Christ and the Woman taken in Adultery

Details

Pietro de Muttoni, called Pietro della Vecchia (Venice 1602/3-1678)
Christ and the Woman taken in Adultery
oil on canvas
59½ x 81 in. (151.1 x 205.7 cm.)

Provenance

(Possibly) Bradshaw Pierson; Christie's, London, 3 February 1781, lot 67, as 'Paduanino [sic]: The adulteress before Christ' (3 gns. to Moore).
Presumably acquired in the late 18th Century by Thomas, 2nd Baron Lyttleton [of the 1st creation] (1744-1779), Hagley Hall, Stourbridge, Worcestershire, by whom bequeathed with Hagley to his uncle
William, 1st Baron Westcote, afterwards 1st Baron Lyttleton [of the 2nd creation] (1724-1808), and by descent at Hagley to
Charles, 5th Baron Lyttleton (1842-1922), who in 1889 also succeeded as 8th Viscount Cobham on the death of his kinsman, the 3rd Duke of Buckingham and Chandos, and by descent at Hagley to the present owner.

Literature

Catalogue of Pictures at Hagley Hall, Worcestershire, Stourbridge, 1834, no. 107, as after Padovanino.
A Catalogue of the Pictures at Hagley Hall, London, 1900, no. 134, as A. Varotari.

Exhibited

Birmingham, City Art Gallery, no. 112, as 'A. Varotari.'

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Traditionally attributed to Alessandro Varotari, il Padovanino, this hitherto unpublished canvas is a characteristic work of his pupil, Pietro della Vecchia, who was perhaps the most dynamic painter of the Venetian mid-seicento. He supplied designs for a mosaic of the subject for San Marco in 1646-8, but this picture may be of marginally later date as the way the heads of the background figures are truncated by the principal figures is paralleled in works of the period such as the Saint Francesco Borgia in the museum at Brest.

We are grateful to Professore Ugo Ruggieri for confirming the attribution on the basis of a photograph; and to Charles Sebag-Montefiore for references to the 1834 and 1800 inventories.

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