Lot Essay
Signed and dated 1708, this picture is one of the most extraordinary examples of the early work of the Bolognese painter Aureliano Milani. While the young Milani trained in the studios of Lorenzo Pasinelli and Cesare Gennari, he was influenced most profoundly not by the studios in which he worked, but by the exhaustive studies he made of the Carracci fresco cycles in the Palazzo Fava and Palazzo Magnani in Bologna. His work there not only provided the inspiration for the present canvas but also served as the basis for the creation of his whole artistic identity. Milani's revival of the style of the Carracci almost a century later makes him one of the most distinctive Bolognese painters of his generation.
The artist enjoyed a successful career in his native city. He is known to have executed religious commissions such as the fresco of The Annunciation for the Servite convent in 1705 and there exist, in addition to the present picture, other works for private patrons, such as the four stories of Samson, now in the collection of the Banca Popolare in Modena. The prominence given in these works to the male figure, shown in striking athletic stances, is clearly reminiscent of the present canvas. Here, the figures' costumes and vigorous poses recall those frescoed by the Carracci in Palazzo Fava, where Milani had been granted free access (and financial assistance) by Count Alessandro Fava. As noted by J. Moxon and J.J. Rischel (op. cit.), a more direct source for the two counterpoised protagonists can be traced to two analogous figures in the Death of Amulius, from the somewhat later fresco cycle by the Carracci in Palazzo Magnani.
The subject of the present picture derives from Virgil's Aeneid. When Aeneas finally arrived in Latium, by the Tiber, he found the land ruled by King Latinus, whose daughter, Lavinia, was betrothed to Turnus, the nearby ruler of the Rutuli. Latinus, however, had learned from an oracle that his daughter was fated to marry a foreigner and give birth to a race that would make the world its Empire. He thus agreed to an alliance with the Trojans, promising Aeneas her hand in marriage. However Juno, Aeneas' implacable enemy, turned both Latinus and Rutuli against Aeneas; in the resulting war, Aeneas proposed a single combat between himself and Turnus to settle the fighting and, though Turnus initially refused, the two confronted each other in the end. Aeneas won the fight, and Turnus declared defeat, pledging Lavinia to his rival. Aeneas thus established the Trojans in Latium, naming their settlement Lavinium after his bride. Through his son, Ascanius, he became the legendary ancestral founder of the Roman race, and the forebearer of the Julian line that included Julius Ceasar and Augustus Ceasar.
The artist enjoyed a successful career in his native city. He is known to have executed religious commissions such as the fresco of The Annunciation for the Servite convent in 1705 and there exist, in addition to the present picture, other works for private patrons, such as the four stories of Samson, now in the collection of the Banca Popolare in Modena. The prominence given in these works to the male figure, shown in striking athletic stances, is clearly reminiscent of the present canvas. Here, the figures' costumes and vigorous poses recall those frescoed by the Carracci in Palazzo Fava, where Milani had been granted free access (and financial assistance) by Count Alessandro Fava. As noted by J. Moxon and J.J. Rischel (op. cit.), a more direct source for the two counterpoised protagonists can be traced to two analogous figures in the Death of Amulius, from the somewhat later fresco cycle by the Carracci in Palazzo Magnani.
The subject of the present picture derives from Virgil's Aeneid. When Aeneas finally arrived in Latium, by the Tiber, he found the land ruled by King Latinus, whose daughter, Lavinia, was betrothed to Turnus, the nearby ruler of the Rutuli. Latinus, however, had learned from an oracle that his daughter was fated to marry a foreigner and give birth to a race that would make the world its Empire. He thus agreed to an alliance with the Trojans, promising Aeneas her hand in marriage. However Juno, Aeneas' implacable enemy, turned both Latinus and Rutuli against Aeneas; in the resulting war, Aeneas proposed a single combat between himself and Turnus to settle the fighting and, though Turnus initially refused, the two confronted each other in the end. Aeneas won the fight, and Turnus declared defeat, pledging Lavinia to his rival. Aeneas thus established the Trojans in Latium, naming their settlement Lavinium after his bride. Through his son, Ascanius, he became the legendary ancestral founder of the Roman race, and the forebearer of the Julian line that included Julius Ceasar and Augustus Ceasar.