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Lot Essay
Antonio Bellucci was born in Pieve di Soligo, trained in Sebenico (Sibenik), Dalmatia, and active in Venice around 1675. His early paintings reveal the influence of Venetian masters of light and colour, such as Paolo Veronese, Andrea Celesti and Antonio Zanchi. In 1692 Bellucci executed his first international commission; four altarpieces for the church of Klosterneuburg in Austria. Following the successful reception of these religious works, the artist moved to Vienna, where he was documented from 1695 to 1700 and again in 1702. Among his most important Austrian commissions were a series of allegories, including The Triumph of Hercules, destined for the ceiling of the Liechtenstein Palace. In 1705 Bellucci was summoned by Johann Wilhelm von Pfalz, Elector of the Palatinate, to Düsseldorf, where he decorated the Schloss Bensberg, and where he remained until his patron's death in 1716. Shortly thereafter he moved to England, where he was patronized by Lord Burlington and James Brydges, 1st Duke of Chandos. In 1722 he returned to Venice, where he remained an active painter until his death four years later. Bellucci's transitional, late Baroque-early Rococo idiom had a decisive impact on the masters of the following generation, particularly on his pupils, Antonio Balestra and Sebastiano Ricci.
The present painting is a bozzetto for a finished work by Bellucci (sold at these Rooms, 29 October 2003, lot 96), which was possibly commissioned for the now lost or dispersed ceiling decorations of the Schloss Bensberg (for further reading see F. Magani, Antonio Bellucci, Rimini, 1995, pp. 157-71). In illustrating the triumph of the sea-nymph Galatea over the giant cyclopes Polyphemus (Ovid's Metamorphoses. 13:750-897), Bellucci aligned himself with an illustrious group of modern Italian masters, beginning with Raphael in the fifteenth century (Villa Farnesina, Rome). The myth was revisited with equal dynamic force by Luca Giordano (Pitti Palace, Florence) and Sebastiano Ricci (Royal Academy, London). The dramatic subject-matter also provided Bellucci with an appropriate setting for his ultimate expression of physical perfection, the female nude. His emphasis on the female figure as a focus of ideal beauty was noted by his contemporaries, in particular the Venetian art critic Vincenzo da Canal: 'Ma perché la virtù del pittore consiste maggiormente ne'nudi; uop'è per ciò, che faccia intorno ad essi il maggiore suo studio, e cerchi di comparirvi più intelligente e corretto ... il Bellucci avrebbe dovuto lavorare di femmine ignudi, Antonio Molinari di uomini, ma il Fumiani di figure vestite' (V. da Canal, Vita di Gregorio Lazzarini scritta da Vincenzo da Canal P.V. pubblicata la prima volta nelle nozze Da Mula - Lavagnoli [1732], Venice, 1809, p.72).
We are grateful to Professor Fabrizio Magani for confirming the attribution to Antonio Bellucci on the basis of a photograph.
The present painting is a bozzetto for a finished work by Bellucci (sold at these Rooms, 29 October 2003, lot 96), which was possibly commissioned for the now lost or dispersed ceiling decorations of the Schloss Bensberg (for further reading see F. Magani, Antonio Bellucci, Rimini, 1995, pp. 157-71). In illustrating the triumph of the sea-nymph Galatea over the giant cyclopes Polyphemus (Ovid's Metamorphoses. 13:750-897), Bellucci aligned himself with an illustrious group of modern Italian masters, beginning with Raphael in the fifteenth century (Villa Farnesina, Rome). The myth was revisited with equal dynamic force by Luca Giordano (Pitti Palace, Florence) and Sebastiano Ricci (Royal Academy, London). The dramatic subject-matter also provided Bellucci with an appropriate setting for his ultimate expression of physical perfection, the female nude. His emphasis on the female figure as a focus of ideal beauty was noted by his contemporaries, in particular the Venetian art critic Vincenzo da Canal: 'Ma perché la virtù del pittore consiste maggiormente ne'nudi; uop'è per ciò, che faccia intorno ad essi il maggiore suo studio, e cerchi di comparirvi più intelligente e corretto ... il Bellucci avrebbe dovuto lavorare di femmine ignudi, Antonio Molinari di uomini, ma il Fumiani di figure vestite' (V. da Canal, Vita di Gregorio Lazzarini scritta da Vincenzo da Canal P.V. pubblicata la prima volta nelle nozze Da Mula - Lavagnoli [1732], Venice, 1809, p.72).
We are grateful to Professor Fabrizio Magani for confirming the attribution to Antonio Bellucci on the basis of a photograph.