Lot Essay
Born in Milan, the artist was a pupil of Carlo Francesco Nuvolone. Admitted to the Accademia Ambrosiana in 1669, he had a long and successful career in his native city. Magnasco was his pupil in the 1680s and a Lamentation attributed by Marco Bona Castellotti (La pittura Lombarda del '700, Milan, 1986, pl. 1) to the two artists in collaboration is now thought to be the work of Magnasco alone, and dated to the 1690s (see the catalogue of the exhibition Settecento lombardo, Palazzo Reale, Milan, 1 Feb.-28 April 1991, pp. 107-8, no. I.61, illustrated). Even Magnasco's mature style reveals a debt to his master (see the catalogue of the 1996 Magnasco exhibition cited above, p. 220).
The present picture, Abbiati's earliest dated work, clearly reflects the influence of Zanchi and was connected by Pallucchini, loc. cit., with a period which Abbiati is known to have spent in Venice at the outset of his career.
The present picture, Abbiati's earliest dated work, clearly reflects the influence of Zanchi and was connected by Pallucchini, loc. cit., with a period which Abbiati is known to have spent in Venice at the outset of his career.