Giuseppe Antonio Fabbrini, after Anton Raphael Mengs

The Lamentation

UK: Greenford Park Warehouse

Lot Closed

April 6, 03:15 PM GMT

Estimate

10,000 - 15,000 GBP

Lot Details

Description

Property from a Private Collection

Giuseppe Antonio Fabbrini, after Anton Raphael Mengs

Florence circa 1740 - circa 1795

The Lamentation

signed, dated and inscribed lower left: EX. ARCHETYPO. INSI: RAPHA: MENGS. / QUOD. IN. CHARTA. DELINEATUM. EXSTAT. IN. PINACOTHECA. ILL.^MI MAR.^VI / RINUCCINI. Ioseph. Anto. Fabrini. Humilis. Discipulus pinxit. MDCCLXXXII.

oil on panel

unframed: 159.1 x 123.2 cm.; 62⅝ x 48½ in.

framed: 181.5 x 144.3 cm.; 71½ x 56¾ in.

George Clavering Nassau (1738-90), Lord Fordwich, later 3rd Earl of Cowper, 1782 (his inventory, 1790);
Anonymous sale, London, Sotheby's, 8 July 1987, lot 320;
Anonymous sale, Milan, Semenzato, 11 April 1991, lot 9;
Sordi collection, Villa Medicea di Lappeggi (Bagno a Ripoli);
Private collection, Florence;
Anonymous sale, Florence, Pandolfini, 15 October 2013, lot 158;
Where acquired.

Gazetta Toscana, 1782, p. 106;
F. Borroni Salvadori, 'Memoralisti e diaristi a Firenze nel periodo leopoldino 1765-1790. Spigolature d'arte e di costume', in Annali della Scuola Normale Superiore di Pisa, Classe Lettere e Filosofia, Serie III, vol. IX/3, 1979, p. 1248;
S. Roettgen, Anton Raphael Mengs, 1728-1779, and his British patrons, exh. cat., London 1993, pp. 30 and 41, note 94, reproduced in colour p. 37, fig. 26;
S. Roettgen, Anton Raphael Mengs 1728-1779. Das malerische und zeichnerische Werk, München 1999, vol. I, p. 98, under no. 59, copy WK 1.

Fabbrini was a pupil of Mengs, and copied his Lamentation - Mengs' last and unfinished work for Carlo Rinuccini, a black and white chalk cartoon¹ - for Lord Cowper in 1782. Cowper was a patron of Mengs in Florence - he had commissioned the Holy Family (private collection) in 1760, and also had his portrait painted by Mengs (Yale Centre for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection, New Haven). Of all collectors in Florence, Cowper owned the most works by Mengs after the Grand Duke Pietro Leopoldo. The Earl of Cowper was renowned for his vanity - he also had his likeness painted by Fabbrini.

¹ Inv. no. 22.77; Museum of Fine Arts, Boston: https://collections.mfa.org/objects/31949/the-lamentation