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Lot Essay
Filippo Abbiati, born in Milan, was the pupil of Carlo Francesco Nuvolone. Admitted to the Accademia Ambrosiana in 1669, he had a long and successful career in his native city. He was the teacher of the Genoese master Alessandro Magnasco, who entered his workshop around 1681-1682.
This painting is Abbiati’s earliest known dated work, which Rodolfo Pallucchini (loc. cit.) ascribed to his time spent in Venice at the onset of his career, reflecting the influence of Antonio Zanchi. In the early 20th century, when the painting belonged to Italico Brass (1870-1943) it formed part of a cycle of three paintings depicting episodes from the history of Rome. As with this work—which has previously been described as Darius and his family before Alexander the Great—the subjects of the other two paintings may not have been correctly identified in the literature. First documented by Giuseppe Fiocco in 1929 (loc. cit.) as depicting the stories of Alexander and Darius, the other two works have alternatively been interpreted as The meeting of King Turnus and Camilla and Hannibal seeing the head of Hasdrubal (see Zuffi, 1986, loc. cit.).
This painting is Abbiati’s earliest known dated work, which Rodolfo Pallucchini (loc. cit.) ascribed to his time spent in Venice at the onset of his career, reflecting the influence of Antonio Zanchi. In the early 20th century, when the painting belonged to Italico Brass (1870-1943) it formed part of a cycle of three paintings depicting episodes from the history of Rome. As with this work—which has previously been described as Darius and his family before Alexander the Great—the subjects of the other two paintings may not have been correctly identified in the literature. First documented by Giuseppe Fiocco in 1929 (loc. cit.) as depicting the stories of Alexander and Darius, the other two works have alternatively been interpreted as The meeting of King Turnus and Camilla and Hannibal seeing the head of Hasdrubal (see Zuffi, 1986, loc. cit.).