AFTER ANTONIO DAVID (ITALIAN, 1698-1750), CIRCA 1729/1730

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Details

AFTER ANTONIO DAVID (ITALIAN, 1698-1750), CIRCA 1729/1730
A pair of miniatures: Prince Charles Edward Stuart (1720-1788), known as Bonnie Prince Charlie or The Young Pretender, wearing the blue sash and breast-star of the Order of the Garter and the green ribbon and badge of the Order of the Thistle; together with Henry Benedict Stuart, Cardinal York (1725-1807), wearing the blue sash of the Order of the Garter and the green ribbon and badge of the Order of the Thistle; feigned oval stone roundels
Both oil on copper
Rectangular, 119 x 93 mm. and 120 x 91 mm.), respectively, in gilt-wood frames

Provenance

Sotheby's, London, 19 October 1981, lot 38.
A Private Collector; Christie's, London, 26 November 2013, lot 116.

Special notice

These lots have been imported from outside the EU for sale using a Temporary Import regime. Import VAT is payable (at 5%) on the Hammer price. VAT is also payable (at 20%) on the buyer’s Premium on a VAT inclusive basis. When a buyer of such a lot has registered an EU address but wishes to export the lot or complete the import into another EU country, he must advise Christie's immediately after the auction.

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Lot Essay

The present works derive from oil on canvas portraits by Antonio David of 1732, now in the Scottish National Portrait Gallery (inv. nos. PG887 and PG888). In the spring of 1729, the Stuarts were at the Palazzo Muti in Rome and the princes were aged eight and four respectively. They received a request from the Duke of Bedford for a double-portrait of the princes, however James replied saying 'I could not send them to you both in one, without spoiling the likeness, ...since there are none here who could paint such a picture...well, that draws pictures like'. Instead, David was commissioned to paint two separate portraits in the summer of 1729 and they were sent to the Duke of Bedford. Other versions were commissioned by James from David and were circulated among his supporters and were copied on both a large and small scale. For further information on the portraits of the exiled Stuarts, see exhibition catalogue by E. Corp, The King over the Water. Portraits of the Stuarts in Exile after 1689, Scottish National Portrait Gallery, Edinburgh, 2001, pp. 67-70.

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