Attributed to Sebastiano Ricci

Bruno Canto, Milan, by 1959.

E. Arslan, "Contributo a Sebastiano Ricci e ad Antonio Francesco Peruzzini," in Studies in the History of Art dedicated to William E. Suida on his eightieth brithday, London 1959, p. 311, reproduced fig. 7 (as Sebastiano Ricci).

The curious subject is taken from a passage from Aesop’s fable of the Satyr and the Peasant, which explores a tale of the inconsistency and hypocrisy of mankind.   According to the story, the satyr assisted a peasant who had become lost on a winter’s day.  The satyr was astonished to see that the peasant was able to warm his hands by blowing onto them.  In thanks for his help, the peasant invited the satyr to eat with him.  The scene depicted here is the moment when the satyr leaps from the table in disgust when the peasant blows on the hot soup to cool it.  The satyr renounced the peasant’s friendship, declaring he would “have nothing to do with one who blows hot and cold with the same breath."

Sebastiano Ricci returned to this subject on a number of occasions, a testament to its popularity.  In her 2006 monograph, Annalisa Scarpa reproduces three versions of the present composition, though each executed in an upright format.¹  A further version, in the Galleria dell’Accademia, Venice, has been alternately attributed to Diziani and to Fontebasso.

We are grateful to Professor Lino Moretti for his invaluable assistance in the cataloguing of this lot.

1. A. Scarpa. Sebastiano Ricci, Milan 2006, pp. 195-196, cat. no. 153, p. 195-196, 199, 206, cat. nos. 153, 161 and 179, reproduced p. 531, figs. 373-375.