Domenico Zampieri, called Domenichino (1581-1641)

A boy playing a flute in an extensive wooded landscape

Details

Domenico Zampieri, called Domenichino (1581-1641)
Zampieri, D.
Domenichino
A boy playing a flute in an extensive wooded landscape
pen and brown ink
9.1/8 x 5 in. (232 x 133 mm.)

Provenance

Padre Resta
Giovanni Matteo Marchetti, Bishop of Arezzo, 1698, by descent to
Cavaliere Marchetti of Pistoia, 1704.
John, Lord Somers (L. 2981), by 1710, with related inventory number 'h.109'; Motteux, 16 May 1717.
J. Richardson, Sen. (L. 2184).
Earl Spencer (L. 1531).

Exhibited

London, Baskett and Day, 1973, no. 8, illustrated.

Sale room notice

The attribution should read 'Giovanni Francesco Grimaldi (1606-1680)

The new estimate is $15,000-20,000.

Additional Literature:
N. Turner, Roman Baroque Drawings, c.1620 to c.1700, London, 1999, under no. 144 (58). Further versions of this drawing are in the British Museum, London, and formerly with A. Neerman.

Lot Essay

Padre Resta, a near contemporary of the artist, attributed the drawing to Domenichino, according to the Lansdowne Ms. 802 in the British Library, which consists of Richardson's copies after Resta's inscriptions. For Resta as a collector see lot 37.
The drawing is similar in handling to a number of landscapes by Domenichino at Windsor, J. Pope-Hennessy, The Drawings of Domenichino in the Collection of His Majesty the King at Windsor Castle, London, 1948, fig. 63-5 and pls. 63-66.
Domenichino often introduced into the background of his compositions landscape scenes animated with figures, including musicians, R.E. Spear, Domenichino, New Haven and London, 1982, nos. 16 and 55, figs. 30 and 193.
Such figures are probably inspired by the young boy playing bagpipes in the foreground of Annibale's Adoration of the Shepherds now lost but known through the copy by Domenichino formerly at Dulwich and now in the National Galleries of Scotland in Edinburgh. The landscape itself is also strongly influenced by Annibale.