Bartolomeo Biscaino

Sale, Florence, Sotheby's, 8 May 2002, lot 1322 (as Giovanni Battista Merano);

Private collection

M. Newcome Schleier and G. Cirillo, Giovanni Battista Merano, (Genova 1632 - Piacenza 1698), Turin 2010, p. 138, under cat. D14, reproduced p. 139, D14.1

As pointed out by Mary Newcome (see Literature), Giovanni Battista Merano (1632-1698) has based his drawing of the same subject, preserved in the Hessisches Landesmuseum, Darmstadt, on the present sheet.¹ According to Newcome the Darmstadt drawing must date to the early 1660s. There are no related paintings by Biscaino or by Merano.

The elegance of the composition, very typical of Biscaino's style, reflects the influence of Valerio Castello (1624-1659), whose workshop he joined after a first training with his father Giovanni Andrea (1605-1657).

1. Darmstadt, Hessisches Landesmuseum, inv. no. AE 1793