Master to Master: The Nelson Shanks Collection
Master to Master: The Nelson Shanks Collection
Pier Francesco Mola
Portrait of a boy, head and shoulders, in a red doublet and white cap
Auction Closed
January 27, 08:24 PM GMT
Estimate
30,000 - 50,000 USD
Lot Details
Description
Pier Francesco Mola
Coldrerio 1612 - 1666 Rome
Portrait of a boy, head and shoulders, in a red doublet and white cap
oil on canvas
canvas: 26 1/8 by 20 3/4 in.; 66.3 by 52.7 cm.
framed: 38 by 33 1/4 in.; 96.5 by 84.4 cm.
Anonymous sale, New York, Christie's, 19 April 2007, lot 285 (as Attributed to Flaminio Torri);
Anonymous sale, London, Christie’s, 6 July 2011, lot 202 (as Circle of Pier Francesco Mola);
Anonymous sale, London, Bonhams, 3 July 2013, lot 45 (as Pier Francesco Mola);
There acquired.
Although this painting was attributed to Flaminio Torri and the Circle of Mola in the past, it is included as an autograph work in Francesco Petrucci's monograph. A painting of similar format was described in the 1714 - 1716 inventory of Filippo II Colonna: Un quadro in tela da testa per alto rapp.te un putto con Pennacchino biancho in testa originale del Mola con sua Cornice dorata, et intagliata spett.e come sorpa.1The young boy is dressed in the Polish style, indicated by the feathered cap, which was fashionable in the seventeenth century and can be seen in Giusto Suttermans' portrait of Leopoldo di Cosimo II de' Medici from 1621, now at the Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence.2 The present lot should be dated to the 1650s on the basis of style; Petrucci notes that Mola painted the portrait quickly, using touches of lead white for modeling against the obscure background.
1. E.A. Safarik, Collezione dei dipinti Colonna. Inventari 1611 - 1795, The Provenance Index of the Getty Art History Information Program, New Providence/London/Paris 1996, p. 345.
2. Oil on canvas, 174 by 117 cm. inv. 1890 - 3660.