Jacopo Amigoni

Charles-Emmanuel de Rivaz (1752-1830) and Marie-Catherine de Nucé (1739-1854), Château du Miroir, Amphion (according to a label on the reverse).

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 is unlined. However, the reverse shows some basic reinforcements attending to a horizontal break about 3 inches long in the draped fabric on the left side and in a few losses in the hillside between Adonis and the Cupid on the right. There is a dent beneath Adonis's right knee and another restoration beneath his right ankle. The retouches are not particularly accurate. The upper left edge is a little scruffy. The cracking is quite visibly raised throughout. The work can probably remain unlined, but the reinforcements should be re-examined and the canvas more carefully stretched. The work is dirty, but is completely un-abraded and in marvelous condition in most respects.
"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."

Previously unpublished, this spectacular Venus and Adonis with Amorini by Jacopo Amigoni will be included in a forthcoming article by Annalisa Scarpa, author of the 1994 monograph of the artist.¹  The canvas, which remains unlined, is datable to the very end of Amigoni’s English period, painted just prior to his return to Venice in 1739.   The composition is beautifully balanced and Amigoni’s approach to this mythical subject is playful.  Amorini entertain Adonis’ hounds and his quiver lies discarded on in the foreground, all intentions of hunting now forgotten.  Beside the embracing lovers is a pair doves, their beaks touching, echoing the  couple who reach for a kiss.  At right, Cupid look directly outward, engaging the viewer with an impish smile as he idly plays with a stray arrow, perhaps that which grazed Venus causing her to fall in love with the mortal Adonis.

Amigoni had transferred to London in 1729, where he remained for a decade, enjoying much success and significant patronage among the English aristocracy.  During his early years in England, the artist thrived and providing large-scale mythological and historical scenes and decorative schemes for the country’s many stately homes.  As time progressed and fashion for such Baroque themes waned, the artist turned his attention instead toward portraiture, engraving and set design and his popularity remained constant.  Amigoni’s success in London incurred much consternation among native English painters.  One critic, spokesman for a group of painters including Sir William Hogarth, wrote a series of essays disparaging Amigoni’s talent.²  It seems likely it was less Amigoni’s painterly skill that attracted scorn from his English contemporaries and more his popularity with the wealthy patrons, denying local artists valuable commissions.³

 

We are grateful to Annalisa Scarpa for endorsing the attribution, on the basis of photographs.

1. A. Scarpa Sonino, Jacopo Amigoni, Soncino 1994.
2.  J.B. Shipley, “Ralph, Ellis, Hogarth and Fielding: The cabal against Jacopo Amigoni”, in Eighteenth-Century Studies, vol. I, no. 4, 1968, pp. 313-331.
3.  J.G. Hennessey, Jacopo Amigoni (c. 1685-1752): An Artistic Biography with a Catalogue of his Venetian Paintings, University of Kansas Dissertation, Kansas 1983, p. 43.