Lot Essay
Apprenticed in Verona to Felice Brusasorci, Ottino completed, together with Alessandro Turchi, the altarpiece of The Gathering of the Manna (San Giorgio in Braida, Verona), that his master had left unfinished at his death in 1605. Ottino's first securely dated independent work was the Mysteries of the Rosary (Parish church, Engazzà). Dal Pozzo (Le vite de' pittori, degli scultori et architetti veronesi, Verona, 1718, pp. 167-8), records a visit to Rome, although this remains disputed. His Massacre of the Innocents (Santo Stefano, Verona), is clearly indebted to Bolognese art of the period and in particular Guido Reni's painting of the same subject (Pinacoteca Nazionale, Bologna). The Caravaggesque traits evident in his Virgin and Saints (San Giorgio in Braida, Verona), suggest an awareness of the work of Marcantonio Bassetti.
The present composition is close to a large horizontal altarpiece of the same subject in the Cathedral of San Vito in Prague traditionally attributed to Caravaggio, but reascribed to Ottino by Marinelli (loc. cit.). Marinelli dates the latter to 'not much after 1605', pointing to the artist taking certain elements from the Roman work of Taddeo Zuccaro and Daniele da Volterra, and thus reiterating the possibility of a visit to Rome by Ottino in the first years of the seicento.
Ottino also made an engraving of the composition (in vertical format) that corresponds more closely to the present picture than to the Prague composition.
The present composition is close to a large horizontal altarpiece of the same subject in the Cathedral of San Vito in Prague traditionally attributed to Caravaggio, but reascribed to Ottino by Marinelli (loc. cit.). Marinelli dates the latter to 'not much after 1605', pointing to the artist taking certain elements from the Roman work of Taddeo Zuccaro and Daniele da Volterra, and thus reiterating the possibility of a visit to Rome by Ottino in the first years of the seicento.
Ottino also made an engraving of the composition (in vertical format) that corresponds more closely to the present picture than to the Prague composition.