Old Master Paintings from the Robert Compton Jones Collection

14 (part)

FRANCESCO GUARDI

(Venice, 1712-1793)

The Island of San Giorgio Maggiore from the West oil on canvas

46.7 x 66.5cm

Old Master Paintings

08.12.2025, 6pm Sydney

VIEWINGS

viewing in melbourne highlights only fri 21 – sun 23 nov 10am – 4pm 2 Oxley Road, Hawthorn, VIC 3122

viewing in sydney fri 05 – sun 07 dec 10am – 4pm The Bond, 36-40 Queen Street, Woollahra, NSW 2025

565 644

madeleine.mackenzie@ leonardjoel.com.au

john

ronan sulich senior adviser, sydney

GUEST CONTRIBUTORS

Dr. Tim Hunter has over 30 years of experience in the commercial art world. Born in Sydney, Australia he now lives and works in London. He was educated at Magdalen College, Oxford where he studied History and History of Art, gaining a doctorate in 1992 and working at the Ashmolean Museum, before joining Christie’s auction house in 1993. At Christie’s Tim was variously a Director in the Valuations Dept., Head of 19th Century European Art, and latterly a Senior Director of Old Master and British Pictures. He left Christie’s after 16 years to join the Art Advisory firm Gurr Johns. In 2014 he became Vice President of Falcon Fine Art, an art financing firm in the City of London, after which he set up his own art consultancy business, Venator Fine Art, specializing in Italian Old Master Painting, based in London. He is a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries, and a senior member of Magdalen College Oxford. He continues to write and lecture on art historical matters and is currently writing a book on Collecting Old Masters in Victorian and Edwardian England

Federica Spadotto, a graduate of Ca’ Foscari University, is a technical consultant to the Venice court and an art historian in the Veneto region. Her interest in the painting of the Serenissima in its golden age materialized in a thesis on Giovan Battista Cimaroli, which won the Massimo Gemin prize (1999) awarded by the Venetian university and was published in Saggi e Memorie di Storia dell’Arte (1999).

Since that time, in addition to refining her educational path by attending the School of Specialization in History of Art at the University of Udine, the scholar has continued to study the eighteenth-century Venetian landscape and view, publishing the monographs of Francesco Zuccarelli (2007), Giovan Battista Cimaroli (2011) and Giacomo Guardi (2018, English translation 2019).

These are joined by her other publications: Venetian Landscape Artists of the 18th Century (2014), Francesco Zuccarelli in England (2015), and I am 18th Century. The Soul of Venice Among Painters, Merchants, and Picture Sellers (2018). Federica has made numerous contributions to curated exhibitions and essays on eighteenth-century Veneto, and has become a leading international expert with regard to the landscape genre.

arshall

David R. Marshall is Associate Professor and Principal Fellow in Art History at the School of Culture and Communication, University of Melbourne. He is a fellow of the Australian Academy of the Humanities and Honorary Research Fellow of the British School in Rome. His research centres on view-painting and the art, architecture and urbanism of the city of Rome in the 17th and 18th centuries. His books include Viviano Codazzi and the Baroque Architectural Fantasy (1993) and Rediscovering a Baroque Villa in Rome: Cardinal Patrizi and the Villa Patrizi 1715-1909 (2015). He has edited several collections, including ‘The Italians’ in Australia: Studies in Renaissance and Baroque Art (2004); Art Site and Spectacle: Studies in Early Modern Visual Culture (2007), The Site of Rome: Studies in the Art and Topography of Rome 1400-1880 (2014), and (co-ed.) Roma Britannica. Britain and Rome in the Eighteenth Century (2010).

With special thanks to Gerard Vaughan, Professor Laurence Kanter, Dr. Dillian Gordon, Professor Donatella Biagi-Maino, Professor Bernard Aikema and Colnaghi London.

JACOPO TINTORETTO

(VENICE, 1519-1594)

The Feast of Dives and Lazarus oil on panel

24.5 x 60cm

$80,000-120,000

Robert Compton Jones – a personal memory

As an Australian working in the London art world, Robert Compton Jones was well-practiced at going under the radar. Always polite and good natured, it was all too easy to underestimate Robert’s vast learning and connoisseurship, and that is just the way he wanted it. I remember him in the London auction views, focussed but never hurried, he would move from one picture to another with an inquisitive gaze, yet he gave nothing away. He would spend as much time on the lesser works as the major pieces, and one never knew which had aroused his interest. He did not buy in bulk, but rather kept his powder dry for judicious acquisitions that revealed the breadth of his knowledge and his discerning taste. It is no surprise that his early purchases were made at Colnaghi’s in London in the 1960s. At this time the main picture specialist at the venerable firm was James Byam Shaw, a highly regarded scholar in his own right, and no doubt Robert learned a great deal from him, honing his interest in Italian Renaissance and Baroque art. Among his early purchases from Colnaghi’s were pictures that he retained in his collection for the rest of his life: Neri di Bicci’s, Madonna and Child with attendant Angel, bought in 1966; the Matthias Stomer candlelit scene of Man lighting a lamp, acquired in 1962; and the beautiful female portrait by Carlo Maratti that he purchased in 1971 (all of which are in the present sale).

Robert was not like conventional art dealers, who buy and sell works, always with an eye on the next deal. As the present sale of his estate clearly demonstrates, he refused to part with many of the pictures he acquired, preferring to keep them for several decades. In this sense he had much more in common with the old-fashioned dealer-collectors of a previous age, whose knowledge and passion for art was always stronger than their desire for a quick return on their investment. From the late 1970s onwards (at a time long before the internet) Robert scoured the London auction catalogues, and kept abreast of the major European sales, travelling to view whatever caught his eye, and in this way he was able to buy some astonishing works. His taste ranged from early gold-ground Italian painting, through the Quattrocento, to the Roman Baroque and Venetian vedute, with occasional forays into Northern Renaissance art. Among the early works the highlight is undoubtedly the Jacopo di Cione panels (formerly in the collection of William Young Ottely), probably purchased in 1985, and which can now be traced back to the high altar of Santa Maria degli Angeli in Florence. Among the Renaissance works he uncovered was a beautiful Saint Michael triumphing over the devil by Signorelli, bought in 2009 and the finely painted Saint Jerome in the Wilderness attributed to Marco Basaiti, purchased in 2012. The Tintoretto Feast of Dives and Lazarus, was formerly in the famous Cook collection from Doughty House in Richmond, which no doubt added to its appeal. Among his 17th- and 18th-Century works, the Maratti portrait stands out, but Guardi’s Venetian views, and the works by Liberi and Fontebasso are all excellent examples and notable acquisitions.

It is clear from this diverse group of works that Robert did not follow any particular fashion or trend, but rather he collected pictures that “spoke” to him, guided by quality and connoisseurship. Nor did he confine his attention just to paintings, for Robert also had a passion for 18th Century decorative arts, particularly porcelain, and his collection included such pieces as a Sevrès “Vase Cornet” (its pair is still at Woburn Abbey); a pair of Meissen plates from the “Yellow Hunting” service; and an Imperial Nymphenburg charger (all of which featured in the Leonard Joel sale, “The Robert Compton Jones Collection”, on the premises, 30th May 2023).

While living and working in London Robert and his wife Judy never forgot their Australian roots. He named his art dealership the Woollahra Trading Co., after the Sydney suburb (I remember the trouble London auction house employees had spelling the unfamiliar name). He was acutely aware of the need for Australian Museums to compete in the international market, and he was heavily involved in the Australian Government Cultural Gift Program. He facilitated the sale of a number of works to various institutions, perhaps the most spectacular being Bernardo Strozzi’s, St Francis of Assisi adoring the Crucifix that was acquired by the Art Gallery of New South Wales in 2001. Later in his life Robert and Judy became generous donors, and among other donations, they gifted a beautifully preserved mid-15th Century cassone panel, depicting Trajan and the Widow to the National Gallery of Victoria, along with an 18th Century Italian Maiolica pharmacy jar in 2019, all of which are a fitting testament to his lifelong passion for the arts and his commitment to the cultural life of Australia.

tim hunter

Robert and Judy Jones

First published by Prof. Luciano Bellosi immediately after the 1974 Sotheby’s sale, the attribution of this small devotional panel to the Master of San Torpè was reaffirmed prior to the 2008 Sotheby’s sale by Prof. Bellosi and independently endorsed by Mr Everett Fahy following firsthand inspection c. 2008.

Henry Harris (d. 1950) formed a major collection during the early 20th century of Renaissance pictures, bronzes, and works of art, that were sold posthumously in a series of sales held by Sotheby’s in London. Among the highlights of the collection were Giovanni di Paolo’s Saint John the Baptist, a portrait by Federico Barocci and a bronze fountain figure by Rustici. He also bequeathed an unfinished picture of The Madonna with the children at play by a follower of Leonardo, to the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford (A.790).

1 MASTER OF SAN TORPÈ (Pisa, active first quarter 14th century)

The Crucifixion, with the Virgin and Saints Mary Magdalene and John the Evangelist tempera on gold ground panel

45.7 x 20.5cm

provenance

Henry Harris Collection, London (label verso) his deceased sale, Sotheby’s, London, 25 October 1950, lot 172

The Property of a Lady

Sotheby’s, London, The Property of a Lady, 10 July 1974, lot 7

Private collection, London, acquired from the above

The Property of a Lady

Sotheby’s, London, Old Master Paintings, 4 December 2008, lot 156 where purchased by Robert Compton Jones (accompanied by a copy of the original purchase receipt)

literature

Berenson, B., Pitture Italiane del Rinascimiento, 1936, p. 445 (as by a close follower of Simona Martín or Lippo Memmi)

Bellosi, L., Buffalmacco e il Trionfo della Morte, Turin, 1974, reproduced fig. 190 (as by the Master of San Torpè)

$30,000-40,000

2

Attributed to JACOPO DI CIONE (Florence, active c.1362-1398/1400)

St Romauld (or Beata Jacopo Geri?), St Mark, and St Paul the Hermit tempera on gold ground panel 63.6 x 49.8cm (overall)

provenance

Originally part of a polyptych altarpiece for the High Altar of Santa Maria degli Angeli, Florence, c. 1375. William Young Ottley (1771-1836), probably acquired in Italy, and by descent to his brother Warner Ottley (1775-1846), of York Terrace, Regent’s Park and Stanwell House, Middlesex, Sold by the Executors of Warner Ottley’s Estate, London, Foster, 30 June 1847, lot 23, as ‘Jacopo del Casentino’, bought by ‘Anthony’, on behalf of Revd. J. Fuller Russell (1813-1884), his posthumous sale

Christie’s, London, 18 April 1885, lot 89, as Jacopo da Casentino, bought by ‘Western’, on behalf of Charles Butler (1821-1910), Warren Wood, Hatfield, his posthumous sale, (possibly) Christie’s, London, 7 July 1911, where presumably purchased by Edward Hutton (1874-1969), London, by whom sold in 1923 to Michael van Gelder (1864-1929), Uccle, Belgium and by decent to his wife Irma van Gelder (1888-1971) Phillips, 10 December 1985, lot 29 where presumably purchased by Robert Compton Jones

literature

Waagen, G., Treasures of Art in Great Britain, London, 1854, II, p. 463, as Sienese, identified, along with three other associated saints, incorrectly as ‘twelve apostles’

Offner, R., ‘The Mostra del Tesoro di Firenze Sacra,’ The Burlington Magazine, 63, 1933: 72-84, p. 84, n. 59, as Jacopo di Cione

Offner, R. and Steinweg, K., A Critical and Historical Corpus of Florentine Painting: The Fourteenth Century, New York, 1965, Section IV, vol. III, p. 32, pl. 74, as attributed to Jacopo di Cione, and linked to the San Pier Maggiore altarpiece

Boskovits, M., Pittura Fiorentina alla vigilia del Rinascimento, Florence, 1975, p. 330 as Jacopo di Cione and where he gives the saints as Romuald, John the Evangelist and Paul, and links the panels to the San Pier Maggiore altarpiece

Huntingdon, A., The Littleton Saints: Six small panels from a lost altarpiece by Jacopo di Cione, unpublished MA dissertation, Courtauld Institute of Art, University of London, 1997, p. 12, where she links them to the Virgin and Child in the Museum of Fine Arts, Budapest

Kanter, L., Italian Paintings from the Richard L. Feigen Collection, exhibition catalogue Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven and London, 2010, p. 16-18, and n. 6, where he links them to a polyptych altarpiece by Orcagna and his workshop from Santa Maria degli Angeli

Gordon, D., National Gallery Catalogues: The Italian Paintings before 1400, London, 2011, p. 96-108, n. 28,

fig. 8, under NG 3894, as attributed to Jacopo di Cione, where she links them to polyptych Ognissanti Altarpiece in Santa Maria degli Angeli, Florence of c. 1355-65

Gordon, D., ‘The Paintings from the early to the late Gothic Period’, in Cristina De Benedictis, et. al. ed., Santa Maria degli Angeli a Firenze, Da monastero camaldolese a biblioteca umanistica, Florence, 2022, p. 202-05, as Jacopo di Cione and Workshop, where she links the panels to the high altarpiece of Santa Maria degli Angeli c. 1375

related works

Attributed to Jacopo di Cione, Noli me Tangere, tempera on wood, 56 x 38.2cm, The National Gallery, London (inventory no. NG3894) (fig. 1)

Attributed to Andrea di Cione (Orcagna), The Crucifixion, tempera on wood with gold ground, 137.5 x 81.9cm, The Metropolitan Museum, New York, (Robert Lehman Collection, accession no. 1975.1.65) (fig. 2)

Attributed to Jacopo di Cione, The Littleton Pilaster Saints: Blessed Paola, Blessed Silvestro, Saint Anthony Abbot, Saint John the Evangelist, Saint Luke, Saint Peter Damian, each tempera on panel, The National Gallery, London (on loan from the Rector and Churchwardens of St Mary Magdalene Church, Littleton, inventory no.’s L1080-L1085) (fig. 3) $100,000-145,000

Jacopo di Cione

These exceptional panels depicting three Saints, Romauld (or possibly Beato Jacopo Geri d. 1344), Mark and Paul the Hermit, were originally part of the high altarpiece of the monastic church of Santa Maria degli Angeli, one of the most important monasteries in the centre of Florence. 1 The attribution of this large polyptych altarpiece, whose constituent parts have long ago been dispersed and can only now be partially reconstructed, has been the subject of much research and debate over the years. Most scholars regard the altarpiece as a more or less collaborative undertaking by the most important artists working in Florence during the middle years of the fourteenth century, Andrea di Cione, known as Orcagna (c. 1308-1368), and his two younger brothers, Nardo di Cione (1320-1366) and Jacopo di Cione (1325-1390). Most recently Dillian Gordon, who has made an extensive study of the altarpieces in Santa Maria degli Angeli, has identified the probable donor of this altarpiece as Zanobi di Cecco del Frasca, a Florentine banker who died in 1375.2 Since the money was made as a bequest this would provide a date for the altarpiece of c. 1375, and therefore she regards Jacopo di Cione and his workshop as the most likely artists, although heavily indebted to the work of Nardo di Cione. In the most recent suggested reconstruction of the altarpiece there would have originally been twelve pilaster Saints, in rows with six on either side (in addition to the three in the present lot, six are now in the National Gallery, London, on loan from the Rector and Churchwardens of the Church of St Mary Magdalene, Littleton, Middlesex (fig. 3); and three others were stolen from the Hutton collection in 1933, known only from photographs). Other surviving elements from this impressive altarpiece include the three pinnacles, variously depicting Noli me tangere (fig. 1) (National Gallery, London, NG 3894); The Crucifixion (fig. 2) (Metropolitan Museum of Art, Robert Lehman Collection, inv. 19751.65, first identified by Kanter, 2010); and The Resurrection (Regello, San Clemente a Sociana). The central predella can be identified as The Man of Sorrows with the Virgin and St John the Evangelist and donor (Denver Art Museum, Colorado, Kress Collection, inv. 1961.154). Scholars have not yet agreed, however, on the identity of the central panel of the altarpiece, with some favouring the Virgin and Child enthroned surrounded by Angels, attributed to Jacopo di Cione in the Museum of Fine Arts, Budapest.3 The lateral panels that would have depicted numerous Saints remain untraced to this day.

The present Saints were first identified as by Jacopo di Cione by Richard Offner (1933), and for some time the panels were thought to relate to Jacopo’s great altarpiece in the National Gallery, London, known as the San Pier Maggiore Altarpiece (NG 569.1-3 and NG 570-578)4, before they were correctly identified as belonging to the Church of Santa Maria degli Angeli. The Saint on the left in the present frame, wearing a white robe and holding a tau staff is normally identified as Romauld (d. 1027), the founder of the Camaldolese order, of which Santa Maria degli Angeli was the most important foundation in Florence. Most recently Dillian Gordon has, however, identified this figure with Beata Jacopo Geri (d. c. 1344), a monk from the monastery, known for his exemplary pious life and obedience to the rule, with Romauld more likely to have been depicted in one of the main tier lateral panels of the altarpiece. The other two Saints are more easily identifiable as St Mark and St Paul the First Hermit, and were displayed in the pilasters along with Saints Luke, John the Evangelist, Anthony Abbot, Stephen, Matthew, Peter Damian, Mary Magdalen and two other members of the Camaldolese order, Beato Silvestro and Beata Paola.5

These present panels also have a distinguished later provenance. They were purchased by William Young Ottley (1771-1836), one of the greatest collectors of his age, who was one of the first Englishmen to appreciate and collect early Italian painting. He built up an extensive collection that included works by the great Sienese and Florentine painters such as Ugolino da Siena, Duccio, Ambrogio Lorenzetti, Cimabue, Simone Martini, and Botticelli, and his connoisseurship was fundamental in raising the profile of these artists. The panels were subsequently in several other important 19th century collections, including those of the Revd. Fuller Russell and Charles Butler, before being purchased by Robert Compton Jones. We are very grateful to Professor Laurence Kanter and Dr. Dillian Gordon for their generous help in cataloguing this lot.

tim hunter

1. Kanter, 2010; Gordon, 2022

2. Gordon, 2022

3. Huntingdon 1997; Gordon 2011

4. Offner and Steinweg 1965; Boskovits 1975

5. see reconstruction in Gordon, 2022

(Fig. 1) Attributed to Jacopo di Cione, Noli me Tangere, tempera on wood, 56 x 38.2cm, The National Gallery, London (inventory no. NG3894) (fig. 2)

Image Courtesy: The National Gallery, London, Presented by Henry Wagner, 1924

(Fig. 2) Attributed to Jacopo di Cione, The Littleton Pilaster Saints: Blessed Paola, Blessed Silvestro, Saint Anthony Abbot, Saint John the Evangelist, Saint Luke, Saint Peter Damian, each tempera on panel, The National Gallery, London (on loan from the Rector and Churchwardens of St Mary Magdalene Church, Littleton, inventory no.’s L1080-L1085) © Public Domain

(Fig. 3) Attributed to Andrea di Cione (Orcagna), The Crucifixion, tempera on wood with gold ground, 137.5 x 81.9cm, The Metropolitan Museum, New York, (Robert Lehman Collection, accession no. 1975.1.65)

Image Courtesy: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Robert Lehman Collection, 1975

BICCI DI LORENZO (Florence, 1373-1452)

The central panel: the Madonna and Child enthroned and flanked by two angels; the left wing: Christ on the Road to Calvary with the Madonna and Saint John, with The Annunciate Angel above; the right wing: The Crucifixion, with The Virgin Annunciate above tempera on gold ground panel; triptych 50.5 x 54cm (open, irreg); 50.5 x 27cm (closed, irreg)

provenance

Edmond Noël, Paris

His sale, Paris, Galerie Georges Petit, 27 May 1924, lot 3 Kay sale, London, Christie’s, 23 May 1930, lot 90, where bought by Willis; Private collection

Sotheby’s, London, Old Master Paintings, 4 July 2007, lot 46 where purchased by Robert Compton Jones (accompanied by a copy of the original purchase receipt and auction catalogue)

$40,000-60,000

Bicci di Lorenzo was in many respects the most talented artist from a successful dynasty of painters working in Florence from the second half of the fourteenth century to the late fifteenth century. He took over a thriving workshop from his father, Lorenzo di Bicci (c. 1350-1427), which he in turn passed on to his son, Neri di Bicci (1418-1492). Bicci di Lorenzo was trained in his father's studio, but as his style developed he absorbed the influence of other contemporary artists such as Agnolo Gaddi, Spinello Aretino, and perhaps most importantly, Gentile da Fabriano. The present portable triptych, is typical of Bicci’s early work, and one of a number of small devotional works that were a feature of the family workshop.

tim hunter

Mariotto di Nardo is considered to have been one of the most promising talents of late Trecento and early Quattrocento Florentine painting. As the son of Nardo di Cione he was a descendent of the renowned family of Florentine painters, the di Cione brothers, which in addition to Nardo also included Jacopo di Cione and Andrea di Cione (better known as Orcagna). Given this artistic lineage it is not surprising that Mariotto was considered greatly popular and influential in the years immediately before and after 1400. The earliest documented reference to Mariotto di Nardo is a contract of 1394/95 to paint an altarpiece for San Donnino a Villamagna. It is most likely that his career began at least a decade before this as deduced from the regularity of commissions he received in the 1390s from the Opera del Duomo in Florence, indicating his status as a well-established master by that time. His many assistants and followers likely included other important artists such as Lorenzo Ghiberti. Although the frequency and prestige of his commissions in Florence continued until about 1416, Mariotto worked increasingly for provincial patrons in his later career and depended progressively on the use of assistants in the execution of both his large and small scale works.

madeleine mackenzie

4

Circle of MARIOTTO DI NARDO

(Florence, fl. 1394-1424)

Madonna and Child Enthroned with Saints tempera on gold ground panel

70 x 43cm

provenance

Robert Compton Jones

$30,000-50,000

(Fig. 4) Paolo Schiavo, The Flagellation, oil on panel, 33 x 26.7cm, Museo de Arte de Ponce, Puerto Rico, K216, accession no. 64.0271

© Public Domain

An artist of great versatility, Schiavo was equally adept at small scale panel painting and polyptych altarpieces, as well as frescoes and manuscript illumination. He also supplied cartoons for embroiderers and tapestry-makers.

This panel, representing two scenes, would have originally formed part of a ‘predella’, some of whose other constituent parts were first recognised by Federico Zeri. Zeri identified four other related panels by Schiavo, of almost identical size and also representing scenes from the Passion; two in the Kress Collection The Flagellation (fig. 4) and The Crucifixion (K216, Museo de Arte de Ponce, Puerto Rico; and K1188, University of Georgia, Athens, GA; see F.R. Shapley, Paintings from the Samuel H. Kress Collection. Italian Paintings XIII-XV Century, London, 1966, p. 105, figs. 281-2); The Betrayal of Christ (private collection, Florence); and The Resurrection (formerly in the collection of Willard Golovin and sold at Sotheby’s, New York, 23 January 2003, lot 176). Professor Miklós Boskovits added a further panel, the Agony in the Garden, previously unpublished (private collection, see Boskovits, op. cit., pp. 336 and 339, fig. 8). He considers these panels to possibly be part of the same paliotto, and dates them to around 1435-1440.

madeleine mackenzie

5

PAOLO DI STEFANO BADALONI, called PAOLO SCHIAVO (Florence, 1397-1478)

Christ Before Caiaphas, and the Denial of St Peter oil on linen laid on panel

36.2 x 30.8cm

provenance

Henry Harris Collection, London

Sotheby’s, London, 24-5 October 1950, lot 216, as follower of P. Schiavo (sold £25)

Mrs Carmen Gronau, London

Christie’s, London, Old Master & British Pictures, 27 April 2007, lot 65

where presumably purchased by Robert Compton Jones

literature

Zeri, F., ‘Early Italian Pictures in the Kress Collection’, The Burlington Magazine, CIX, no. 773, 1967, p. 477, fig. 57, as Paolo Schiavo

Boskovits, M., ‘Ancora su Paolo Schiavo: una scheda biografica e una proposta di catalogo’, Arte Cristiana, LXXXIII, 770, 1995, p. 336 and 338, fig. 7, as Paolo Schiavo

related work

Paolo Schiavo, The Flagellation, oil on panel, 33 x 26.7cm, Museo de Arte de Ponce, Puerto Rico, K216, accession no. 64.0271 (fig. 4)

$20,000-30,000

Neri di Bicci

NERI DI BICCI (Florence, 1418-1492)

The Madonna and Child with an attending Angel and Seraphim tempera and gold on panel 53.5 x 39cm

provenance

James William Alsdorf (1913-1990), Chicago (on Colnaghi label verso)

P & D Colnaghi & Co Ltd., London, 1966 (label verso)

where purchased by Robert Compton Jones (accompanied by a copy of Colnaghi records) $60,000-90,000

Neri di Bicci was born in 1418, into a well-known Florentine artistic family. His father was Bicci di Lorenzo (1373–1452) and his grandfather was Lorenzo di Bicci (c. 1350-1427). Given this pedigree it was perhaps inevitable that Neri would also become an artist, and he entered the family workshop in 1434. He soon took a leading role in the running of the business, and kept a diary containing detailed records of the workshop from 1453-75, known as the Ricordanze, which is one of the most important surviving documents relating to a fifteenth-century Italian painter and his working methods.1 Neri’s own forthright and distinctive style moved away from his father’s model and shows the influence of other contemporaries such as Filippo Lippi and Domenico Veneziano, although he retained archaic features, such as the golden haloes and toolwork well into the fifteenth century in contrast to other Florentine artists of the Quattrocento. This work was previously owned by James Alsdorf (1913-1990) a prominent Chicago businessman and patron of the arts. He and his wife Marilynn built up a large collection that ranged from Greek, Roman and Egyptian antiquities, to medieval painting and works of art, as well as Southeast Asian, Chinese and Islamic art. James Alsdorf served as chairman of the Art Institute of Chicago from 1975-8, and he donated many of his works to the institution. The present work, however, was sold to the dealers Colnaghi, probably in the early 1960s, and was purchased by Robert Compton Jones in 1966, making it one of the first major Italian pictures acquired by Robert, and it remained in his collection for the rest of his life.

tim hunter

1. see B. Santi ed., Neri di Bicci: Le Ricordanze (10 marzo 1453-24 aprile 1475), Pisa, 1976

7

LUCA SIGNORELLI (Cortona, c. 1450-1523)

Saint Michael c.1502

oil on panel

inscription on label verso: ... 27- Un Quadro dipinto in Tavola pres...n..[t?]e S:n Michele Arcange[lo] ...a di Luca Signorelli ... 49.5 x 20.5cm

provenance

Sotheby’s, London, 27 March 1963, lot 43 Private collection, acquired from the above Thence by descent

Christie’s, London, Old Master & 19th Century Paintings, Drawings & Watercolours, 9 December 2009, lot 116

where purchased by Robert Compton Jones (accompanied by a copy of the original purchase receipt and auction catalogue)

literature

Kanter, L. B., The Late Works of Luca Signorelli and his Followers, 1498-1559, Ph.D. Thesis, New York University, 1989, p. 116

Kanter, L.B., ‘Some Late Alterpieces by Luca Signorelli’, Studi di Storia dell’Arte, II, 1991, p. 186-7. Henry, T, and Kanter, L.B., Luca Signorelli: The Complete Paintings, London, 2001, p. 206, no. 60, (illus.)

related work

Luca Signorelli, Lamentation over the Dead Christ 1502, wood, 270 x 240cm, Museo Diocesano, Cortona (card no. 18630) (fig. 5)

$140,000-180,000

Luca Signorelli

This panel depicting Saint Michael has been plausibly identified by Kanter as originating from one of the pilasters flanking Luca Signorelli’s celebrated Lamentation at the Foot of the Cross (also known as Lamentation over the Dead Christ), commissioned for the high altar of Santa Margherita in Cortona and completed in 1502.1 (fig. 5) The altarpiece, now housed in the Diocesan Museum of Cortona, is widely regarded as Signorelli’s most distinguished commission and a pinnacle of his artistic output for his native town.

The Lamentation was commissioned by the Soprastanti of Santa Margherita and documented as underway by October 1501, with completion confirmed by February 1502. Bartolomeo della Gatta, called upon to assess its value, declared it worth 200 florins, though Signorelli accepted only half, renouncing the remainder “for the love of God, for [the salvation of] his soul and the souls of his ancestors.”2 The memory of his family was also echoed in the now-lost frame’s inscription, which uniquely bore Signorelli’s patronymic: LUCAS EGIDII SIGNORELLI CORTONENSIS. MDII. 3

The present panel, with its luminous depiction of Saint Michael, shares compositional characteristics with the central altarpiece and is lit in the same manner, suggesting it was conceived as part of the altarpiece. Its dimensions and stylistic features align closely with three other panels believed to represent Saints John the Baptist, Jerome, and Anthony of Padua. These saints, along with Michael, are recorded in historical descriptions of the altarpiece’s pilasters and are each of the same dimensions, notably larger than other pilaster panels painted by Signorelli. The altarpiece reportedly also included pilasters of Saints Basil, Francis, Louis of Toulouse, and Bonaventure. The only extant visual record of the original configuration is a drawing by F. Fabbrucci (Vatican archives), which, though unreliable, confirms the presence of these figures, albeit inaccurately all rendered as bishops.4

The expressive intensity of Signorelli’s Lamentation has often been linked to Vasari’s poignant account of the artist drawing the body of his deceased son Antonio. While Antonio was still alive at the time of the painting’s completion, dying later in 1502, it is conceivable that he served as the model for the figure of Christ, and that Vasari’s anecdote emerged in the wake of the painting’s unveiling and Antonio’s death.

The enduring fame of the Lamentation, praised by Vasari in 1550 as “a beautiful thing and worthy of great praise,” inspired subsequent commissions.5 The commission for the 1505 altarpiece for Sant’Agostino in Matélica explicitly requested “just as he has painted and perfected the high altarpiece of the church of Santa Margherita in Cortona.”6

This panel of Saint Michael thus stands not only as a testament to Signorelli’s technical mastery and devotional intensity, but also as a fragment of one of the most revered altarpieces of the Italian Renaissance.

madeleine mackenzie

1. Henry, 2001, p. 206

2. Kanter, 2001, p. 142

3. ibid

4. Henry, 2001, p. 206

5. Kanter, 2001, p. 142

6. ibid

(Fig. 5) Luca Signorelli, Lamentation over the Dead Christ 1502, wood, 270 x 240cm, Museo Diocesano, Cortona (card no. 18630)

© Public Domain

8

Attributed to MARCO BASAITI (Venice, active 1496-1530)

Saint Jerome in the Wilderness oil on panel

37 x 47cm

provenance

Sir Edgar Speyer, 1st Bt. (1862-1932)

Private collection, Holland

Alfred Brod Gallery, London, 1964

Private collection, London, after 1964

Thence by descent

Christie’s, London, Old Master & British Paintings, 4 July 2012, lot 101 where presumably purchased by Robert Compton Jones (accompanied by a copy of the auction catalogue)

exhibition

Annual Spring Exhibition, Alfred Brod Gallery, 12 March - 24 April 1964, no. 10

literature

Berenson, B, Italian Painters of the Renaissance: Venetian School, London, 1957, I, p. 15, pl. 591, as Marco Basaiti

related work

Marco Basaiti or Cima da Conegliano, Saint Jerome in the Wilderness c.1510, oil on canvas, 98.8 x 133.3cm, The Walters Art Museum, Baltimore USA (fig. 6)

Giovanni Bellini, Saint Jerome Reading in the Desert, 1480, oil on panel, 145 cm × 114 cm, Uffizi Gallery, Florence, Italy

$40,000-60,000

Marco Basaiti

Marco Basaiti was a Venetian painter of Albanian origin. He became a member of the Venetian painter’s guild in 1530, and there are dated paintings from 1496 to 1527. He may have been a pupil of Alvise Vivarini and after his death in contact with Cima da Conegliano and Giovanni Bellini. Basaiti’s figures usually have the strong volumetric forms typical of Alvise, but the atmospheric landscape settings are close to Cima, while the compositions and the soft, warm tones in many of Basaiti’s paintings are derived from Giovanni.1

In the Contini Bonacassi Saint Jerome of 1480 in the Uffizi, Giovanni Bellini merged the traditional subjects of Saint Jerome in his study and Saint Jerome in the desert to create a new pictorial type where the saint is reading a large book in a landscape, alluding to his translation of the bible into Latin (the Vulgate). Bellini establishes a contrast between nature (Jerome’s hermitage) and civilisation (the town beyond).2 This is the model being followed here, notably in the pose of the saint, the head of the lion he befriended in shadow, and the disposition of the landscape.

The attribution to Basaiti derives from Bernard Berenson, and does not seem to have been reassessed in subsequent scholarship.3 A work of similar subject and format in the Walter’s Art Museum, Baltimore (fig. 6), follows Bellini in showing the pages of the book, whereas in our painting it is seen from the back. It shows the influence of Giorgione, and although it had been attributed to Basaiti it was given by Federico Zeri to Cima da Conegliano and dated c. 1510, the year of Giorgione’s death.4 The landscape in our painting has a Giorgonesque breadth and softness, but in most other respects, especially the figure of Jerome and the rocky foreground, it looks back to Bellini. Such disjunctions of style are characteristic of Basaiti, but comparisons with his secure paintings, such as the Calling of the Sons of Zebedee (signed and dated 1510) in the Accademia, Venice, are not conclusive, and given the strongly Belliniesque conception of our painting, its attribution within the school of Bellini may need to be reconsidered.

Sir Edgar Speyer was a German-born British financier and philanthropist who supported many of the greatest musicians of the day and contributed to the Whitechapel Art Gallery.

david r. marshall

1. Mauro, L., "Basaiti [Basiti, Basitus, Baxaiti, Baxiti], Marco." Grove Art Online. 2003; Accessed 30 Oct. 2025. https://www.oxfordartonline.com/groveart/view/10.1093/ gao/9781884446054.001.0001/oao-9781884446054-e-7000006679

2. Belting, H., ‘St. Jerome in Venice: Giovanni Bellini and the Dream of Solitary Life’, I Tatti Studies in the Italian Renaissance, Vol. 17, No. 1 (Spring 2014), pp. 5-33

3. Berenson, B., Italian Painters of the Renaissance: Venetian School, London, 1957, I, p. 15, pl. 591, as Marco Basaiti. Berenson’s photo is in the Berenson archive at Villa I Tatti, The Harvard Center for Italian Renaissance Studies. It is not discussed in Bernard Bonario, ‘Marco Basaiti: a study of the Venetian painter and a catalogue of his works’, PhD diss., University of Michigan ProQuest Dissertations & Theses, 1974. On the back of the Berenson photo is written, among other notes, ‘Prov. Dutch Coll.’; ‘Alfred Brod Gall. Annual Spring exh. March 12- April 24, 1964 n. 10 repr.’, ‘With Bellini material or better Basaiti’ and ‘Dr. William Suida NEW YORK’. The Brod Gallery in London was active from 1954 to 1967. The photo may be earlier than 1964, and reveals that there have been subsequent interventions. William Suida (1877-1969) was an Austrian-American art historian and collector.

4. Zeri, F., with condition notes by Elisabeth C. G. Packard, Italian paintings in the Walters Art Gallery Walters Art Gallery (Baltimore, Md.), 2 vols, 1976, vol. 2, pp. 394–96

(Fig. 6) Marco Basaiti or Cima da Conegliano, Saint Jerome in the Wilderness c.1510, oil on canvas, 98.8 x 133.3cm, The Walters Art Museum, Baltimore USA Image courtesy: The Walters Art Museum, Baltimore, Acquired by Henry Walters with the Massarenti Collection, 1902

The son of painter Benvenuto di Giovanni, the artist trained under his father’s supervision in the traditional Sienese style of painting. He worked on several frescoes and altarpieces undertaken by his father’s studio, however, his first independent work, The Assumption of the Virgin 1498, (Museo Civico, Montalcino) (fig. 7) showed several distinct differences to his father’s style such as elongated figures and more pronounced expressions.

The present lot depicts the birth of Christ with the infant at the centre, flanked by Joseph to the left, identifiable by his staff and elderly appearance, and Mary on the right, shown in prayerful posture with a halo. In the middle ground a rustic thatched roof stable houses an ox and donkey while above God the Father appears in a cloudburst surrounded by cherubs, symbolising divine blessing.

madeleine mackenzie

9

GIROLAMO DI BENVENUTO (Siena, 1470-1524)

The Nativity with God the Father above oil on panel

59.5 x 37.5cm

provenance

J. W. Reeve, 77 Cleveland Street, London

Christie’s, 18 January 1879, probably lot 40, as Early Italian (£1.4.0 to Ellington) or 45, as Early Italian (£2.5.0 to Lane) or lot 50, as ‘Botticelli’ (6gns. to Martin Colnaghi)

By 1920 in the possession of the family who then sold,

Christie’s, London, Important Old Master Pictures, 8 December 1989, lot 98

where presumably purchased by Robert Compton Jones (accompanied by a copy of the auction catalogue)

$80,000-120,000

(fig. 7) Girolamo di Benvenuto, The Assumption of the Virgin 1498, Museo Civico, Montalcino © Bridgeman Images

10

THE MASTER OF FRANKFURT AND WORKSHOP (Antwerp c.1460-?1533)

The Adoration of the Magi; and The Annunciation oil on panel, triptych central panel 115.5 x 73.6cm; wings 115.5 x 33cm (each)

provenance

Bernard Marmaduke Fitzalan-Howard, 16th Duke of Norfolk, KG, GCVO, GBE, TD, PC (1908-1975), by whom donated in 1948

The Property of a Religious Institution Christie’s, London, Important Old Master & British Pictures Including Works from the Collection of Anton Philips, 6 December 2007, lot 17 where purchased by Robert Compton Jones (accompanied by a copy of the original purchase receipt and a copy of the auction catalogue)

literature

Goddard, S. H., ‘The Master of Frankfurt and his shop’, Verhandelingen van de Koninklijke Academie voor Wetenschapppen, Letteren en Schone Kunsten van België, 46, 1984, no. 38, pp. 154-5, nos. 90, the wings open, and 91, the wings closed (incorrectly described as that listed by M.J. Friedländer, Early Netherlandish Painting, VII, Leiden and Brussels, 1971, p. 75, no. 125e)

related works

Master of Frankfurt, Triptych of The Adoration of the Magi; reverse: Annunciation in grisaille, oil on panel, 115 x 85cm, 115 x 38cm, National Gallery of Denmark, Copenhagen (no. 1643)

Master of Frankfurt, The Adoration of the Magi c.1510, tempera and oil on wood (oak), 100 x 72cm, Staatsgalerie, Stuttgart (inv. Nr. L 27) (fig. 8)

$30,000-40,000

The Master of Frankfurt

This finely executed triptych, The Adoration of the Magi, with outer wings depicting The Annunciation, is a distinguished example of the work of the Master of Frankfurt and his Antwerp workshop. Tentatively identified as Hendrik van Wueluwe, active in Antwerp from 1483 until his death in 1533, the Master was a central figure in the development of the Antwerp school and a key contributor to the flourishing of Northern Renaissance painting.

The artist’s identity has long been the subject of scholarly debate. Known only by the moniker of “Master of Frankfurt,” he was originally thought to be German due to two major commissions for patrons in Frankfurt: Altarpiece of the Holy Kinship for the Dominican church (Historisches Museum, Frankfurt) and the Crucifixion triptych for the Humbracht family (Städelsches Kunstinstitut, Frankfurt)1. However, stylistic analysis and the use of Baltic oak panels (typical of Netherlandish production) suggest that these works were painted in Antwerp, then a thriving centre of artistic and commercial exchange, and shipped to Frankfurt. Among other proposed identifications, Hendrik van Wueluwe has gained the most acceptance. A prominent member of the Antwerp Guild of Saint Luke, van Wueluwe served as dean six times and trained at least seven apprentices. His connection to Woluwe, where Hugo van der Goes spent his final years, further supports the stylistic lineage observed in the Master’s work. The Master’s earliest known works are among the first documented in Antwerp and his workshop was known for its high output and consistent quality, producing paintings for both private devotion and public display.

The present triptych belongs to a group of closely related compositions, including other examples in Stuttgart at the Staatsgalerie (fig. 8) and Copenhagen at the National Gallery of Denmark. While the Stuttgart version includes a donor portrait as Balthasar, the present work adheres to a more traditional iconography, portraying Balthasar on the left wing as the Moorish king presenting myrrh. The central panel depicts the Virgin with the infant Christ seated on her lap offering him an apple (an allusion to Original Sin and Christ’s role as Redeemer – a compositional motif used in other works by the Master). To the left of the Virgin kneels a king with his crown beside him (perhaps this is a disguised portrait of the donor or an esteemed ruler) and Melchior to the right presenting frankincense. The right wing depicts Caspar presenting gold. The outer wings, depicting the Annunciation, frame the narrative with the moment of divine incarnation.

The exceptional quality of this work, particularly in the rendering of textiles and brocade patterns, speaks to the skill not only of the Master himself but also of his highly trained assistants. As Stephen Goddard has noted in his article 'Brocade Patterns in the Shop of the Master of Frankfurt, An Accessory to Stylistic Analysis’, such brocade motifs are distinctive to the Master’s shop and serve as valuable tools for stylistic analysis.2

madeleine mackenzie

1. Hand, J. O., ‘Saint Anne with the Virgin and the Christ Child by the Master of Frankfurt’, Studies in the History of Art, National Gallery of Art, 1982, vol. 12, p. 43-52

2. Goddard, S., 'Brocade Patterns in the Shop of the Master of Frankfurt, An Accessory to Stylistic Analysis', The Art Bulletin, 67, no. 3 (September 1985), pp. 401-41

Image courtesy: Bridgeman Images

(Fig. 8) Master of Frankfurt, The Adoration of the Magi c.1510, tempera and oil on wood (oak), 100 x 72cm, Staatsgalerie, Stuttgart (inv. Nr. L 27)

11

BATTISTA DOSSI (Ferrara, c.1475-1548)

The Adoration of the Shepherds oil on panel

74 x 57.5cm

provenance

Private collection, c. 1900

Thence by descent

Bonhams, London, Old Master Paintings, 4 July 2012, lot 24

where presumably purchased by Robert Compton Jones

other notes

Attribution was confirmed by Professor Alessandro Ballarin prior to the Bonhams auction on the basis of a colour photograph.

related works

Battista Dossi, The Holy Family with the Infant St. John the Baptist c.1530, oil on panel, 58.9 x 38.9cm, Ackland Art Museum, Chapel Hill, North Carolina USA

Battista Dossi and Dosso Dossi, Votive Nativity with God the Father (Adoration of the Child), oil on panel, 243 x 165cm, Estense Gallery of Modena, inv. RCGE 440 (fig. 9)

$100,000-150,000

Battista Dossi

The present lot by Battista Dossi presents a vividly coloured Nativity scene, illustrating the rich palette and atmospheric landscape characteristic of 16th-century painting in Ferrara. At the centre in the foreground the Virgin Mary and Saint Joseph gaze upon the infant Christ. They are surrounded by four shepherds, two kneeling to the right and two standing to the left. Overhead four angels soar and God the Father emerges from the clouds to bless the newborn child. Battista was the younger brother of Dosso Dossi, a court painter in Ferrara who was considered a supreme master at depicting the natural world. From 1514 to 1542, Dosso Dossi served as court painter to dukes Alfonso I and Ercole II d’Este and played a critical role in defining the character of Ferrarese painting. Battista’s early career is more difficult to trace than that of his brother’s. First recorded in 1517 as painting theatrical masks, he briefly joined Raphael’s workshop in Rome in 1520 before joining his brother’s workshop. The precise date that he joined Dosso’s workshop is unknown but it is clear that by the end of the 1520s he was assuming an increasing number of responsibilities in the running of the shop and playing an increasingly significant role in the execution of Dosso’s pictures. As such, scholars remain divided when it comes to assessing the extent of Battista’s participation in any specific example of Dosso’s later work or in identifying independent works by Battista whilst his brother was living. This is largely due to how frequently the brothers collaborated and the difficulty in definitively distinguishing one hand from the other. For example, the pair collaborated extensively on a pair of altarpieces commissioned by Duke Alfonso in 1533 to celebrate the return of the cities Reggio and Modena to Este rule. Recorded payments for those altarpieces were made only to Dosso, however, when the Votive Nativity with God the Father was installed in Modena Cathedral in 1536 (now in the Pinoteco Estense, Modena, fig. 9) the local chronicler Lancellotti specified that it had been executed by “M… Fratello de M. Dosso” (brother of Dosso). The composition of this painting was compared to the present lot by Professor Alessandro Ballarin in his confirmation of the attribution of the present lot to Battista. Ballarin and Peter Humfrey both attribute the Votive Nativity in Modena to Battista, albeit with different execution dates. 1

We know that by 1530, Battista had begun executing large-scale independent works, such as the Portomaggiore altarpiece, and his increasing managerial role in the workshop suggests a growing artistic autonomy. Battista’s style produced qualities of its own distinct to his brother’s and at his best he was considered capable of producing work of considerable originality and fascination.2

Another comparable work that, whilst occasionally attributed to Dosso, has been attributed to Battista by both Ballarin and Humfrey is The Holy Family with the Infant St. John the Baptist, in the Ackland Art Museum, Chapel Hill.3 The familiar motif of the large sun emerging from the clouds derives from similarly dramatic celestial phenomena in Dosso’s work, yet certain other features are entirely characteristic of Battista. Among them, Peter Humfrey mentions the “gold fringes on the Child’s sheet, Joseph’s hair and beard (…) rendered with exceptional delicacy (...) The scroll held by the angel on the right bears the opening words of the angelic hymn to the Nativity of Christ, “Gloria in Excelsis Deo”.”4 Peter Humfrey also mentions that of particular note is the geometric subdivision of the background between dark elements to the left and a bright distant landscape on the right. We can see many similarities in composition and form in the present lot.

madeleine mackenzie

1. Humfrey, P., and Lucco, L.,, Dosso Dossi, Court Painter in Renaissance Ferrara, New York, 1998, no. 51, p. 253-55, ill, p. 254; A. Ballarin, Dosso Dossi: La Pittura a Ferrara negli anni del ducato di Alfonso I (Cittadella, 1994), fig. CXXIX.

2. Humfrey, P., and Lucco, L., 1998, p.249

3. Humfrey, P., and Lucco, L., 1998, p.253

4. ibid

(fig. 9) Battista Dossi and Dosso Dossi, Votive Nativity with God the Father (Adoration of the Child), oil on panel, 243 x 165cm, Estense Gallery of Modena © Public Domain

Attributed to IPPOLITO SCARSELLA, LO SCARSELLINO (Ferrara, c.1550-1620)

The Martyrdom of St Ursula oil on canvas

76 x 101.1cm

provenance

Possibly from The Collection of Ettore Viancini, Venice (later inscription on stretcher verso)

Robert Compton Jones

$15,000-20,000

This scene depicts a variation of the medieval story of the sacrifice of Saint Ursula in the massacre of eleven thousand virgins. In the story Ursula was a virgin princess who had promised herself to Christ. However, her father, a Christian King, demanded she marry a pagan Prince in exchange for his agreement to convert to Christianity. Prior to the wedding Ursula made a pilgrimage to Rome, accompanied by eleven thousand virgins. Upon their arrival in Cologne they had the misfortune to run into the Huns who were besieging the city. Ursula refused to marry the leader of the Huns who had fallen in love with her and all the virgins were beheaded in the massacre. Ursula was martyred at the hands of the Huns’ leader who fired the fatal arrow into her chest.

The most famous depiction of this scene was painted by Caravaggio and is thought to have been his last painting in 1610. It shows a more intimate depiction of the fatal arrow being shot at Ursula’s heart. This painting is held in the collection of the Palazzo Zevallos Stigliano, Naples, Italy.

madeleine mackenzie

13

JACOPO TINTORETTO (VENICE, 1519-1594)

The Feast of Dives and Lazarus oil on panel old attribution to ‘Schiavone’ and number ‘447’ painted verso 24.5 x 60cm

provenance

D. S. Ker, Esq., M. P., 1848 (Borenius, p.194)

Sir Frederick Cook, 2nd Bt. (1844-1920), Doughty House, Richmond, and by inheritance to his son Sir Herbert Cook, 3rd Bt. (1868-1939), Doughty House, Richmond, where recorded in the Octagon (Brockwell, 1932), and by inheritance to his son, Sir Francis Cook, 4th Bt. (1907-1978)

Colnaghi, London the Arcade Gallery, London

Professor Michael Jaffé and by descent Christie’s, London, Old Master & British Pictures, 6 July 2007, lot 220 where purchased by Robert Compton Jones (accompanied by a copy of the original purchase receipt and auction catalogue)

exhibitions

London, Burlington Fine Arts Club, 1903, no. 48

literature

Borenius, T., A Catalogue of the Painting at Doughty House, Richmond and Elsewhere in the Collection of Sir Frederick Cook BT, Vol. 1, The Italian Schools, London, 1913, p. 194, no. 171, as Schiavone. Berenson, B., Italian Pictures of the Renaissance, Oxford, 1932, pp. 519, as Schiavone, and 563, as Tintoretto

Brockwell, M. W., Abridged Catalogue of the Pictures at Doughty House, Richmond, Surrey, in the Collection of Sir Herbert Cook, Bart., London, 1932, p. 50, no. 171 (248), as Tintoretto

Berenson, B., Italian Paintings of the Renaissance, The Venetian School, London, 1957, pp. 161, as Schiavone, and 177, as Tintoretto

Pallucchini, R., Tintoretto, le Opere Sacre e Profane, Milan, 1982, I, no. 46, II, fig. 56, where dated to c. 1543

related work

Jacopo Tintoretto, Esther and Ahasuerus or Solomon and the Queen of Sheba 1545, oil on canvas, 18 x 49.7cm, The Courtauld Gallery Collection, London (accession no. P.1978.PG.457) (fig. 10)

$80,000-120,000

Jacopo Tintoretto

Jacopo Tintoretto was born and lived his entire life in Venice. Trained briefly in Titian’s workshop before forging his own independent style, he became one of the most original and ambitious painters of the late Renaissance. Tintoretto’s career was closely tied to the great religious and civic institutions of Venice, particularly the Scuola Grande di San Rocco, one of the city’s most important and now best-preserved Renaissance buildings, for which he executed monumental artworks over two decades. As art historian Peter Humfrey observes, these works remain among the most powerful and enduring achievements of sixteenth-century art.¹

Known for his speed, daring perspective, and theatrical command of light, Tintoretto earned the nickname Il Furioso, a title that captured both his fiery temperament and audacious creative spirit. The meaning “the furious one”, was first recorded by Carlo Ridolfi in Le Maraviglie dell’Arte 1648, one of the earliest and most important biographies of Venetian painters.

In The Feast of Dives and Lazarus, Tintoretto paints a vivid reinterpretation of the moral parable drawn from the Gospel of Luke (16:19-31). The story tells of a rich man who lives in luxury while a poor beggar, Lazarus, lies at his gate longing for scraps from his table. When both men die, their fates are reversed: Lazarus is carried to heaven while the rich man suffers in torment. Tintoretto transforms this lesson into a visual spectacle, depicting the opulent feast at the moment before divine judgment. With his expressive brushwork and considered composition, he captures both light and shadow. The small dog in the foreground provides a subtle but vital link to Lazarus, serving as a reminder of humility amid indulgence.

This painting is recognised as a characteristic early work by the young Tintoretto. The Venetian scholar Rodolfo Pallucchini noted the influence of Bonifazio Veronese, particularly in the lively narrative spirit, while also identifying what he called una corsività pittorica di impronta schiavonesca (a painterly cursiveness with a Schiavonese imprint), suggesting a date around 1543.²

The phrase refers to the painterly fluidity derived from Andrea Meldolla, known as Lo Schiavone, who briefly had a strong stylistic influence on Tintoretto after the young artist’s short-lived association with Titian’s studio. As Ridolfi recounts, Tintoretto’s apprenticeship under Titian lasted scarcely ten days, after which he developed his own painting manner by absorbing ideas from other Venetian sources.

1. Humfrey P., Painting in Renaissance Venice, Yale University Press, 1995, p. 223.

2. Pallucchini R., Tintoretto: le Opere Sacre e Profane, Milan, 1982, vol. I, no. 46; vol. II, fig. 56, where dated to c.1543.

3. Berenson B., Italian Pictures of the Renaissance, Oxford, 1932, pp. 519 (as Schiavone) and 563 (as Tintoretto); and Italian Paintings of the Renaissance: The Venetian School, London, 1957, pp. 161 (as Schiavone) and 177 (as Tintoretto).

4. Welsford A., Tintoretto’s Esther before Ahasuerus, The Burlington Magazine, vol. 95, no. 607, 1953, p. 104.

5. Borenius T., A Catalogue of the Paintings at Doughty House, Richmond and Elsewhere in the Collection of Sir Francis Cook, Bt., vol. I, The Italian Schools, London, 1913, no. 171 (as Schiavone). Brockwell M. W., Abridged Catalogue of the Pictures at Doughty House, Richmond, Surrey, in the Collection of Sir Herbert Cook, Bart., London, 1932, p. 50, no. 171 (248), (as Tintoretto).

Before Tintoretto’s early style was fully understood, his works were at times confused with those of Schiavone. The Feast of Dives and Lazarus was once listed by Bernard Berenson as by both artists, a reflection of that early uncertainty.³

Pallucchini later observed that the painting is stylistically inseparable from the related Esther and Ahasuerus (or Solomon and the Queen of Sheba) (fig. 10), now in The Courtauld Gallery, London (Samuel Courtauld Trust) a work once attributed to Schiavone but correctly identified as Tintoretto by James Byam Shaw and published as such by Alison Welsford in The Burlington Magazine 1953.4

The Feast of Dives and Lazarus formed part of the celebrated Cook Collection at Doughty House, Richmond, one of the most notable private assemblages of Old Masters formed in nineteenth-century England, particularly noted for its Italian Renaissance holdings, which inspired Sir Herbert Cook’s own scholarly interest in the Venetian Cinquecento.5 Following its time in the Cook Collection, the panel was handled by the Arcade Gallery, a London dealership specialising in Mannerist and Baroque paintings, where it was acquired by Professor Michael Jaffé, later Director of the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge.

The work was subsequently sold through Christie’s, from where it was acquired by Robert Compton Jones. That this painting, by one of the greatest masters of the Venetian Renaissance has made its way to Australia is truly remarkable. Rarely do works of such early date and impeccable provenance appear on the market here, making this an exceptional opportunity to acquire a masterpiece by Jacopo Tintoretto, an artist whose spirited influence shaped European art.

wiebke brix

(fig. 10) Jacopo Tintoretto, Esther and Ahasuerus or Solomon and the Queen of Sheba 1545, oil on canvas, 18 x 49.7cm, The Courtauld Gallery Collection, London © The Courtauld / Bridgeman Images

14

FRANCESCO GUARDI (Venice, 1712-1793)

The Island of San Giorgio Maggiore from the West; and View of the Cannaregio, with the Ponte dei Tre Archi and the Palazzo Surian-Bellotto oil on canvas (2)

San Giorgio Maggiore: 46.7 x 66.5cm; Cannaregio: 46 x 65.5cm

provenance

Harold Sidney Harmsworth, 1st Viscount Rothermere (1868-1940), Warwick House, St. James’s, London Christie’s, London, 19 December 1941, lots 66 and 72 Danton Gueralt, acquired from the above

The Property of a Trust

Christie’s, London, Important Old Master Pictures Evening Sale, 7 December 2006, lot 69 where purchased by Robert Compton Jones (accompanied by a copy of the original purchase receipt and the auction catalogue)

literature

Fiocco, G., Francesco Guardi, Florence, 1923, p. 74, nos. 106 and 107, pl. XCII and XCIV

Morassi, A., Guardi. I dipinti, 2 vols, Venice, 1984, (San Giorgio Maggiore) vol. 1, p. 396, cat. 458, not illustrated; (Ponte dei Tre Archi); vol. 1, p. 418, cat. 576, vol. 2, fig. 547.

related works

Francesco Guardi, View on the Cannaregio Canal, Venice, c. 1750-80, oil on canvas, 50 x 76.8cm, National Gallery of Art, Washington, Samuel H. Kress Collection, (Inv. 1939.1.113) (fig. 11)

Francesco Guardi, San Giorgio Maggiore, Venice; verso: Flagstaff with a Pennant, c. 1765-1775, ink, wash and chalk on paper, 14.4 x 31.2cm, Harvard Art Museums/Fogg Museum, Bequest of Charles A. Loeser (1932.323) (fig. 12)

Francesco Guardi, San Giorgio Maggiore seen from the Giudecca, oil on canvas, 48 x 66.5cm, Fondazione Custodia, Collection Frits Lugt, Paris, (inv. 2389) (fig. 13)

Francesco Guardi, Veduta prospettica della chiesa di San Giorgio a Venezia, oil on canvas, 42 x 67cm, Galleria Sabauda, Musei Reali di Torino, Turin (inv. 726)

$500,000-700,000

Francesco Guardi

Francesco Guardi came from a family of painters and worked in a variety of genres before switching to painting views of Venice in his late forties in the late 1750s, often for English patrons, following the example of Antonio Canaletto. Whereas Canaletto produced strongly linear designs in clear bright colours, Guardi developed a more painterly style that emphasised the act of painting over topographical description. Flicks of white highlighting over subtle blues and greys of water and moody skies evoke the shimmering quality of the light of the watery city: ‘he set the city floating, frail yet with bubble-like buoyancy, between great expanses of water and watery sky’ (Michael Levey).1 Guardi’s interest in fluctuating effects of light at different times of day influenced subsequent painters, like J.M.W. Turner and Claude Monet. These qualities were particularly admired in the early twentieth century, when collectors like Calouste Gulbenkian, founder of the Gulbenkian museum in Lisbon, and the British newspaper magnate Lord Rothermere competed for his works.2 This pair, from a set of four,3 was acquired by Lord Rothermere whose Guardis, according to the catalogue of his collection made in 1932, were ‘selected with an eye for precious pigmental quality and with a determination to admit nothing that falls short of Guardi's highest standard of perfection’.4

The view of San Giorgio Maggiore seen across the Bacino di San Marco was popular with view painters. Guardi shows it without its campanile (bell-tower) which had collapsed in 1774. This painting is closely related to one in the Fondazione Custodia collection (fig. 13),5 and both seem to be based on a drawing in the Fogg Museum (fig. 12), which shows a bragozzo, the lagoon fishing boat with two masts and a distinctive high rudder, with its rear sail partially unfurled.6 In the paintings Guardi has added variant depictions of gondolas at the right and, in the Fondazione Custodia version, an extended view of boats on the lagoon at left. A variant of our painting, with a different repertory of boats and gondolas, is in the Galleria Sabauda, Turin.7

The view of the Cannaregio is a more infrequent subject, pioneered in 1703 in an etching by Luca Carlevarijs and painted by Canaletto.8 Guardi, like Carlevarijs shows not only the Ponte dei Tre Archi, but also the Palazzo Surian-Bellotto, seen almost frontally. The Palazzo Surian was the seat of the French embassy, with the arms of the ambassador in an elaborate gilt frame on the balcony. A related composition by his workshop, but without the Palazzo Surian, is in Washington (fig. 11).9 Another composition in the Frick Art Reference Library shows a more extensive view with the Palazzo Surian in the centre and other buildings at the right. It was supplied to the English Resident in Venice, Sir John Strange, and must therefore date from after 1771 when Strange settled in Venice, as the Christie’s, 2006 catalogue points out.10

david r. marshall

1. Michael Levey, Painting in Eighteenth-century Venice, New Haven: Yale University Press, 1994, p. 127.

2. Splendour in Venice. From Canaletto to Guardi, exh. Cat., 25 October - 13 January 2025, Lisbon, Gulbenkian Museum, 2024.

3. These pictures formed part of a set of four when they were published by Fiocco in 1923. The others are Piazza San Marco towards San Geminiano (47 x 67 cm., Milan, A. Crespi collection, Morassi, 1984, vol. 1, cat. 347, vol. 2, fig. 373), and Santa Maria della Salute and the Ponte della Dogana (47 x 67 cm., Milan, A. Crespi collection, Morassi, 1984, vol. 1, p. 399, cat. 472, vol. 2, fig. 476). Morassi seems to have been aware that our two works remained together, giving the location of the San Giorgio Maggiore as ‘London, art market’, and the Ponte dei Tre Archi as ‘whereabouts unknown’. He dates the the Piazza San Marco and Ponte dei Tre Archi to 1760–1770’; and called the Santa Maria della Salute a work of Guardi’s middle period (‘opera del period medio’).

4. Paul G. Konody and Tancred Borenius, (eds), Works of Art in the Collection of Viscount Rothermere, privately printed, 1932.

5. Francesco Guardi, San Giorgio Maggiore seen from the Giudecca, (Morassi 437), 48 x 66.5 cm. Paris, Fondazione Custodia, Collection Frits Lugt, inv. 2389. Un Univers intime. Paintings from the Frits Lugt Collection, exhibition, 2012, cat. 64. The illustrations in Morassi are transposed: fig. 460 is the Galleria Sabauda painting (cat. 436); fig. 461 is the Fondazione Custodia painting (cat. 437).. See also vol. 1, p. 242.

6. Francesco Guardi, San Giorgio Maggiore, Venice; verso: Flagstaff with a Pennant, c. 1765-1775. Brown ink and brown wash over black chalk on white antique laid paper; verso: brown ink, brown wash and black chalk, 14.4 x 31.2 cm. Harvard Art Museums/Fogg Museum, Bequest of Charles A. Loeser 1932.323; Morassi, Guardi: tutti i disegni di Antonio, Francesco e Giacomo Guardi, Alfieri, Venice: 1975, no. 351, fig. 352.

7. Francesco Guardi, Veduta prospettica della chiesa di San Giorgio a Venezia, Morassi 436, 42 x 67 cm, Galleria Sabauda, inv. 726. Musei Reali di Torino, Turin.

8. Luca Carlevarijs, Palazzo Surian in Canal Regio. Architettura di Gioseppe Sardi, etching, 1703.

9. Francesco Guardi, View on the Cannaregio Canal, Venice, c. 17750-80, 50 x 76.8 cm, Washington, National Gallery of Art, Samuel H. Kress Collection,. Inv. 1939.1.113 (224). Diane de Grazia and Eric Harberson, Italian Paintings of the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries, Washington, National Gallery of Art/Oxford University Press, 1996, pp. 121-25.)

10. Morassi, 1984, vol. 1, pp. 417–18, cat. 575, vol. 2, fig. 546. See https://digitalcollections.frick.org.

(Fig. 11) Francesco Guardi, View on the Cannaregio Canal, Venice, c. 1750-80, oil on canvas, 50 x 76.8cm, National Gallery of Art Washington, Samuel H. Kress Collection, (Inv. 1939.1.113)

Image Courtesy: National Gallery of Art, Washington

12) Francesco Guardi, San Giorgio Maggiore, Venice; verso: Flagstaff with a Pennant, c. 1765-1775, ink, wash and chalk on paper, 14.4 x 31.2cm, Harvard Art Museums/Fogg Museum, Bequest of Charles A. Loeser (1932.323) © President and Fellows of Harvard College

Image

(Fig.

(Fig. 13) Francesco Guardi, San Giorgio Maggiore seen from the Giudecca, oil on canvas, 48 x 66.5cm, Fondazione Custodia, Collection Frits Lugt, Paris, (inv. 2389)

Courtesy: Frits Lugt Collection, Fondation Custodia, Paris

15

FRANCESCO GUARDI (Venice, 1712-1793)

Capriccio veneziano con ponte e rudere di architrave (Capriccio of a bridge and classical columns, with gondolas passing beneath) oil on panel 25 x 21cm

provenance

Carlo Broglio, Paris

inherited by his wife who sold it at auction at the Palais Galliera in Paris, 20 March 1974, lot 33 Private collection, Rome

Sotheby’s, Milan, Importante Collezione Romana, 12 November 2003, lot 129 where purchased by Robert Compton Jones (accompanied by a copy of the original purchase receipt and catalogue)

literature

Morassi, A., Guardi, Venezia, 1973, vol. I, p. 472, cat. no. 876

Morassi, A., Guardi, Tutti I Disegni, Venezia, 1975, p. 184, sotto no. 610

Pignatti, T., Disegni Antichi del Museo Correr di Venezia, Venezia, 1983, vol. III, p. 140, sotto no. 620

Morassi, A., Guardi I Disegni, Venezia, 1993, p. 184, sotto no. 610

Morassi, A., Guardi, Venezia, 1993, vol. I, p. 472, cat. no. 876

other notes

Attribution to Francesco Guardi was re-affirmed prior to the Sotheby’s auction by Professor Filippo Pedrocco and Professor Dario Succi, based on photographs.

related work

Francesco Guardi, Architetture: ponte. Mezzi di trasporto: imbarcazioni, 1780s, drawing on paper, pen and brown ink, pen and sepia ink, 118 x 104mm, Venice, Ca' Rezzonico, Museo del Settecento Veneziano, (inv. Cl. III n. 0868) (fig. 14)

$100,000-120,000

Francesco Guardi

Francesco Guardi began painting capricci in the 1760s, initially looking not at Canaletto, as he had done with his view-paintings, but at the capricci of painters like Marco Ricci and Luca Carlevarijs who were active earlier in the century.1 It was characteristic of his practice that he would copy the compositions of others, reinterpreting their works with his own distinctive handling.2 He would pick up pictorial themes from any source at hand, playing variations on these themes like a musician. Much of his production of capricci belongs to his later period, the 1770s and 1780s until his death in 1793. His son Giacomo (1764-1835) continued working in his style.

This work was published in Morassi’s catalogue of 1973 and 1984 (unillustrated) as ‘opera molto tarda di livello mediocre’ (a very late work of mediocre quality). Morassi was unaware that the painting corresponds to a drawing by Francesco Guardi in the Museo del Settecento Veneziano (fig. 14), as emerged at the time the work was sold in Milan in 2003.3 Consequently, the leading Guardi experts, Filippo Pedrocco and Dario Succi, confirmed the attribution.

While Guardi’s compositions often appear in multiple variants, this composition appears to be unique. It recalls various capricci of the lock at Dolo on the Brenta canal (such as the version in the National Gallery of Victoria, acc. 229-4), but the recession is reversed, the composition is more focused, and the arch has classical elements, including an elaborate keystone and classical columns on the bank. This has echoes of Piranesi’s bridge compositions. In this respect it may be connected with works riffing on Piranesian themes, such as Morassi 719 (Madrid, Duke of Alba).

david

r. marshall

1. For example, Morassi 822, 928. See Dario Succi, ‘Francesco Guardi’, in Comune di Gorizia, Dario Succi (ed.), Capricci Veneziani del Settecento, Turin: Allemandi, 1988, pp. 325-383.

2. For example, Morassi 702, which reworks a painting by Marco and Sebastiano Ricci in the Museo Civico di Pzalazzo Chieracati, Vicenza, or Morassi 840, Vrona, Museo del Castelvecchio, which is based on an etching by Canaletto.

3. Francesco Guardi, Architetture: ponte. Mezzi di trasporto: imbarcazioni, 1780s. Venice, Ca' Rezzonico, Museo del Settecento Veneziano, inv. Cl. III n. 0868. Drawing on paper, pen and brown ink, pen and sepia ink. 118 x 104 mm.

(fig. 14) Francesco Guardi, Architetture: ponte. Mezzi di trasporto: imbarcazioni, 1780s, drawing on paper, pen and brown ink, pen and sepia ink, 118 x 104mm, Ca' Rezzonico, Museo del Settecento Veneziano, Venice photo Giacomelli © Photo Archive - Fondazione Musei Civici di Venezia

Giuseppe Maria Crespi

These hitherto unpublished works are almost certainly near contemporary copies after a group of small genre subjects that Crespi painted in the 1720s, and may have been commissioned by an English patron. The group has yet to be fully established, but are collectively known under the title, Vita di una canterina (see D. Biagi Maino, ‘Giuseppe Maria Crespi e la realtà popolare’ in Il Popolo nel Settecento, ed. A.M. Rao, Rome, 2020). These gently comic and mildly satirical scenes, are related to La pulce (or ‘Woman searching for fleas’), of similar dimensions (55 x 41 cm), now in the Musée du Louvre (RF 1970 40). The present two pictures, one depicting a woman seated with a small dog, while another figure is seen through a doorway descending the stairs; and a sleeping woman with a man in a doorway gesturing to us to be silent, are typical of these evocative domestic interiors. The figures portrayed are not from high society, but rather servants and working people, yet they retain a sense of dignity despite the simple, even squalid interiors that they inhabit. These compositions would appear to be the only surviving copies after Crespi’s untraced originals. Crespi’s genre scenes such as these were influential on a number of later artists, including William Hogarth (1697-1764) and the French Romantic painters of the early nineteenth century.

We are very grateful to Professor Donatella Biagi-Maino, from the University of Bologna, for her help in cataloguing this work.

tim hunter

16

Circle of GIUSEPPE MARIA CRESPI (LO SPAGNUOLO) (Bologna, 1665-1747)

A woman seated with a small dog, and a figure descending a staircase in an interior; and A sleeping woman with a man gesturing in a doorway in an interior oil on canvas (2)

53 x 39cm (each)

provenance

Robert Compton Jones

related work

Crespi, Searching for Fleas, oil on canvas, 55 x 41cm, Louvre, Paris, (RF 1970 40)

$30,000-50,000

17

CARLO MARATTI (Camerano 1625-1713 Rome)

Portrait of a woman, half length, in a black and white lace dress with red bows, holding a fan oil on canvas

75 x 61cm

provenance

Giuliano Briganti (1918-1992), sold c. 1970 to P & D Colnaghi & Co. Ltd, London where purchased by Robert Compton Jones in 1971 (accompanied by original purchase receipt and a copy of Colnaghi records)

exhibitions

Paintings by Old Masters, P & D Colnaghi & Co. Ltd, London, 15th April to 7th May 1971, no. 4, plate III (accompanied by a copy of the exhibition catalogue)

related work

Carlo Maratti, Portrait of Maria Maddalena Rospigliosi, niece of Pope Clement IX 1667, Musée du Louvre, Paris (Inv. 376 ; L 3886)

$100,000-145,000

Carlo Maratti

Carlo Maratti (or Maratta) was born in Camerano, a small town in the Marche, but at the age of eleven he moved to Rome, where he lived and worked for the rest of his life. In 1637 he entered the studio of Andrea Sacchi, where he gained a thorough classical training, making copies after the Antique and studying the celebrated artists of the High Renaissance. Bellori, his friend and first biographer, tells us that he practiced by copying Raphael’s frescoes in the Vatican Stanze. While still in Sacchi’s studio, Maratti began painting independently during the 1640s, and by the following decade his reputation was such that he received a steady series of public commissions for religious and historical works. In 1656 he was employed by Pietro da Cortona to help with the decoration of the Palazzo del Quirinale for Pope Alexander VII. This marked the beginning of Maratti’s long association with the papacy and the leading families of Rome who greatly admired his style, which combined an idealized Classical beauty with contemporary Roman Baroque. During the 1660s he painted several commissions for the Barberini, Chigi and Rospigliosi families. By this time he was the head of a thriving studio of his own, and in 1664 he became the principal of the Accademia di S Luca. This was a period of great artistic innovation in Rome, in which Maratti played a prominent role. Indeed, after the death of Bernini in 1680, he was acclaimed as the most celebrated artist working in Rome.

While most of Maratti’s official commissions comprise altarpieces and frescoes, he was also a distinguished and sensitive portrait painter. His sitters included popes and cardinals, Roman aristocracy and visiting English Grand Tourists. The present work, an elegant portrait of an unidentified woman, is probably of similar date to the Portrait of Maria Maddlena Rospigliosi, the niece of Pope Clement IX of c. 1667-8, in the Musée du Louvre (Inv. 376; L3886; see fig. 15). They are both delicately painted with a realism and individuality that is lacking in the more formulaic ladies portrayed in the ‘Beauty Galleries’ fashionable in Rome at the time. The sitter here wears an elaborate black and white dress, richly decorated with lace, the arms adorned with small red bows. The young woman is clearly aristocratic and she wears a pearl necklace, earrings, and a pearl bracelet. Like Maria Rospigliosi in the Louvre portrait, she holds a fan in her right hand.

The work was formerly in the collection of the distinguished Italian art historian, Giuliano Briganti (1918-1992), who sold several works from his collection to the London-based dealers, Colnaghi in the 1970s. This was one of a number of high-quality Old Masters that Robert Compton Jones acquired from Colnaghi’s over several years.

tim hunter

(fig. 15) Carlo Maratti, Portrait of Maria Maddalena Rospigliosi, niece of Pope Clement IX 1667, Musée du Louvre, Paris © Public Domain

18

MATTHIAS STOM, called STOMER (Amersfoort c.1600-after 1652 Sicily or Northern Italy)

A Man Lighting a Lamp oil on canvas

98.5 x 73cm

provenance

Ian Appleby (listed on Colnaghi records)

P & D Colnaghi & Co Ltd, London, 1962 (label verso) where purchased by Robert Compton Jones (accompanied by a copy of Colnaghi records)

LITERATURE

Nicolson, B, ‘Stomer Brought Up-to-Date’ in The Burlington Magazine, Apr. 1977, vol. 119, no. 889, Special Issue in Honour of Benedict Nicolson (Apr., 1977), p.230-243, 245

exhibitions

Paintings by Old Masters, P & D Colnaghi & Co Ltd, London, 5th April - 12th May 1962, no. 10, plate X (accompanied by exhibition catalogue)

related works

Matthias Stomer, Man Lighting a Candle from a Firebrand, formerly in the Bartels Collections, Cassel as Honthorst (see Cicerone, May 1921, p. 273)

Matthias Stomer, Soldier Lighting a Candle, oil on canvas, 74 x 63.2cm, National Museum in Warsaw, Poland (inv. M.Ob.219 MNW) (fig. 15)

$80,000-120,000

Matthias Stom

There is very little known about the early life of this Low Countries painter who settled in Italy and created most of his artistic output there. Matthias Stom (also called Stomer) was thought to have been born in southern Holland or Flanders around 1600 and his early works suggest that he may have been trained in Utrecht in the late-Mannerist tradition of Abraham Bloemaert (1564–1651) and Joachim Wtewael (c.1566–1638). His early style though, shows the influence of Gerard van Honthorst (1592–1656), who is known to have returned to Utrecht in 1621 after spending more than ten years working in Italy under the influence of the works of Caravaggio with their dramatic contrasts of light and dark. Though there is no documentary evidence of Stom’s apprenticeship to Honthorst, he was strongly influenced by the slightly older artist’s work and may also have been inspired by him to travel to Italy, where the earliest documented reference to Stom is in 1630 and has him living in Rome, in the same house that another Utrecht painter, Paulus Bor, had occupied earlier. Whilst living there he was able to study first hand the great altarpieces of Caravaggio and his followers, as well as those by van Honthorst. During this time he painted the large altarpiece of The Assumption with Saints Rocco, Sebastian and Carlo Borromeo (now in the Church of Sta Maria di Lorino, Chiuduno) and other larger works now in private collections in Lombardy.

After 1632 he left Rome and went south to Naples, then the second largest city in Europe, which had a tradition of employing Netherlandish artists, many of whom had been working there since the late 16th century. Research on Netherlandish immigrant painters in Naples by Marija Osnabrugge outlines his social milieu there: “discovery of some payments and an accusation filed against him at the ecclesiastical court not only proves his physical presence in Naples, but also sheds light on the social and professional issues that he dealt with in the city. As the accusation was filed by one of his pupils…we now have evidence that he did not work alone in Naples. On the other hand, Stom was involved with social outsiders like English and Dutch sailors, arguably an indication that he did not (attempt to) integrate socially. At the same time, this lack of integration apparently did not frustrate his career: Neapolitan inventories indicate that he was popular amongst collectors in Naples… Stom was appreciated by Neapolitans for his characteristic paintings of candlelight scenes with half figures…Neapolitans credited him with the introduction of this type of painting…” 1

Benedict Nicolson in his Burlington Magazine article of April 1977, “Stomer Brought Up-to-date” lists about a dozen such genre scenes of soldiers, musicians, boys and old women all lit by a single light source all having been created in this Neapolitan period. In this list the current painting, then in a private collection in London, is illustrated and places it in the 163339 Neapolitan period as number 85. 2

Stom then travelled to Sicily where he stayed for almost ten years painting works for churches in Palermo, Messina and Monreale, as well as three canvases acquired in 1648 by Rembrandt’s famous collector and patron, Antonio Ruffo, Duke of Messina. As with the lack of information surrounding his birth and early years, his later years are somewhat unknown and can only be tracked by the works he created. The actual date and place of his death are unknown.

1. Osnabrugge, M, Netherlandish Immigrant Painters in Naples 1575-1654: Aert Mytens, Louis Finson, Abraham Vinck, Matthias Stom and Hendrick De Somer (PhD Thesis) University of Amsterdam, 2015

2. Nicolson, B, ‘Stomer Brought Up-to-Date’, The Burlington Magazine, Apr. 1977, Vol. 119, no. 889, Special Issue in Honour of Benedict Nicolson, p.230-243, 245

ronan sulich

(fig. 15) Matthias Stomer, Soldier Lighting a Candle, oil on canvas, 74 x 63.2cm, National Museum in Warsaw, Poland Image courtesy: National Museum in Warsaw

19

GIOVAN DOMENICO VALENTINO (Active Rome 1661-1681)

The Interior of a Chemist Shop oil on canvas signed with initials ‘G.D.V.’ (on albarello, upper left) 97.5 x 135cm

provenance

Bonhams, London, Old Master Paintings - Including Diego Rodriguez de Silva Y Velazquez, 7 December 2011, lot 49

where presumably purchased by Robert Compton Jones

other notes

Valentino has been known to sign other works in the same way, for example within the composition of his painting in the Wellcome Collection, London, an almost identical jar with his initials can be found.

related work

Giovan Domenico Valentino, Pharmaceutical vessels: still life with a man and a dog, oil on canvas, 36.1 x 47cm, Wellcome Collection, London (ref. no. 44600i) (fig. 16)

$10,000-15,000

(fig. 16) Giovan Domenico Valentino, Pharmaceutical vessels: still life with a man and a dog, oil on canvas, 36.1 x 47cm, Wellcome Collection, London Image courtesy: Wellcome Collection

20

ELENA RECCO (Naples c.1654-1715 Madrid)

Fruits of the Sea oil on canvas

97.1 x 73cm

provenance

Sotheby’s, Melbourne, The Collection of Paul Otto Taubert & Jewellery and Decorative Arts, 1 May 2007, lot 150, as Follower of Giuseppe Recco where purchased by Robert Compton Jones (accompanied by a copy of the original purchase receipt)

other notes

Attribution confirmed by Prof. Nicola Spinosa c. 2015 on the basis of a colour photograph. $20,000-30,000

21

GIOVANNI BATTISTA PIAZZETTA (Venice, 1682-1754)

Abel Morto (The Death of Abel) oil on canvas

Schulenburg inventory number ‘435’ lower left 76.5 x 108cm

provenance

Marshal Johann Matthias von der Schulenburg (1661-1747), 1741

Museum of Arts, Hanover, c. 1970

Sotheby’s, London, 12 December 1984, lot 21 where presumably purchased by Robert Compton Jones

literature

Schulenburg libri-cassa, Hanover, Niedersächsisches Staatsarchiv, MS, entry for 31 August 1741, recording payment of 10 zecchini to Schulenburg’s secretary Johann Friedrich Werner for the purchase of ‘due quadri...uno del autore Piacetta rappresenta Abel morto, e l’altro il Samaritano caduto tra i ladri’. 1741, 30 Giugno Venezia, Inventario Generale della Galleria di S.E. Maresciallo Co: di Schulemberg...La qual Galleria pricipio à formarsi l’anno 1724 ripartita coll’ordine che segue, Hanover, Niedersächsisches Staatsarchiv, Dep. 82, Abt. III, as part of the ‘Quadri due pma maniera uno rapta Abel morto, e l’altro il Samaritano’ by Piazzetta, valued at 100 ducats Inventaire de la Gallerie de Feu S. e. Mgr. Le Feldmarechal Comte de Schulenburg, annotated copy. Hanover, Niedersächsisches Staatsarchiv, Dep. 82, Abt. III, N. 95. No. 444, as part of the two ‘Tableaux prim maniére, l’un repress. Abel mort, l’autre le Samaritain’ by Piazzetta

Binion A., ‘From Schulenburg’s Gallery and Records’, The Burlington Magazine, May 1970, p. 301

A. Binion, La Galleria scomparsa del maresciallo von der Schulenburg, Milan, 1990, p. 96, 172, 236 and 284

Mariuz, A., L’opera completa del Piazzetta, Rizzoli: Milano, 1982, p.75, cat. no. 1 (illus.)

Knox, G., Giambattista Piazzetta, 1682-1754, Oxford, 1992, p. 31, no. 26 (illus.)

related work

Giovanni Battista Piazzetta, The Good Samaritan, oil on canvas, 79.5 x 107.2cm, sold at Christie’s, London, Old Master Paintings and Sculpture, 4 Dec 2019, lot 245 (fig. 17)

$20,000-40,000

Giovanni Battista

Piazzetta

Taken from the Book of Genesis, the story of Cain and Abel, the children of Adam and Eve, is one of jealousy and fratricide. Cain, the first born, became a “tiller of the soil” and Abel a “keeper of sheep”, and when they both made their respective offerings to God; the fruits of the earth and the first born of the flock, God favoured the latter, arousing anger and jealousy in Cain, who then murdered his brother. As punishment Cain became a fugitive destined to wander the earth.

Piazzetta was a student of Antonio Molinari (1655-1704), one of the leading tenebrosi of Venice. Along with its pendant painting The Good Samaritan, 1 (fig. 17) the Death of Abel is thought to be one of Piazzetta’s earliest extant works. He has chosen the Old Testament subject and balanced it with of a scene from the New Testament, both of which rely on recumbent figures for the dead Abel and the wounded Samaritan; a pose which could be easily sustained by a model for a period of time allowing for concentrated study, as well as the complex disposition of the limbs a signifier of the young painter’s ability to successfully render the modelling and foreshortening of the body as part of an artistic composition. A rare survival from Piazzetta's formative years, the Death of Abel is the result of the intense training undergone by the young painter.

This work was originally in the collection of the Prussian aristocrat and mercenary soldier, Marshal Johann Matthias von der Schulenburg, (1661-1747) who, after a military career in the service of the Kings of Saxony and the Venetian Republic, settled in Venice, and in retirement became an avid and renowned art collector, patron and bon vivant. Thanks to his connection to many of the royal families of Europe including the Hanoverians, the Bourbons, and the Habsburgs he became well known as an intermediary and host in 18th century Venice. In 1724 he acquired the collection of Ferdinand Gonzaga, Duke of Mantua, which included works by Raphael, Correggio, Castiglione, Giulio Romano, and Giorgione. As patron, he supported Guardi, Pittoni and Simonini as well as commissioning works from Canaletto, Nogari and Corradini. Amongst the artists Schulenburg employed as agents in his collecting was Piazzetta with whom he enjoyed a particularly close relationship, especially in the years 1738 to 1745. Piazzetta not only sold his own works but also dealt in Old Masters, however it seems that the Death of Abel and its companion painting did not enter the Schulenburg collection directly from the artist, they were acquired for Schulenburg by his secretary Johann Friedrich Werner from an unknown third-party.2

The discovery of two early works by Piazzetta must have delighted Schulenburg as an opportunity both to add to his collection and to surprise his friend, however the self-critical Piazzetta seems to have less enthusiasm for his youthful canvases. When he oversaw the valuation of Schulenburg's collection for the 1741 inventory, he valued the pendant pair at only 100 ducats, as compared to 60 ducats for a single drawing.3

ronan sulich

1. Christie’s London, 24th April 2008, lot 98

2. Binion, 1990, p. 96

3. Binion, 1970, p.301

(fig. 17) Giovanni Battista Piazzetta, The Good Samaritan, oil on canvas, 79.5 x 107.2cm (c) Public Domain

22

GIUSEPPE MARIA CRESPI (LO SPAGNUOLO) (Bologna, 1665-1747)

Scene at the Wall of a Cathedral c.1730-1740 oil on canvas

56 x 71.5cm

provenance

Giovanni Rasini di Castel Campo Collection, Milan, 1948 (Merriman, 1980, p. 311)

Robert Compton Jones

exhibitions

Mostra del Settecento Bolognese (Exhibition of 18th-century Bolognese Art), Palazzo Comunale, Bologna, 1935 Mostra celebrativa di Giuseppe M. Crespi (Commemorative Exhibition of Giuseppe M. Crespi), Salone del Podestà, Bologna, June-July 1948, no. 20

literature

Mostra del Settecento Bolognese. Exh. cat., Palazzo Comunale. Bologna, 1935, p. 11

Mostra celebrativa di Giuseppe M. Crespi, catalogo della mostra (Bologna, Salone del Podestà, giugno-luglio 1948), Bologna 1948, p. 32-33, no. 20

Roli, R., Pittura Bolognese, 1650–1800, Dal Cignani al Gandolfi, Bologna, 1977, p. 185 (344a) Merriman, M. P., Giuseppe Maria Crespi, ed. 1931/2000, Rizzoli: Milan, 1980, p. 311, no. 265 (illus.), (accompanied by a copy of this publication)

related work

Crespi, The Farmer’s Family (Farm Family) c.1715-1720, oil on canvas, 58 x 57.3cm, Museum of Fine Arts, Budapest, Hungary (inv. 519)

$15,000-20,000

The traditional name of the painting, Charity, does not accurately describe the activities taking place in the picture, the intent of which seems less allegorical than reportorial. A careful study of the work shows that the scene is taking place along the side wall of a very large church, a place where the homeless and the poor, the pilgrims and the church-goers traditionally gather. Nobody is engaged in charitable activity, though there are beggars and idlers. Instead, it is a reconstructed street scene, such as might have struck Crespi’s imagination when walking under the arcades opposite the wall of S. Petronio. Crespi has used figures and groups which also appear in other works; Farm Family (no. 229), Pastoral Scene with Shepherdesses (no. 234), and Woman Spinning and Two Children (no. 258).

(Merriman, 1980, p. 311)

FRANCESCO FONTEBASSO (Venice, 1707-1769)

Adoration of the Magi oil on canvas

64.5 x 74.5cm

provenance

Robert Compton Jones

other notes

We are grateful to Professor Bernard Aikema for endorsing the attribution to Fontebasso on the basis of photographs.

related work

Francesco Fontebasso, The Adoration of the Magi, oil on canvas, 78.7 x 91.8cm, Blanton Museum of Art, Austin, USA (inv. 1985.18) (fig. 18)

$16,000-24,000

(fig. 18) Francesco Fontebasso, The Adoration of the Magi, oil on canvas, 78.7 x 91.8cm, Blanton Museum of Art, Austin Image courtesy: Blanton Museum of Art, The University of Texas at Austin, Frost Brothers Benefit and Archer M. Huntington Museum Fund, 1985.18

24

Follower of GIOVANNI BATTISTA PIAZZETTA (Italian School, late 18th/early 19th century) Christ on Cross with St Francis oil on canvas

74 x 54cm

provenance

Piasa, Paris, Cabinet d’un Amateur - Dessins AnciensTableaux Anciens - Extreme-Orient - Archeologie - Haute Epoque - Art Tribal, 26 March 2010, lot 67 where presumably purchased by Robert Compton Jones

$10,000-15,000

25

FRANCESCO ZUCCARELLI

(Pitigliano 1702-1788 Florence)

Paesaggio con cavaliere, ponte di pietra e mendicanti (Landscape with knight, stone bridge and beggars) oil on canvas

58.5 x 103cm

provenance

Robert Compton Jones

other notes

We are grateful to Federica Spadotto for confirming the attribution based on colour photographs.

related works

Zuccarelli, Landscape with a Bridge, oil on canvas, 56 x 73cm, Museum of Fine Arts, Budapest, Hungary (inv. 650) (fig. 19)

$20,000-30,000

Francesco Zuccarelli

The superb painting under examination stands within Zuccarelli’s artistic biography as a fascinating compendium of a highly complex and evocative artistic journey.

The Tuscan master arrived in Venice in 1732 and established himself as the most esteemed landscape painter of his time thanks to his Roman education and a uniquely classical sensibility. He developed a much-appreciated poetic formula in which the Venetian hinterland was idealised into a sort of Virgilian golden age.

The path toward this fusion began in the 1730s, when the young painter discovered the realism of Marco Ricci (Belluno, 1676 – Venice, 1730), into which he infused softly sentimental accents. Thus was born the Zuccarellian idyll, a precursor to the Platonic model formalized during his first stay in England (1752–1762).

And it is precisely across the Channel that one must look to fully understand and appreciate this painting, which sets the stage for an Arcadian landscape capable of hosting reflections on the many artistic currents of the time. We refer to the French Rococo, embodied by the elegant cavalier with his charming hat, followed by the shepherd and livestock on the stone bridge—an evident homage to Nicolaes Berchem (Haarlem, 1620 – Amsterdam, 1683), interpreted through the Venetian stylistic lens.

The arched stone bridge, in turn, harks back to Francesco’s early days in Venice, as clearly shown by comparison with the Landscape with Bridge held at the Museum of Fine Arts in Budapest (Spadotto, 2007, cat.18; fig. 19).

From this comparison emerges the profound difference in sensibility between Zuccarelli’s early artistic maturity and his long stay in England (1752–1762; 1765–1771; Spadotto, 2015), to which the painting in question belongs.

In London, Francesco found the stimuli necessary to satisfy his curiosity and constant desire for experimentation, which is illustrated in the present lot in a highly distinctive style, characterized by richly textured brushwork in the depiction of figures.

Alongside recurring motifs—see the group of beggars, repeated on various occasions (cf. Spadotto, op. cit., 2007, cat. 228, 229, 283, 356; fig. 20)—new protagonists appear, such as the horse at the centre of the canvas. Its significance is linked to the English cultural environment, where the elegant animal often became the focus of evocative compositions—George Stubbs (Liverpool, 1724 – London, 1806) being a prime example—reflecting the British passion for the theme.

Zuccarelli must be credited here with an extraordinary ability to harmonize realistic elements with the ethereal Arcadian atmosphere, which unfolds in the pleasant pastoral background imbued with pastel tones and framed by the usual hazy blue mountains. However, it would be inaccurate to define this charming landscape as truly Arcadian because of the complex mix of influences that coexist within it, skilfully orchestrated by a master at the peak of his technical and formal powers.

The sophisticated painting style of Francesco’s most accomplished work is combined with a poetic sensibility imbued with a distinctive pathos, which moves subtly through the narrative, seducing the viewer like a whisper within the notes of a composed harmony.

federica spadotto

Cited Bibliography:

F. Spadotto, Francesco Zuccarelli, Catalogo ragionato dei dipinti, Milan, 2007;

(Fig. 19) Francesco Zuccarelli, Landscape with a Bridge, oil on canvas, 56 x 73cm, Museum of Fine Arts, Budapest, Hungary (inv. 650) (c) Public Domain

(fig. 20) Francesco Zuccarelli, Wooded Landscape with a Pyramid, oil on canvas, 78.2 x 97.7cm (c) Public Domain

26

UNKNOWN ARTIST (Roman School, 18th century)

Landscape with Travellers and Approaching Storm oil on canvas

77 x 63.5cm

provenance

Sotheby’s, Melbourne, The Collection of Paul Otto Taubert & Jewellery and Decorative Arts, 1 May 2007, lot 150

where purchased by Robert Compton Jones (accompanied by a copy of the original purchase receipt)

$10,000-15,000

provenance

Robert Compton Jones

$20,000-30,000

Pittoni completed a number of compositions on this subject, this particular composition is known as the version de Stuttgart, after the painting held in the collection of the Staatsgalerie, Stuttgart, Germany. Another version of this composition by the artist can also be found in the Sao Paulo Museum, inventory no. 5962

In an Arcadian setting, Ariadne, abandoned by Theseus, is approached by Bacchus with his court of Satyrs and drunken followers dancing to the sound of fipple, flutes and tambourines. The skin beneath his red cloak alludes to the cheetahs that usually draw his chariot, while Ariadne’s crown is the crown which the god cast into the sky in order to turn her into a constellation.

madeleine mackenzie

Circle of GIOVANNI BATTISTA IL PITTONI

(Venice, 1687-1767)

Bacchus and Ariadne oil on canvas

71 x 54cm

28

PIETRO LIBERI (Padua 1605-1687 Venice)

Mercury and Venus oil on canvas

160 x 229.3cm

provenance

Central Picture Galleries, New York, there purchased in 1954

Walter P. Chrysler, Jr., New York, his posthumous sale,

Sotheby’s, New York, The Estate of Walter P. Chrysler Jr - Old Master and 19th Century Paintings, 1 June 1989, lot 76

where presumably purchased by Robert Compton Jones (accompanied by a copy of the auction catalogue)

exhibitions

On loan to the Chrysler Museum at Norfolk, USA, September 1975

$20,000-40,000

Artist Index

B

Basaiti, Attributed to Marco 8*

Benvenuto, Girolamo Di 9

Bicci, Neri Di 6

B

Cione, Attributed to Jacopo Di 2

Crespi, Circle of Giuseppe Maria 16

Crespi, Giuseppe Maria 22

F Fontebasso, Francesco 23

G Guardi, Francesco Lazzaro 14*, 15*

L Liberi, Pietro 28

Lorenzo, Bicci Di 3

Luteri, Battista Dossi 11

M

Maratti, Carlo 17*

Master Of San Torpè 1

N

Nardo, Circle of Mariotto Di 4

P

Piazzetta, Follower of Giovanni Battista 24

Piazzetta, Giovanni Battista 21* Pittoni, Circle of Giovanni Battista Il 27*

R Recco, Elena 20*

S

Scarsellino, Attributed to Ippolito 12

Schiavo, Paolo (Paolo Di Stefano Badaloni) 5

Signorelli, Luca 7*

Stomer, Matthias 18*

T

The Master of Frankfurt and Workshop 10 Tintoretto, Jacopo 13*

U Unknown Artist 26

V Valentino, Giovan Domenico 19

Z Zuccarelli, Francesco 25*

* Highlights on view in Melbourne, Fri 21 - Sun 23 Nov 2025

opposite: lot 17

CARLO MARATTI (Camerano 1625-1713 Rome)

Portrait of a woman, half length, in a black and white lace dress with red bows, holding a fan oil on canvas

75 x 61cm

$100,000-145,000 back page: lot 2

Attributed to JACOPO DI CIONE (Florence, active c.13621398/1400)

St Romauld (or Beata Jacopo Geri?), St Mark, and St Paul the Hermit tempera on gold ground panel

63.6 x 49.8cm (overall)

$100,000-145,000

A Private Collection of Important Australian Art realised an impressive $4,876,875 IBP

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info@leonardjoel.com.au leonardjoel.com.au

image: Terence Lane

Photo by Kate Gollings

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