Giovanni Bernardo Carbone* (1614-1683)

The Visitation

Details

Giovanni Bernardo Carbone* (1614-1683)
The Visitation
oil on canvas--oval
31 x 27in. (78.7 x 68.5cm.)

Provenance

Said to have come from the collection of the Duke of Lucca (the reverse of the canvas is inscribed with the inventory number '59' and a coronet with the initials 'C.L.'.
James Fenton, Norton Hall, Gloucestershire; his sale, Christie's, London, Feb. 26-8, 1880 (=1st day), lot 141, 'From the Lucca Gallery' (6gns. to Wagner).
Henry Wagner (1840-1926).

Sale room notice

Please note that the canvas is rectangular and not oval as stated in the catalogue. It has been strip lined on the left and right sides. The image represented in the catalogue is the area within the painted oval. The additional corners were probably painted later than the oval, and are painted in gold with floral decoration. The top edge of the oval is inscribed 'CAVSA NOSTRA LETITIAE'.

Lot Essay

The present painting can be dated to circa 1665 by comparison with a signed and dated work of The Vision of Saint Anthony of Padua in the chapel of San Michele in the Church of Celle, Ligure. Both works feature the theatrical lighting, and dark indefinite backgrounds which became features of the Genoese Baroque style in the wake of Sir Anthony van Dyck's intermittent visits to that city from 1621-7. Carbone's biographer, Carlo Giuseppe Ratti, wrote that he consciously imitated van Dyck so that even English connoisseurs ('intellegenti Inglese') were impressed by his technical proximity to the Flemish master; see C.G. Ratti, Delle Vite de'Pittori, Scultori, ed Architetti Genovese, 1769, II, p. 19.

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