in detail, particularly in the backgrounds, which have preserved their luminous qualities and reveal the influence of Northern artists working in Rome, where Cigoli spent the last years of his life working for important patrons, amongst them Cardinal Scipione Borghese. The stylistic similarities between the two works and the Northern influences point to a likely date of execution during the first decade of the 17th century.

1. See F. Faranda, Ludovico Cardi detto il Cigoli, Rome 1986, p. 172, cat. no. 85.