Salvator Rosa (1615-1673)

Sold by Order of the Executors of THE 6TH MARQUESS OF BUTE

Details

Salvator Rosa (1615-1673)

Jason and the Dragon

signed with monogram 'SR'
30¼ x 25½in. (77 x 64.8cm.)

In an English 18th Century 'Carlo Maratta' frame

Provenance

(Probably) John Stuart, 3rd Earl of Bute (1713-1792), Luton Park, Bedfordshire.
His son, John Stuart, 1st Marquess of Bute (1744-1814), Luton Park, where first recorded in a catalogue prepared in, or shortly after, 1797, in the South Red Dressing Room (as Salvator Rosa - St. George and the Dragon) and subsequently in inventories of January 1800 (no. 315) and 1822 (no. 93, in the Ante Dressing Room), and by descent.

Literature

G.F. Waagen, Treasures of Art in Great Britain, London, 1854, III, p. 484
J.P. Richter, Catalogue of the Collection of Paintings lent for exhibition by the Marquis of Bute, K.T., London, 1883, no. 210
L. Salerno, Salvator Rosa, Milan, 1963, p. 136, under no. 89
L. Salerno, L'opera completa di Salvator Rosa, Milan, 1975, under no. 218

Exhibited

London, Bethnal Green Branch Museum, The Bute Collection, 1883, no. 210

Lot Essay

The story of how Jason used herbs given to him by Medea to send to sleep the dragon guarding the Golden Fleece is related by Ovid, Metamorphoses, VII, 149-55.

The present picture is a version of that of similar size in the Museum of Fine Arts, Montreal (Salerno, op. cit., 1963, pl. 89, and op. cit., 1975, colour pl. LXIII). An unsigned version was sold in these Rooms, 1 March 1991, lot 141 (#105,000).

Mrs Helen Langdon has written of the composition 'there is no parallel in 17th-century painting to the mood of mystery and horror which Rosa creates here, which was to exercise so profound an influence on English Romantic painters' (in the catalogue of the exhibition Salvator Rosa, Hayward Gallery, London, 17 Oct.-23 Dec. 1973, p. 36, under no. 43)

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