A bacchanal with a fountain

Details

Pietro Testa, il Lucchesino (Lucca 1611-1650 Rome)
A bacchanal with a fountain
with inscription 'Pietro Testa' "8" (on the mount)
black chalk, traces of red chalk, pen and brown ink, brown wash, on three sheets, losses, cut upper left
5¼ x 7½ in. (144 x 189 mm.)

Provenance

Resta-Somers (L.2981), no. 'm.49'.

Special notice

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Lot Essay

A study in reverse for the right background of Autumn (Bartsch 38), the third print of the celebrated Seasons executed by Testa circa 1642-4 (see E. Cropper, Pietro Testa 1612-1650. Prints and Drawings, 1988, no. 79). In the present drawing, satyrs pour the grapes into a vat and tread them as another lies drunken on the ground. Priapic men, satyrs and fauns assault women; others offer a sacrifice in a garden loggia dedicated to the fertility god Priapus himself.

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