A Personification of Poetry

The present composition is based on the original sold at Phillips, London, July 5, 1994, lot 69 as by Giovanni Domenico Cerrini. Until that date the composition was known only through an aquatint executed in 1685 by Domenico Maria Muratoni, and a later engraving of 1807 by Giuseppe Asioli. In her monograph Carmela Baroncini notes that the original was painted for Count Alessandro Fava and in 1807 was still in the possession of Signor Nicol Fava (see C. Baroncini, Lorenzo Pasinelli, 1993, pp. 370-1, no. 106).