THE PROPERTY OF A PRIVATE COLLECTOR
SIMONE CANTARINI* (1612-1648)

Details
SIMONE CANTARINI* (1612-1648)

The Rest on the Flight into Egypt
signed with monogram--oil on canvas
22 x 15in. (55.9 x 38.1cm.)
Provenance
probably Prince Eugène-Rose de Beauharnais (1781-1824) Duke of Leuchtenberg His second son and heir, Maximilian-Eugène-Auguste-Joseph-Napoléon (1817-1852) Duke of Leuchtenberg
Literature
Gemälde-Sammlung in München des Dom Augusto, Herzogs von Leuchtenberg, 1835, no. 17, engraving illustrated
J.D. Passavant, Gemälde-Sammlung des Herzogs von Leuchtenberg in München, 1851, plate 85, engraving illustrated
O. Kurz, Bolognese Drawings of the XVII & XVIIIth Centuries in the Collection of Her Majesty the Queen at Windsor Castle, 1955, under no. 34, as a replica or copy
catalogue of the exhibition, Maestri della Pittura del Seicento Emiliano, 1959, p. 120, under no. 50, as a copy or replica
M. Mancigotti, Simone Cantarini, Il Pesarese, 1975, p. 110, under no. , as a copy or replica
Engraved
Johann Nepomuk Muxel (in the 1835 and 1851 catalogues cited above)

Lot Essay

An old label adhered to the stretcher reads "Herzoglich Leuchtenberg:/Majorats Fideicommiss./Matrikel II, 3./Inventar No 109,/109"

There are two autograph versions of this composition; in the Brera, Milan, and in the Academy, Venice. There are also three preparatory: one, a sanguine, with variations, at Windsor Castle; another identical drawing is in the Palazzo Bianco, Genoa, and a third, red chalk drawing, was sold through Christie's, London, July 8, 1975, lot 72.

The present lot is sold with a photocopy of a letter dated Bologna 2 March 1992 from Professor Andrea Emiliani confirming the attribution to Cantarini and suggesting a date of 1636-37

Prince Eugène de Beauharnais assembled an impressive collection of pictures while accompanying his stepfather Napoleon on his Italian campaigns and during his years as Viceroy of Italy from 1805-1814. He married the daughter of the King of Bavaria, and on settling there after Napoleon's fall, was created Duke of Leuchtenberg. Prince Eugène's second son and heir, Maximilian, married the daughter of Tsar Nicholas I of Russia. It appears that some of the Leuchtenberg collection was sold shortly before the 1914-1918 war