NEAPOLITAN SCHOOL, 17th Century

Details

NEAPOLITAN SCHOOL, 17th Century

The Crucifixion of Polycrates (?)

oil on canvas
41½ x 44¼in. (105.4 x 112.3cm.)

Provenance

Falconer exor of Jarvis, London; sale, Christie's, London, June 30, 1853, as S. Rosa
William Sturgis Bigelow, by whom given to the museum

Literature

B.B. Fredericksen and F. Zeri, Census of Pre-Nineteenth-Century Italian Paintings in North American Public Collections, 1972, p. 72, as Francesco Fracanzano
A.R. Murphy, European Paintings in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, 1985, p. 143, illustrated, as Neapolitan, second quarter of the 17th century and 'Crucifixion of Saint Andrew'

Lot Essay

Polycrates was the 6th century B.C. tyrant of the island of Samos in the Aegean Sea. He seized control of the island, establishing a despotism but also giving the island a naval supremacy in the eastern Aegean. His ships committed acts of piracy that made him notorious throughout Greece. He made an alliance with Egypt but then abandoned them and joined the Persians whose forces advanced on Egypt in 525 B.C. His cruel reign continued until around 522 B.C. when Oroetes, the Persian governor of Sardis, had him captured and crucified. Though a tyrant, Polycrates had helped Samos to gain political and commercial preeminence in the region. He was also a distinguished patron of the arts