.jpg?w=1)
Lot Essay
Lenardi, whose hand was first recognised by Hermann Voss (letter 25 August 1924), trained with Rome's most important seventeenth-century artist, Pietro da Cortona. Da Cortona's monumental baroque style had a profound influence on his artistic development; he also worked for Lazzaro Baldi. Nominated Virtuoso del Pantheon in 1684, in 1690 he was elected to the Accademia di San Luca.
The subject of the picture derives from the Old Testament. In the second century B.C., Antioches Epiphanes attempted to impose Hellenistic paganism on the Jews. Eleazar, a chief scribe, refused either to eat, or to pretend to eat, pork, being forbidden to do so by Jewish law. Impervious to bribery, threats, and violence to make him apostatize, either implicity or explicitly, his execution was followed by those of his seven brothers and their mother, who remained similarly true to their beliefs. The story remained popular in art as it was perceived to be an example of constancy and obedience to the law.
The subject of the picture derives from the Old Testament. In the second century B.C., Antioches Epiphanes attempted to impose Hellenistic paganism on the Jews. Eleazar, a chief scribe, refused either to eat, or to pretend to eat, pork, being forbidden to do so by Jewish law. Impervious to bribery, threats, and violence to make him apostatize, either implicity or explicitly, his execution was followed by those of his seven brothers and their mother, who remained similarly true to their beliefs. The story remained popular in art as it was perceived to be an example of constancy and obedience to the law.