Lot Essay
It may be assumed from the style and large scale of the present picture that it formed part of one of the cycles of room decorations executed by Amigoni during his years in England, where he lived from the end of 1729 to August 1739 apart from a visit to France in the summer of 1736. One of these cycles survives in situ at Moor Park, Hertfordshire (E. Croft-Murray, Decorative Painting in England 1537-1837, II, 1970, p.165, no.9, and pls.20 and 21; E. Waterhouse, The Dictionary of British 18th Century Painters in oils and crayons, 1981, colour plate p.19), and two paintings with an English provenance, of the same size as the present picture and closely related stylistically, were sold in these Rooms, 6 April 1986, lots 14 and 15 (one is now in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York).
According to F. J. B. Watson in the catalogue of the 1951 exhibition, the present painting is said to have formed part of the decoration of the 2nd Earl of Tankerville's house in St. James's Square, London; painted in collaboration with Gaetano Brunetti, who was responsible for feigned architecture, trophies and festoons, this was completed on 2 March 1731 and seems to have been one of Amigoni's first English commissions. The present subject is not among the scenes connected with the Trojan War mentioned by George Vertue as having been painted directly on the walls of the staircase and destroyed with the house circa 1752 (Vertue Note Books III, The Walpole Society, XXII, 1933-1934, pp.45, 49, 51, 61, 72 and 162; this staircase was, according to Vertue 'esteemd one of the best & greatest performance of the works of Amiconi' and he records that the artist was paid #200 after submitting a bill for only #90). However, although Croft-Murray (loc. cit.) lists no further paintings for Tankerville House, according to Watson, Amigoni also decorated the hall; these paintings may have been executed on canvasses set into the panelling of the walls, a technique which suited the English climate and which the artist himself initiated (Waterhouse, op. cit., pp.28-9), and may have escaped destruction in 1752
According to F. J. B. Watson in the catalogue of the 1951 exhibition, the present painting is said to have formed part of the decoration of the 2nd Earl of Tankerville's house in St. James's Square, London; painted in collaboration with Gaetano Brunetti, who was responsible for feigned architecture, trophies and festoons, this was completed on 2 March 1731 and seems to have been one of Amigoni's first English commissions. The present subject is not among the scenes connected with the Trojan War mentioned by George Vertue as having been painted directly on the walls of the staircase and destroyed with the house circa 1752 (Vertue Note Books III, The Walpole Society, XXII, 1933-1934, pp.45, 49, 51, 61, 72 and 162; this staircase was, according to Vertue 'esteemd one of the best & greatest performance of the works of Amiconi' and he records that the artist was paid #200 after submitting a bill for only #90). However, although Croft-Murray (loc. cit.) lists no further paintings for Tankerville House, according to Watson, Amigoni also decorated the hall; these paintings may have been executed on canvasses set into the panelling of the walls, a technique which suited the English climate and which the artist himself initiated (Waterhouse, op. cit., pp.28-9), and may have escaped destruction in 1752