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Lot Essay
The relationship which Schulenburg enjoyed with Piazzetta was of outstanding significance for both men. Piazzetta is mentioned regularly in Schulenburg documents between 1731 and 1745, when the artist was at the peak of his career. During that time the Marshal acquired no fewer than thirteen paintings and nineteen drawings by him, the latter being a particularly remarkable statistic since Schulenburg otherwise showed little interest in drawings. Six of the paintings were of religious subjects, including the very early Dead Abel, sold at Sotheby's, London, Dec. 12, 1984, lot 21, and Good Samaritan (Knox, op. cit., pls. 26-7). The remaining thirteen were of genre subjects and included the magnificent Pastoral Scene at the Art Institute of Chicago, for which payments are recorded on January 1, April 27, and June 2, 1740 (ibid., pl. 134). and Idyll on the Beach in the Wallraf-Richartz Museum, Cologne, for which the final payment was made on April 30, 1745 (ibid., pl. 135). The drawings included the celebrated portraits of Schulenburg in the Castello Sforzesco, Milan and the Art Institute of Chicago (Bettagno, op. cit., nos. 47-8, illustrated). Eight further drawings are also at Chicago (see ibid., nos. 44-6, illustrated, and Binion, op. cit., 1990. pl. 31).
Artist and patron were particularly close between 1738, when Pittoni lost his position as Schulenburg's artistic advisor, and 1742, when the Marshal moved to his second home in Verona. During this period Piazzetta's role was even more important than Pittoni's had been. He was frequently called upon to write fedi (certificates) for paintings which Schulenburg was acquiring. Forty-eight of these survive, for paintings with attributions to artists as diverse as Carpaccio, Caravaggio, Bril and Lazzarini (see Binion, ibid., pp. 181-7 and fig. 47). He was also, with Simonini, the supervisor of the inventory cited above signed by both painters and Schulenburg on June 30, 1741. In this the present picture and its pendant are valued at 150 German cus.
The inventory number 391 which the present picture bore until recently would seem to have been put on in error, as it seems without doubt to be the 'Garon qui montre un Fil de perles' which is always listed in the Schulenburg inventories with a pendant (untraced) showing 'Une Fille Venitiene, avec le Cendal en Tte' (or 'avec une faille') rather than the 'Gueux avec la rosaire an main', no. 391 of the c. 1750 inventory (see Binion, ibid., p. 283); the latter must be the 'Pittoco con Capello, Baston, e Rosario' included on its own in the seventh shipment to Germany (see ibid., p. 270), subsequently sold (without a pendant) at Christie's, London, in 1775 (1st day, lot 27) and now in the Art Institute of Chicago (Knox, op. cit., pl. 132).
The documents show that the present painting was acquired between 1741 and 1747, quite possibly in 1741, a year for which Schulenburg's account books are missing. Binion points out (op. cit., 1990, p. 98) that not only is it stylistically very close to the Youth in a fur Hat in the Museum of Fine Arts, Springfield, but it would also seem to show the same model at the same age; that picture is generally dated to the beginning of the 1740s.
Artist and patron were particularly close between 1738, when Pittoni lost his position as Schulenburg's artistic advisor, and 1742, when the Marshal moved to his second home in Verona. During this period Piazzetta's role was even more important than Pittoni's had been. He was frequently called upon to write fedi (certificates) for paintings which Schulenburg was acquiring. Forty-eight of these survive, for paintings with attributions to artists as diverse as Carpaccio, Caravaggio, Bril and Lazzarini (see Binion, ibid., pp. 181-7 and fig. 47). He was also, with Simonini, the supervisor of the inventory cited above signed by both painters and Schulenburg on June 30, 1741. In this the present picture and its pendant are valued at 150 German cus.
The inventory number 391 which the present picture bore until recently would seem to have been put on in error, as it seems without doubt to be the 'Garon qui montre un Fil de perles' which is always listed in the Schulenburg inventories with a pendant (untraced) showing 'Une Fille Venitiene, avec le Cendal en Tte' (or 'avec une faille') rather than the 'Gueux avec la rosaire an main', no. 391 of the c. 1750 inventory (see Binion, ibid., p. 283); the latter must be the 'Pittoco con Capello, Baston, e Rosario' included on its own in the seventh shipment to Germany (see ibid., p. 270), subsequently sold (without a pendant) at Christie's, London, in 1775 (1st day, lot 27) and now in the Art Institute of Chicago (Knox, op. cit., pl. 132).
The documents show that the present painting was acquired between 1741 and 1747, quite possibly in 1741, a year for which Schulenburg's account books are missing. Binion points out (op. cit., 1990, p. 98) that not only is it stylistically very close to the Youth in a fur Hat in the Museum of Fine Arts, Springfield, but it would also seem to show the same model at the same age; that picture is generally dated to the beginning of the 1740s.