The Dream of Dido

Details

GIUSEPPE NICOLA NASINI (CASTEL DEL PIANO 1657-1736 SIENA)
The Dream of Dido
with inscription ‘di Giuseppe Nasini’ (lower left)
black chalk, pen and brown ink, gray and brown wash, heightened with white, on light brown paper, watermark H with a scepter in an oval
10 1⁄8 x 15 5⁄8 in. (25.5 x 39.7 cm)

Provenance

Francesco Maria Niccolò Gabburri (1675-1742), Florence (L. 2992b with his inscription on the verso: Giuseppe Nichola Nasini l’invento e la disegnó./ Istoria della regina didone quando gli apparve in sogno il Re Sicheo marito suo, il quale quella notte fú ammazzato nel tem[..]/ avanti l’Altare da Pigmaleone Suo Cugnato per fargli tutto il suo avere e il d.to Sicheo nascosto in sogno alla Cosorte dido[…]/ le ferite che gli diede il cugnato e ordinó che si partisse di quel Regno con le sue ceneri cioè del suo corpo/ e sia giá estinto e gli additó dove stava acció che lei ne facesse cenere, e lo portasse seco assieme con tutti li soi Teso[..]/ dentro le navi).
probably Alfred Normand, (his inscription in blue ink on the verso).
with Pandora Old Masters, New York (Italian Old Master Drawings and Oil Sketches, 1998, no. 12, ill.)

Exhibited

Stanford, Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Center for Visual Arts, Stanford University, Classic Taste. Drawings and Decorative Arts from the Collection of Horace Brock, 2000 (without catalogue).

Conditions of sale

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Lot Essay

The Florentine collector Francesco Maria Gabburri, who owned the drawing in the 18th Century, described the episode depicted in a long inscription on the verso. Another drawing by Nasini related to the story of Dido, Queen of Carthage, is in the Städel Museum in Frankfurt and depicts the Death of Dido (inv. 4224Z).

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