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Lot Essay
Taken from the second book of Ovid’s Metamorphses, this impressive canvas illustrates the culmination of one of Jupiter’s most brazen and famed seductions. The nymph Callisto, a favourite of the goddess Diana, was coveted by Jupiter for her beauty. So overcome was he with desire that the god disguised himself as Diana in order to seduce the innocent Callisto. In this sensuous work, Liberi depicts the moment of her seduction by the disguised Jupiter, whose identity is signified by the presence of his eagle in the background. Following her seduction, Callisto’s pregnancy was discovered and Diana, outraged, exiled her from her forests, prompting the jealous wife of Jupiter, Juno, to transform the nymph into a bear. Callisto, pursued by Diana’s hounds, was later rescued by Jupiter and transformed into the constellation Ursus Major.
This painting formed part of the famous collections of Johann Matthias, Count von der Schulenberg (1661-1747), who had commanded the forces of Saxony under Augustus the Strong. Schulenberg was later appointed Field Marshal of the Venetian armies in 1715 and remained in the service of the Republic until his death in 1747. His liberation of Corfu from the Ottoman Empire in 1716 counted as a monumental victory. Vivaldi’s opera Juditha triumphans was commissioned in celebration of it and Schulenburg was declared the Saviour of the Republic, commemorated by a statue and given a pension of 5,000 ducats a year. Arguably the greatest single patron of contemporary Venetian painters, by 1747 Schulenberg’s collection numbered some 957 items, including paintings, drawings and sculpture, and is documented by numerous inventories throughout the eighteenth century. The collection, one of the most remarkable of its time, was kept in his Venetian residence, the Palazzo Loredan a San Trevaso. Schulenberg’s collection had begun, in a sense, accidentally, accepting his first group of paintings as collateral for a loan in 1724, though he soon came to treat his new occupation with passion and determination. Schulenburg’s ultimate, patriotic intention was to establish the largest collection of pictures in Germany, at the Berlin palace built by his nephew Adolph Friedrich. To this end, a number of his purchases were sent northwards from Venice, with notable shipments recorded in the years 1736-1740.
The attribution to Liberi was confirmed by Prof. Ugo Ruggeri at the time of the 2008 sale.
This painting formed part of the famous collections of Johann Matthias, Count von der Schulenberg (1661-1747), who had commanded the forces of Saxony under Augustus the Strong. Schulenberg was later appointed Field Marshal of the Venetian armies in 1715 and remained in the service of the Republic until his death in 1747. His liberation of Corfu from the Ottoman Empire in 1716 counted as a monumental victory. Vivaldi’s opera Juditha triumphans was commissioned in celebration of it and Schulenburg was declared the Saviour of the Republic, commemorated by a statue and given a pension of 5,000 ducats a year. Arguably the greatest single patron of contemporary Venetian painters, by 1747 Schulenberg’s collection numbered some 957 items, including paintings, drawings and sculpture, and is documented by numerous inventories throughout the eighteenth century. The collection, one of the most remarkable of its time, was kept in his Venetian residence, the Palazzo Loredan a San Trevaso. Schulenberg’s collection had begun, in a sense, accidentally, accepting his first group of paintings as collateral for a loan in 1724, though he soon came to treat his new occupation with passion and determination. Schulenburg’s ultimate, patriotic intention was to establish the largest collection of pictures in Germany, at the Berlin palace built by his nephew Adolph Friedrich. To this end, a number of his purchases were sent northwards from Venice, with notable shipments recorded in the years 1736-1740.
The attribution to Liberi was confirmed by Prof. Ugo Ruggeri at the time of the 2008 sale.