Bacchus discovering Ariadne on Naxos

Details

Giacinto Gimignani (Pistoia 1606-1681 Rome)
Bacchus discovering Ariadne on Naxos
black chalk, pen and brown ink, brown wash, heightened with white on light-brown paper
7 ¾ x 10 5/8 in. (19.7 x 27 cm)

Provenance

Charles Rogers, London (1711-1784) (L. 625).
Anonymous sale; Sotheby's, London, 1 July 1965, lot 157 (as Pietro da Cortona).
with Mathias Komor, New York, where acquired by the Ford Foundation in June 1966 (as Pietro da Cortona).

Literature

U.V. Fischer, Giacinto Gimignani (1606-1681). Eine Studie zur römischen Malerei, Ph.D. diss., Freiburg, Albert-Ludwigs-Universität, 1973, no. Z 61.

Lot Essay

Illustrating the encounter between Ariadne and Bacchus, this elaborate study by Gimignani is in preparation for his large canvas (123.5 x 149.5 cm) now in the Ormož Regional Museum, Ptuj, Slovenia (F. Zeri, K. Rozman, Maestri europei dalle collezioni slovene, Ljubljana 1993, no. 19), as recognized by Ursula Fischer Pace. The sheet records an early idea for the painting, where the figures are displayed in reverse order. Possibly related to this composition is a second drawing in the Pinacoteca Civica, Pesaro (C. Giardini et al., Dipinti e disegni della Pinacoteca Civica di Pesaro, Modena 1993, no. 21, as Giovanni Boulanger). We are grateful to Jörg Martin Merz for confirming the attribution based on a digital photograph.

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