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Lot Essay
This painting illustrates the events following King David's decision to fetch the Ark of the Covenant and transport it from the house of Abinadab at Baalah or Kirjath-jearim to his new capital, Jerusalem, as related in 2 Samuel, VI, 1-7, and 1 Chronicles, XIII, 1-10. While Uzzah and Ahio, the sons of Abinadab, drove the cart carrying the Ark, 'David and all Israel played before God with all their might, and with singing, and with harps, and with psalteries, and with timbrels, and with cymbals, and with trumpets'. When the procession reached the threshing floor of Nachon or Chidon, the oxen drawing the cart stumbled and Uzzah took hold of the Ark to steady it, contravening the divine instruction that only Levites should touch it. He was immediately struck down and the project had to be abandoned for three months until God's anger abated.
The painting shows the moment at which David, playing the harp as he dances in front of the cart, turns around and notices the body of Uzzah. The composition presents striking similarities to that of Sebastiano Ricci's enormous painting of the same subject executed for the church of Saints Cosmo and Damian on the Giudecca, Venice, and now on loan from the Brera to the parish church at Somaglia (J. Daniels, Sebastiano Ricci, Hove, 1976, pp. 113-14, no. 408, figs. 326-9); that picture is dated 1729 (R. Pallucchini, La pittura nel Veneto: Il Settecento, I, Milan, 1995, p. 56, fig. 64).
In the catalogues of the three exhibitions in the 1930s, it is suggested that the present picture may be the 'carro matto con molte figure' measuring 15 x 20 onze (approximately 67.5 x 90cm.), recorded in 1659 in the collection of Conte Giacomo Carrara in Bergamo (see B. Geiger, Alessandro Magnasco, Berlin, 1914, p. XXII). Ratti's biography of Magnasco, the prime source of information about the artist, was written for Carrara, who also owned the pair of masterpieces by the artist, the Nuns and Monks at Darmstadt (exhibited Milan, Palazzo Reale, Alessandro Magnasco 1667-1749, 21 March-7 July 1996, pp. 178-81, nos. 38-9, illustrated in colour).
The painting shows the moment at which David, playing the harp as he dances in front of the cart, turns around and notices the body of Uzzah. The composition presents striking similarities to that of Sebastiano Ricci's enormous painting of the same subject executed for the church of Saints Cosmo and Damian on the Giudecca, Venice, and now on loan from the Brera to the parish church at Somaglia (J. Daniels, Sebastiano Ricci, Hove, 1976, pp. 113-14, no. 408, figs. 326-9); that picture is dated 1729 (R. Pallucchini, La pittura nel Veneto: Il Settecento, I, Milan, 1995, p. 56, fig. 64).
In the catalogues of the three exhibitions in the 1930s, it is suggested that the present picture may be the 'carro matto con molte figure' measuring 15 x 20 onze (approximately 67.5 x 90cm.), recorded in 1659 in the collection of Conte Giacomo Carrara in Bergamo (see B. Geiger, Alessandro Magnasco, Berlin, 1914, p. XXII). Ratti's biography of Magnasco, the prime source of information about the artist, was written for Carrara, who also owned the pair of masterpieces by the artist, the Nuns and Monks at Darmstadt (exhibited Milan, Palazzo Reale, Alessandro Magnasco 1667-1749, 21 March-7 July 1996, pp. 178-81, nos. 38-9, illustrated in colour).