PIETRO NOVELLI, DETTO IL MONREALESE | Prometheus creating man

Collection of a noble Italian family, until 2015;
Anonymous sale, Florence, Pandolfini, 1 October 2015, lot 19;
There acquired.

New York, David Zwirner, Endless Enigma: Eight Centuries of Fantastic Art, 12 September – 27 October 2018.

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 been restored and looks well. The canvas has recently been lined. Retouches have been carefully applied and are clearly visible under ultraviolet light. Both faces are well preserved, with only one notable loss in the mouth of Prometheus. There are a few tiny spots in the face of figure representing man. There are retouches running across the work through the center. These address losses, stretcher marks, and a 12 inch horizontal break in the canvas beginning in the center of the left side. These retouches also include some in man's torso, around his hips and upper thigh. There are retouches in the right side of man's chest and in his left arm. All four edges have attracted retouches, with a concentration in the lower center and upper right. There are other retouches here and there, including some in the two figures in the upper left. The condition is good overall, and the work should be hung as is.
"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This recently rediscovered canvas, which is unpublished and apparently undocumented, dates from Pietro Novelli’s mature period, before his untimely death during Palermo’s anti-Spanish uprising. Called “Il Monrealese” after his hometown, Novelli responded to Caravaggesque artists in Sicily like Jusepe de Ribera (1591 – 1652) and probably also went to Naples around 1632. Novelli is best known for his large-scale commissions for the major churches of Palermo; while his biographers mention several mythological works, including frescoes for the Palazzo della Zisa, the present painting is the only extant example from this part of his oeuvre.  Prometheus, a Titan, refused to join his kind in the battle against the Olympians, and subsequently disobeyed the god Zeus with his decision to create mankind. After shaping man from mud and water, in the image of the gods, Prometheus is seen here bringing him to life with a spark of fire. In the upper left, Prometheus steals the spark with the aid of Athena from the Chariot of the Sun, combining two episodes in the story.

The unusual mythological subject of Prometheus creating man was virtually absent from 17^th-century painting, appearing instead in engravings. The unique subject and the imposing size of the canvas suggest that the work was commissioned by an erudite patron from Palermo’s cultured elite. Novelli and his patron also seem to have arrived at a novel interpretation of the myth, as here Prometheus uses the fire to bring man to life, rather than simply giving man the ability to use fire. The final scene from Prometheus's story was more popular among Baroque and later Romantic artists: Zeus punished Prometheus by chaining him to a rock and forcing him to suffer repeated disembowelment, a fate from which only Hercules could save the Titan.

Novelli’s dramatic chiaroscuro gives the effect of man emerging from darkness, and the naturalistic treatment of facial features and emotion conveys Prometheus's anxiety over the fate of his creation, seen in the wrinkles around his eyes, as well as man's naivety and confusion at the fact of his existence. Like the Neapolitan artists from whom he drew inspiration, Novelli used common people as models for mythological and divine subjects. His realism takes on narrative significance in the composition: the similar skin tones and similarly engaged muscles and tendons of both figures reinforce the similarities between the gods and mankind, and by extension, the viewer.