Alexander and Diogenes; Alexander and the family of Darius; Alexander before the body of Darius; The Death of Darius; The Death of Sophonisba; and The Banquet of Antony and Cleopatra

A pupil of Gregorio Lazzarini and later of Sebastiano Ricci, Gaspare Diziani quickly gained a reputation as an artist of talent. In 1717 he was called to work at the Saxon court in Dresden and in Munich, where he completed a suite of pictures representing the Four parts of the World for the Munich Residenz, which were destroyed in the Second World War. He returned to Venice in 1720 and was based in the Veneto for the rest of his prolific career, which involved numerous commissions for altarpieces, mural decorations and easel pictures. This set of six works, which have happily remained together, are a fine example of his large scale narrative cycles, executed with his characteristic spirited brushwork, a style described by his biographer Vincenzo Da Canal as 'risoluta e veloce sul gusto del Tintoretto' (V. Da Canal, Vita di Gregorio Lazzarini, 1809, p. 35).