Francesco Solimena (1657-1747)

THE PROPERTY OF A LADY AND A GENTLEMAN

细节

Francesco Solimena (1657-1747)

The Royal Hunt of Dido and Aeneas

with inventory number 178 (lower left)
oil on canvas
29 x 30in. (73.7 x 76.8cm.)

来源

Scholz-Forni Collection, Hamburg.
Anon. Sale, Christie's, 9 July 1982, lot 66.
with Matthiesen (The Settecento, 4 Nov. - 20 Dec. 1987, pp. 157-9, no. 36, pl. 30).

出版

(Possibly) B. de Dominici, Vite..., 1742, IV, p. 451.
W.R. Deusch, Weltkunst, XI, no. 47, Nov. 1937, p. 2.
Nagler, Künsterlexikon, XIX, p. 66.
U. Thieme and F. Becker, Allgemeines Lexicon der Bildenden Künstler, XXXI, Leipzig, 1937, p. 246.
A. von Schneider, Aus der Sammlung Scholz-Forni, Hamburg, 1937, no. 19.
M. Goering, Pantheon, XIII, no. 5, May 1940, p. 120.
F. Bologna, Francesco Solimena, Naples, 1958, pp. 118 and 248, fig. 209, where dated immediately prior to 1740.
D. Miller, The Gallery of Aeneid in the Palazzo Bonaccorsi at Macerata, Arte Antica e Moderna, 1963, pp. 153 and 258, 1964, p. 113. M. Levey, Solimena's 'Dido Receiving Aeneas and Cupid disguised as Ascanius', The Burlington Magazine, CXV, no. 843, June 1973, pp. 385-6, note 2.
O. Ferrari, Considerazione sulle vicende artistiche a Napoli durante il vicende artistiche a Napoli durante il viceregno austriaco (1707-1734), Storia dell'Arte, 1979, no. 35, p. 17.
F. Bologna, Solimena al Palazzo Reale di Napoli per le nozze di Carlo di Borbone, Prospettiva, 16, p. 65, no. 21.
F. Haskell, Patrons and Painters: Art and Society in Baroque Italy, New Haven and London, 1980, pp. 224, note 4.
N. Spinosa, Pittura napoletana del settecento dal Barcocco al Rococò, Naples, 1986, p. 111, under no. 36.

展览

Wiesbaden, Italienische Malerei des 17. und 18. Jahrhunderts, 1935, no. 179.
Naples, Mostra della pittura napoletana dei tre secoli, 1938.

刻印

G. Zocchi.

拍品专文

The present picture relates to a work by Solimena (see below) which formed part of the decorations commissioned by Raimondo Bonaccorsi for his palace at Macerata. Bonaccorsi commissioned frescoes on the theme of the Aeneid from Carlo Antonio Rambaldi and Antonio Dardani, and a series of oil paintings from renowned painters of the day including Garzi, Gambarini, Franceschini, Lazzarini and Balestra (F. Haskell, loc. cit.), to complete the decorations in the gallery.

The construction of the palace, designed by the Roman architect Giovanni Battista Contini, was completed by 1707, and Solimena's picture was in situ by 1714, according to a letter dated 6 July that year (F. Haskell, ibid.) The picture, which Haskell describes as 'the masterpiece of the whole series', and, 'a picture of the utmost romantic splendour', was an immediate success, prompting Giovanni Gioseffo dal Sole and Marcantonio Franceschini to rush to Macerata to see it.

There has been some disagreement as to whether the present picture is a modello or ricordo of the Bonaccorsi painting. Another smaller version of the compostion is in the Castle of Opocno, Czech Republic, which both Ferrari, loc. cit., and Spinosa, loc. cit., believe to be the modello. Levey was the first to connect the present picture with the Bonaccorsi composition. He dated it circa 1739-40, and believed it to be a ricordo painted towards the end of the artist's life.

A preparatory drawing for the compostion will be offered in the Old Master Drawings sale in London on 4 July 1995. Bologna, loc. cit., mentions another related drawing in a collection at Aversa.