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Lot Essay
The present work, a popular subject for Pittoni, depicts a scene from the life of the Old Testament warrior Jephthah, who led the Israelites to victory over the Ammonites with the help of the following pact with God (Book of Judges 11: 30-40): 'If you deliver the Ammonites into my hands, then whatever comes out of the door of my house to meet me on my safe return from the Ammonites shall be the Lord's and shall be offered by me as a burnt offering'. Upon his return to Mizpah, Jephthah's daughter and only child instinctively rushed out to greet her father 'with timbrel and dance'. Pittoni depicts the ill-fated daughter as a paragon of virtue kneeling before her father and high priest at a sacrificial altar in noble resignation to her destiny: 'Father, you have uttered a vow to the Lord; do to me as you have vowed, seeing that the Lord has vindicated you against your enemies, the Ammonites'.
Pittoni was one of the most successful history painters of the Venetian Rococo, a status that was confirmed by his role as second president of the Venetian Academy following Giambattista Tiepolo's permanent move to Spain in 1763. Pittoni first crossed the Alps in 1720 on a trip to France with his friend and fellow artist, Rosalba Carriera. His reputation as a skilled painter soon spread throughout the courts of Europe, and by 1722 he was well-represented in the celebrated picture gallery of Frederick-Augustus I, Elector of Saxony. In 1735 the King of Spain invited Pittoni to execute a cycle illustrating the life of Alexander the Great. And in 1743 he was singled out by Frederick-Augustus II as one of the five most accomplished Venetian masters in the Dresden collection of 'modern paintings'. Apart from a solid career as a decorative history painter, Pittoni served as an influential art consultant, advising, among others, Marshal Matthias von der Schulenberg, who owned nine works by the artist.
According to Zava Boccazzi, the present work is the modello for a painting commissioned in 1732-3 for the King of Savoy and now in the Palazzo Reale, Genoa (Zava Boccazzi, op. cit., no. 63). The Genoa picture has since been significantly cut down on two sides, thus rendering the present work the best extant illustration of the artist's original concetto. Two autograph replicas of the modello are in England, one in a private collection (ibid., no. 68) and the other in Southampton Art Gallery, Hampshire (ibid., no. 184).
The present picture's luxuriant colors and decorative tone exemplify Pittoni's mature style, a decisive break begun in the 1730s from his early training in the dramatic Baroque idiom of his uncle, Francesco Pittoni. In 1996 Christie's sold a contemporary work of a similar subject by the artist, The Sacrifice of Polyxena at the Tomb of Achilles (Christie's, New York, 12 January 1996, lot 140, $244,500; fig. 1).
Pittoni was one of the most successful history painters of the Venetian Rococo, a status that was confirmed by his role as second president of the Venetian Academy following Giambattista Tiepolo's permanent move to Spain in 1763. Pittoni first crossed the Alps in 1720 on a trip to France with his friend and fellow artist, Rosalba Carriera. His reputation as a skilled painter soon spread throughout the courts of Europe, and by 1722 he was well-represented in the celebrated picture gallery of Frederick-Augustus I, Elector of Saxony. In 1735 the King of Spain invited Pittoni to execute a cycle illustrating the life of Alexander the Great. And in 1743 he was singled out by Frederick-Augustus II as one of the five most accomplished Venetian masters in the Dresden collection of 'modern paintings'. Apart from a solid career as a decorative history painter, Pittoni served as an influential art consultant, advising, among others, Marshal Matthias von der Schulenberg, who owned nine works by the artist.
According to Zava Boccazzi, the present work is the modello for a painting commissioned in 1732-3 for the King of Savoy and now in the Palazzo Reale, Genoa (Zava Boccazzi, op. cit., no. 63). The Genoa picture has since been significantly cut down on two sides, thus rendering the present work the best extant illustration of the artist's original concetto. Two autograph replicas of the modello are in England, one in a private collection (ibid., no. 68) and the other in Southampton Art Gallery, Hampshire (ibid., no. 184).
The present picture's luxuriant colors and decorative tone exemplify Pittoni's mature style, a decisive break begun in the 1730s from his early training in the dramatic Baroque idiom of his uncle, Francesco Pittoni. In 1996 Christie's sold a contemporary work of a similar subject by the artist, The Sacrifice of Polyxena at the Tomb of Achilles (Christie's, New York, 12 January 1996, lot 140, $244,500; fig. 1).