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Lot Essay
In a letter dated 17 December 1975, the Earl of Jersey has suggested that the painting may have entered the collections at Osterley Park at the beginning of the eighteenth century when Sir Francis Child the Elder, who was Lord Mayor of London in 1697 and owner of Child's Bank, returned from his travels in Europe with a large number of paintings.
Although Luigi Salerno interpreted the subject of the present painting as Two Philosophers in discussion (loc. cit.), this appealing composition in fact depicts the first Temptation of Christ -- 'During Christ's retreat into the wilderness for forty days of fasting and meditation, Satan appeared to him disguised as a hermit saying 'if thou be the son of God, command that these stones be made bread.' Christ responded, "It is written that man should not live by bread alone but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God."'(Matthew 4:3-4).
Although Salerno's misreading may be in part due to his mistaking, on the basis of a photograph, the stone in the hermit's hand for a skull, it also highlights the singularity of Rosa's conception of the scene, in which Christ is depicted in discussion with the Devil rather than in his more traditional attitude of rejection.
The present work has been dated by Salerno to the late 1660s. With its quick, firm brushwork and the emphasized gestures of the hands and brows, it is, as John Spike notes in his catalogue entry for the Princeton exhibition (loc. cit.), similar to other small scale works depicting two figures executed by Rosa at this time, such as Pindar and Pan (Salerno, op. cit., no. 207) and the pendants, Jacob wrestling with the Angel and David and Goliath, at Chatsworth (Salerno, op. cit., nos. 228 and 229).
Although Luigi Salerno interpreted the subject of the present painting as Two Philosophers in discussion (loc. cit.), this appealing composition in fact depicts the first Temptation of Christ -- 'During Christ's retreat into the wilderness for forty days of fasting and meditation, Satan appeared to him disguised as a hermit saying 'if thou be the son of God, command that these stones be made bread.' Christ responded, "It is written that man should not live by bread alone but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God."'(Matthew 4:3-4).
Although Salerno's misreading may be in part due to his mistaking, on the basis of a photograph, the stone in the hermit's hand for a skull, it also highlights the singularity of Rosa's conception of the scene, in which Christ is depicted in discussion with the Devil rather than in his more traditional attitude of rejection.
The present work has been dated by Salerno to the late 1660s. With its quick, firm brushwork and the emphasized gestures of the hands and brows, it is, as John Spike notes in his catalogue entry for the Princeton exhibition (loc. cit.), similar to other small scale works depicting two figures executed by Rosa at this time, such as Pindar and Pan (Salerno, op. cit., no. 207) and the pendants, Jacob wrestling with the Angel and David and Goliath, at Chatsworth (Salerno, op. cit., nos. 228 and 229).