Gioacchino Assereto (Genoa 1600-1649)
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Gioacchino Assereto (Genoa 1600-1649)

Salome presenting the head of John the Baptist to Herod

Details
Gioacchino Assereto (Genoa 1600-1649)
Salome presenting the head of John the Baptist to Herod
oil on canvas
44 x 56 in. (112 x 142 cm.)
Special notice
No VAT will be charged on the hammer price, but VAT at 17.5% will be added to the buyer's premium which is invoiced on a VAT inclusive basis

Lot Essay

Traditionally attributed to Ferdinand Bol, the attribution of this hitherto unrecorded work to Assereto has been confirmed by Dr. Mary Newcome Schleier, on the basis of photographs (private communication).

Initially a pupil of the Genoese artist Luciano Borzone, in about 1614 Assereto entered the studio of Andrea Ansaldo. As explained by Newcome Schleier (The Dictionary of Art, London, II, 1996, p. 619), his early work is distinguished by its silvery colouring and dramatic contrasts of light and dark. He absorbed Borzone's sfumato technique and skill as a portrait painter, while his treatment of drapery suggest the infuence of Ansaldo. Between circa 1626 and circa 1636, his work starts to display rich colour and detail and great naturalism. In 1639 Assereto went briefly to Rome, where he visited the studios of many artists. There he would have seen the work of Caravaggio and his followers such as Gerrit van Honthorst and Matthias Stomer, whose broad technique seems to have clear affinities with that of Assereto. Back in Genoa in the 1640s, he was active as a fresco painter and was commissioned to decorate the Palazzi Granello and Airoli-Negrone. It was probably at about this time that he painted Servius Tullius with his hair on fire, in the Palazzo Bianco, Genoa, where the figure of the woman on the right of the composition repeats in facial type, pose and gesture that of Herod's female companion at the centre of the present picture.

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