Jan Miel (Beveren-Waas 1599-1663 Turin)

A carnival in a Roman piazza

Details

Jan Miel (Beveren-Waas 1599-1663 Turin)
A carnival in a Roman piazza
oil on canvas
23 ½ x 30 ½ in. (59.7 x 77.5 cm.)

Provenance

with Galleria Peretti, Rome, by 1965.
Anonymous sale; Christie's, New York, 9 October 1991, lot 164.
with Richard L. Feigen & Co., New York (according to a label on the reverse).
Anonymous sale; Finearte-Semenzato, Milan, 22 November 2005, lot 122.

Literature

T. Kren, Jan Miel (1599-1663), A Flemish Painter in Rome, II, PhD dissertation, Yale, 1978, pp. 24 and 26, under no. A14, note 3.

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Lot Essay

Theatrically clothed revellers and characters from the Commedia dell'arte parade across the piazza, with Miel's accomplished play of light highlighting the frenzied joy of their movements. Likely dating to the earlier part of Miel's career, this work anticipates his later series of carnival paintings, such as The Carnival in the Piazza Colonna (Hartford, Wadsworth Atheneum; ibid, p. 25). Another version of this composition is held in the Alte Pinakothek, Munich (T. Kren, op. cit., p. 26).

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