Benedetto Luti

With David M. Koetser, New York (as Jacopo Amigoni);

Walter P. Chrysler Jr. (1909-1988), Norfolk, Virginia;

Robert Manning (d. 1996) and Bettina Suida-Manning (circa 1922-1992), New York, by 1973;

Anonymous sale ("Property of a Private Collector, New York"), New York, Sotheby's, 2 June 1989, lot 59;

Anonymous sale ("Property of a Gentleman"), London, Sotheby's, 11 July 2002, lot 232;

Where acquired by the present collector.

F.A. Den Broeder, The Academy of Europe, Rome in the 18th Century, exhibition catalogue, Storrs 1973, pp. 35, 42, cat. no. 21, reproduced fig. 8;

G. Sestieri, "Il punto su Benedetto Luti," in Arte illustrata 6 (1973), p. 252, cat. no. 38;

G. Sestieri, Repertorio della pittura romana della fine del Seicento e del Settecento, Turin 1994, vol. I, p. 110; vol. III, reproduced fig. 643;

R. Maffeis, Benedetto Luti, l'ultimo maestro, Florence 2012, pp. 268-269, cat. no I.37, reproduced.

Storrs, University of Connecticut, William Benton Museum of Art, The Academy of Europe, Rome in the 18th Century, 13 October - 21 November 1973, no. 21;

New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1973 - 1982, long-term loan.

Benedetto Luti produced this grand and luminous work as a modello for a larger painting, a fragment of which is today preserved at Holkham Hall.¹ One of the most significant artists working in early-eighteenth-century Rome, Luti here combines classicizing Roman taste with Florentine painterly richness. Set against a delicately rendered landscape, a hazy golden light bathes the scene, which depicts the encounter between Rebecca and Abraham's senior steward, who, having identified her as Isaac's future wife, presents her with betrothal gifts.

As one of the most important connoisseurs and art dealers active in Rome, Luti produced only about seventy-five autograph works. The esteemed collector and scholar Robert Manning, who owned the present painting and leant it to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, was the first to identify Luti as the painting's author.

¹ Only the right half of the composition is extant; Thomas Coke purchased the work in 1716 in Rome.