God cursing Cain after the murder of Abel

Details

BENEDETTO LUTI (FLORENCE 1666-1724 ROME)
God cursing Cain after the murder of Abel
black chalk, brown wash, heightened with white (partly oxidised), on buff paper, partly squared for transfer in red chalk, watermark anchor in circle topped with a star
50.1 x 33 cm (19 3/4 x 13 in.)

Provenance

Anonymous sale; Hôtel Drouot, Paris, 23 March 2001, lot 33.
with Flavia Ormond, London (Master Drawings 1500-1895, 2002, no. 7, ill.).
Private collection, U.S.A.

Literature

R. Maffeis, Benedetto Luti. L’ultimo maestro, Florence, 2012, pp. 222-224, under no. I.6, ill. (as attributed to Luti).

Exhibited

Boston, Museum of Fine Arts, Splendor and Elegance: European Decorative Arts and Drawings from the Horace Wood Brock Collection, 2009, no. 128, ill. (essay by Clifford S. Ackley).

Special notice

This lot has been imported from outside of the UK for sale and placed under the Temporary Admission regime. Import VAT is payable at 5% on the hammer price. VAT at 20% will be added to the buyer’s premium but will not be shown separately on our invoice.

Conditions of sale

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Lot Essay

In 1692, soon after his arrival in Rome from Florence, Benedetto Luti presented at the annual art exhibition held in San Bartolomeo dei Bergamaschi, the monumental painting with God cursing Cain after the murder of Abel now at Kedleston Hall in Derbyshire (inv. KED / P / 155; see Maffeis, op. cit., I.6.). The painting was received with great enthusiasm and quickly established the artist’s reputation in Rome. At least five drawings and one engraving (by Giuseppe Wagner and based on a drawing by Giovanni Battista Cipriani) reproducing the full composition exist, attesting to the fame of Luti’s invention. All of the drawings are copies after the painting (for a summary see U.V. Fischer Pace, Italian Drawings in the Department of Prints and Drawings, Statens Museum for Kunst. Roman Drawings before 1800, Copenhagen, 2014, p. 172, under no. 105, and Maffeis, op. cit., under I.6.). The present sheet, with its high degree of finish and its stylistic qualities, can be considered an autograph preparatory modello for the final painting.

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