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Lot Essay
Carlo Maratta was the leading painter of his day, and his art formed a definitive High Baroque classicism that set the standard for several generations of history painters; his work epitomized the academic tradition in Rome. After his arrival in the Eternal City in 1636, he was for nineteen years the pupil of Andrea Sacchi, who with Pietro da Cortona, was the principal source for his style. Maratta concentrated primarily on religious and history painting left little time for portraiture, although his reputation as a portraitist was considerable and was reflected in the large fees he commanded for these works. His sitters included Grand Tourists, Roman friends, and influential ecclesiastics and professionals, such as the sitter in the present painting.
Dr. Stella Rudolph believes that the present lot is '...one of the finest specimens of [Maratta's] portraiture dating from the period circa 1668 - circa 1672, when, at the height of his career, he was the most sought-after master in Rome for effigies of popes, local and European aristocrats, British grand tourists, etc.'. She compares the painting in quality of execution and psychological insight to Maratta's 1672 portrait of his friend and biographer, the eminent antiquarian and art critic, Giovan Pietro Bellori (Briganti collection, Rome). In that painting, Bellori is presented half-length, seated behind a table, and pointing to a passage of his Vite de Pittori Scoltori ed Architetti, whereas in the present work the sitter is seated three-quarter length in a chair, similar to the pose of Pope Clement IX Rospigliosi in Maratta's portrait of 1669 (Pinacoteca Vaticana, Rome). Both Bellori and the sitter in the present painting wear similar gowns and stiff white collars and cuffs that are typical of the garb worn by lawyers, doctors and academics of the time, and both are set against indistinct backgrounds that act as a foil to the strongly lit and sensitively modeled heads.
The exact type of surgical instrument that the sitter holds is unclear, although it has been suggested that it may have been used in isolating veins during operations and anatomical dissections. It is almost certain that the sitter in the present painting is in fact one of the foremost professore de Anatomia in Rome, Giovanni Guglielmo Riva, master of the famous anatomists Giovanni Maria Lancisi and Giovanni Baglivi, among others, who attended his School of Anatomy at the Ospedale della Consolazione, Rome. A later portrait of Riva, known only through a poor oval engraving by an anonymous artist, shows a man of more advanced years but with undoubtedly similar facial features. Riva accompanied Cardinal Flavio Chigi (nephew to Pope Alexander VII) on his 1664 visit to Paris as Legate, and was on that occassion appointed surgeon to Louis XIV. At one time or another, Pope Alexander VII, Cardinal Flavio Chigi and Louis XIV were all patrons of Maratta. Maratta was also in close personal contact with many in the Roman medical milieu, partly as a result of having been married to the niece of Pope Urban VIII's personal doctor, Giovanni Trulli. Riva made a will prior to his departure from Rome, in which his notable collection of paintings does not comprise a portrait of himself. However, just prior to his death on October 17, 1677, there are three such portraits listed. One of them, un ritratto di detto Guglielmo con cornice di noce, is possibly the same as the present painting. A date of 1668-9 on stylistic grounds for the present painting would correspond to the period when Riva was the chief physician to Pope Clement IX.
We are grateful to Dr. Stella Rudolph for the above entry. She will be publishing the present painting in her forthcoming monograph on Maratta.
Dr. Stella Rudolph believes that the present lot is '...one of the finest specimens of [Maratta's] portraiture dating from the period circa 1668 - circa 1672, when, at the height of his career, he was the most sought-after master in Rome for effigies of popes, local and European aristocrats, British grand tourists, etc.'. She compares the painting in quality of execution and psychological insight to Maratta's 1672 portrait of his friend and biographer, the eminent antiquarian and art critic, Giovan Pietro Bellori (Briganti collection, Rome). In that painting, Bellori is presented half-length, seated behind a table, and pointing to a passage of his Vite de Pittori Scoltori ed Architetti, whereas in the present work the sitter is seated three-quarter length in a chair, similar to the pose of Pope Clement IX Rospigliosi in Maratta's portrait of 1669 (Pinacoteca Vaticana, Rome). Both Bellori and the sitter in the present painting wear similar gowns and stiff white collars and cuffs that are typical of the garb worn by lawyers, doctors and academics of the time, and both are set against indistinct backgrounds that act as a foil to the strongly lit and sensitively modeled heads.
The exact type of surgical instrument that the sitter holds is unclear, although it has been suggested that it may have been used in isolating veins during operations and anatomical dissections. It is almost certain that the sitter in the present painting is in fact one of the foremost professore de Anatomia in Rome, Giovanni Guglielmo Riva, master of the famous anatomists Giovanni Maria Lancisi and Giovanni Baglivi, among others, who attended his School of Anatomy at the Ospedale della Consolazione, Rome. A later portrait of Riva, known only through a poor oval engraving by an anonymous artist, shows a man of more advanced years but with undoubtedly similar facial features. Riva accompanied Cardinal Flavio Chigi (nephew to Pope Alexander VII) on his 1664 visit to Paris as Legate, and was on that occassion appointed surgeon to Louis XIV. At one time or another, Pope Alexander VII, Cardinal Flavio Chigi and Louis XIV were all patrons of Maratta. Maratta was also in close personal contact with many in the Roman medical milieu, partly as a result of having been married to the niece of Pope Urban VIII's personal doctor, Giovanni Trulli. Riva made a will prior to his departure from Rome, in which his notable collection of paintings does not comprise a portrait of himself. However, just prior to his death on October 17, 1677, there are three such portraits listed. One of them, un ritratto di detto Guglielmo con cornice di noce, is possibly the same as the present painting. A date of 1668-9 on stylistic grounds for the present painting would correspond to the period when Riva was the chief physician to Pope Clement IX.
We are grateful to Dr. Stella Rudolph for the above entry. She will be publishing the present painting in her forthcoming monograph on Maratta.