Portrait of a musician, probably Petruccio, half-length, playing a theorbo

The unbroken provenance of this striking portrait, and the identity of the sitter, were in great part reconstructed by Leticia de Frutos in an article in Early Music in 2009. The musician is very probably the archlute player Petruccio, possibly also known as Pietro Ugolino, who was closely associated with Alessandro Scarlatti (1660-1725), the dominant figure of the musical world in Naples at the turn of the eighteenth century, and during the final years of the reign of Charles II. De Frutos demonstrates that this portrait, never before offered for sale, was one of a set of four, almost certainly commissioned by the Count of Santisteban when he was Viceroy of Naples, between 1687–1696. The quartet was completed by portraits showing Scarlatti (Madrid, Fundación ‘Casa de Alba’, Palacio de Liria), Matteo Sassano (1667-1737) (Madrid, Museo Nacional de Artes Decorativas), and Filippo Schor. For more on Petruccio himself see U. Prota-Giurleo, I teatri di Napoli nel '600, Naples, 1962, pp. 331 and 354 and G. Olivieri, 'Per una storia della tradizione violinistica napoletana del '700', in P. Maione (ed.), Fonti d'archivio per la storia della musica e dello spettacolo a Napoli tra XVI e XVII secolo, Naples, 2001, p. 245). While it seems very probable that the same hand was responsible for each of the pictures, and the Scarlatti has tentatively been given to Francesco Solimena, the attribution is not certain.