.jpg?w=1)
Lot Essay
Datable to circa 1680, this intriguing portrait, evidently Van Dyckian in spirit, has been recently ascribed to the hand of Giovanni Battista Gaulli, il Baciccio. Combining the flair of Grand Manner portraiture with psychological depth, it contains quite typical traits of Baciccio’s mature portrait style, most strikingly in the soft modelling of the facial features and the superb drawing of the hands. In particular, the graceful, open gesture of the right hand, as if in conversation, can be seen in other known portraits by Baciccio, such as the Portrait of Gian Lorenzo Bernini, Galleria Nazionale d’Arte Antica, Rome, and the Portrait of a man, in the Walters Art Museum, Baltimore.
The physiognomy of the sitter, together with his dress – the collarless shirt, waistcoat and shoulder cloak – suggest that he is not Roman or indeed even Italian, but English. This hypothesis, of Baciccio painting an English sitter, would make the portrait a significant rediscovery, as no such known examples have before come to light. That the picture was in Italy at one point is confirmed by an export seal on the reverse of the stretcher, reading 'Accademia di Milano / per l’esportazione'. And, more importantly, it is known that Grand Tourists did indeed sit to Baciccio, as Carlo Giuseppe Ratti, the artist’s biographer revealed 'non capitava in Roma alcun Signore Inglese, che di mano del Gaulli non lo volesse [il ritratto]' ('there was not a single Englishman in Rome that did not want [his portrait] by Gaulli') (C.G. Ratti, Continuazione delle vite de' pittori, scultori ed architetti genovesi, in Vite de' pittori, scultori, ed architetti genovesi di Raffaello Soprani , 2nd ed., vol. II, Genoa, 1769, p. 88). The vogue for northern tourists to have their portraits painted in Italy would flourish in the 18th century, but it had its roots considerably earlier, beginning with Carlo Maratta and Jacob Ferdinand Voet, Baciccio’s contemporaries in Rome.
We are very grateful to Professor Francesco Petrucci for endorsing the attribution and for his kind assistance in cataloguing this lot.
The physiognomy of the sitter, together with his dress – the collarless shirt, waistcoat and shoulder cloak – suggest that he is not Roman or indeed even Italian, but English. This hypothesis, of Baciccio painting an English sitter, would make the portrait a significant rediscovery, as no such known examples have before come to light. That the picture was in Italy at one point is confirmed by an export seal on the reverse of the stretcher, reading 'Accademia di Milano / per l’esportazione'. And, more importantly, it is known that Grand Tourists did indeed sit to Baciccio, as Carlo Giuseppe Ratti, the artist’s biographer revealed 'non capitava in Roma alcun Signore Inglese, che di mano del Gaulli non lo volesse [il ritratto]' ('there was not a single Englishman in Rome that did not want [his portrait] by Gaulli') (C.G. Ratti, Continuazione delle vite de' pittori, scultori ed architetti genovesi, in Vite de' pittori, scultori, ed architetti genovesi di Raffaello Soprani , 2nd ed., vol. II, Genoa, 1769, p. 88). The vogue for northern tourists to have their portraits painted in Italy would flourish in the 18th century, but it had its roots considerably earlier, beginning with Carlo Maratta and Jacob Ferdinand Voet, Baciccio’s contemporaries in Rome.
We are very grateful to Professor Francesco Petrucci for endorsing the attribution and for his kind assistance in cataloguing this lot.