Psyche telling her sisters of her lover

Details

Giovanni Battista Castello, il Bergamasco (Gandino 1509-1569 Madrid)
Psyche telling her sisters of her lover
with inscriptions 'N^o. 596' and 'cm' (verso)
black chalk, pen and brown ink, brown wash, squared in black chalk, watermark cross over encircled star over proprietary (Briquet 6092, Genoa 1562-9)
12 x 11 in. (305 x 278 mm.)

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Lot Essay

Dr Mary Newcome Schleier has kindly confirmed the attribution to Bergamasco, on the basis of a photograph, in a communication dated 5 May 2003. A variation of the composition was sold at Christie's, New York, 30 January 1998, lot 33. In the early 1560s Castello painted frescoes illustrating the story of Cupid and Psyche for the Palazzo Carrega Cataldi and the Palazzo Domenico Grillo, both in Genoa (G. Rosso del Brenna, 'Giovanni Battista Castello', in Pittori bergamaschi dal XIII al XIX secolo, Il Cinquecento, II, Bergamo, 1976, nos. 9 and 10), and the present drawing may be associated with one of these projects. A drawing for the central panel in the Palazzo Domenico Grillo ceiling is in the Uffizi (M. Newcome Schleier, Disegni Genovesi dal XVI al XVIII secolo, exhib. cat., Florence, Uffizi, 1989, no. 2).

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