Attributed to Antonio Tempesta (Florence 1555-1630 Rome)

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PIETRA DIPINTA Painting on stone flourished in Italy between the early years of the 16th to the middle of the 17th centuries, though the tradition can be traced back many centuries prior to this. Ancient sources describe the existence of a series of great coloured marble slabs, painted with decorations and ornamental motifs, used to decorate the apse of the so-called Aula del Colosso (Room of the Colossus) in the Forum of Augustus in Rome (1st Century B.C.-1st Century A.D.). This use of the marble was particularly suited as a dramatic backdrop for the display of sculpture. The survival of a number of small-scale ancient fragments of this kind in early 16th century Rome and the growing interest in reviving classical models, as well as the search for more durable media, help to explain the experiments of Sebastiano del Piombo, who used various kinds of marble as supports for paintings in this period, as reported in a letter by Vittorio Soranzo to Pietro Bembo (1530): 'avendo [Sebastiano] cominciato [...] un nuovo modo di colorire in pietra, ciò piaceva molto ai popoli, parendo che in quel modo le pitture diventassero eterne e che né il fuoco né i tarli potessero lor nuocere'. The desire to produce paintings that had the appearance of permanence was also stimulated by particular atmospheric and climatic conditions in the churches of Rome. It was this combination of the revival of classical Rome of the late Cinquecento and the technical requirements necessary to hang large paintings in humid conditions that explain the commission, at end of the century, of the vast paintings on slate for Saint Peter's Basilica and for the Cathedral of Orvieto, and most notably, the magnificent paintings by Peter Paul Rubens in the apse of Santa Maria della Vallicella. By the end of the Cinquecento the use of stone as a support became a virtuoso challenge to the artist: how best to utilise the veins of the marble; the transparency of the alabaster; the deep blue of the lapis-lazuli, as a 'natural' and dramatic background or to create imaginary landscapes and architectural fantasies. A magnificent example of such virtuosity is the Perseus and Andromeda painted on lapis-lazuli by Giuseppe Cesari, il Cavalier d'Arpino, now in the Saint Louis Museum of Art (sold Christie's, New York, 27 January 2000, lot 73). Florence and Verona were the leading centres of painting on stone in Italy. A knowledge of precious stones and marble was well-advanced in Florence at the Opificio delle Pietre Dure, and included the use of the so-called pietra paesina stone (also called Alberese). Both the Siege and the Aeneas fleeing Troy offered in the present sale (lots 207-8) are a superb examples of the ability to use the pietra paesina stone's veins to achieve dramatic landscape effects. The proximity of the town of Verona to the slate mines in Salò encouraged artists to experiment with painting on this dark stone, known also as pietra di paragone. Felice Brusasorci, Claudio Ridolfi, Paolo Farinati, Jacopo Bassano and others used the slate mainly as a support for small-scale devotional works, in which the profound darkness of the background allowed these artists to highlight subjects such as the Pietà or the Flagellation (see for example, the Flagellation by Sante Creara in the present sale, lot 213) or to create nocturnal scenes. Painting on stone began to decline in Italy by the mid-17th century. The waning of Wunderkammer taste under the pressure of the new Baroque sensibility and the demand for larger paintings to be hung in grand galleries relegated small-scale stone painting to the rank of a curiosity for experienced collectors, fond of small, refined, jewel-like objects. Their importance in the history of late Renaissance art has only recently been re-evaluated, as can be see in the recent exhibition in the Palazzo Reale, Milan, Pietra dipinta. Tesori nascosti del '500 e del '600 da una collezione privata milanese, in 2000.

Attributed to Antonio Tempesta (Florence 1555-1630 Rome)

Aeneas rescuing Anchises from the Sack of Troy

细节

Attributed to Antonio Tempesta (Florence 1555-1630 Rome)
Aeneas rescuing Anchises from the Sack of Troy
oil on pietra paesina
13½ x 11¼ in. (34.3 x 28.6 cm.)

注意事项

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