The Temptation of Adam and Eve; and The Expulsion from Paradise

Details

Michele Rocca, called Parmigianino (Parma ?1666-in or after 1751 ?Venice)
The Temptation of Adam and Eve; and The Expulsion from Paradise
oil on canvas
18 3/8 x 13 ½ in. (46.7 x 34.3 cm.)
(2)a pair

Provenance

Ludwig and Charlotte Flörsheim, Munich, probably acquired in Vienna between 1925 and 1927;
Confiscated from the above by the Gestapo, 24 November 1938;
recovered by the Monuments Fine Arts and Archives Section from the Beuerberg Monastery (Beuerberg Nos. 30, 35) and transferred to the Munich Central Collection Point, 23 July 1946 (Mu. Nos. 36021, 36026);
transferred to the Wiesbaden Central Collection Point, 29 June 1949;
restituted to Ludwig and Charlotte Florsheim, New York, 19 December 1950;
thence by descent to Robert Florsheim, Dover, Massachusetts, from whom acquired in 2016 by the present owner.

Exhibited

Boston, Museum of Fine Arts, Prized Possessions, 7 June-16 August 1992, nos. 122-123 (entry by P. Stein).

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Lot Essay

As Perrin Stein notes (loc. cit.), Michele Rocca sometimes repeated his more successful compositions. A variant of The Expulsion from Paradise, in which Rocca added garlands of leaves to cover his figures' nudity, is in the Wadsworth Atheneum, Hartford. A bozzetto for that painting might be the work formerly in the Rossacher collection (see G. Sestieri, Michele Rocca e la pittura rococò a Roma, Rome, 2004, p. 238, no. 47B). A second version of The Temptation of Adam and Eve was formerly in the collection of Julius Held and sold in These Rooms, 27 January 2009, lot 26.

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