The Royal Hunt of Dido and Aeneas

Details

Francesco Solimena (Canale di Serino 1657-1747 Barra)
The Royal Hunt of Dido and Aeneas
with inventory number 178 (lower left)
oil on canvas
29 x 30 in. (73.7 x 76.8 cm.)

Provenance

Scholz-Forni Collection, Hamburg.
Anon. Sale, Christie's, London, 9 July 1982, lot 66.
with Matthiesen, London (The Settecento, 4 November - 20 December 1987, pp. 157-159, no. 36, pl. 30).
Anon. Sale, Christie's, London, 7 July 1995, lot 107.
with Bob Haboldt, New York and Paris, from whom purchased by the present owner.

Literature

(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 Lexikon 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 Rococo, Naples, 1986, p. 111, under no. 36.

Exhibited

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

Engraved

G. Zocchi

Lot Essay

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 was offered for sale at Christie's, London, 4 July 1995, lot 113. Bologna, loc. cit., mentions another related drawing in a collection at Aversa.

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