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Lot Essay
Until its recent rediscovery, this important early work by Carlo Maratti was only known through prints and copies, believed to be after a lost work that had been attributed to both Andrea Sacchi and Nicolas Poussin. As one of his earliest works, this picture marks a key juncture in Maratti’s oeuvre, during which the young artist was developing his personal style while steeping himself in the art of his forbears in Rome. It was executed shortly before Maratti received his first major commission to paint The Adoration of the Shepherds for the High Altar in the Church of San Giuseppe dei Falegnami, Rome, which rapidly propelled him into the city’s artistic elite. His popularity was aided by contemporary tastes in Rome, which by the end of the Seicento were gravitating towards a more pronounced classicism. Here, Maratti’s fluent artistic idiom is already evident: the expressive gesticulations of his figures evoke the drama of Baroque paintings he would have seen in Rome, while their lapidary profiles – derived from Antique sculpture – and the clear, vibrant palette in which they are painted would have appealed to the restrained dignity of a more classicizing mode, as espoused by his teacher Andrea Sacchi.
The historic confusion surrounding the attribution stemmed from misinterpretations of two engravings: the first by Louis Cossin (fig. 1) in the 17th century, then believed to be after a composition by Poussin; and the second by Mathieu Liart (1767; fig. 2), made after a second version of the present picture in the collection of the Duke at Devonshire, Chatsworth House, which had been traditionally attributed to Sacchi. In the mid-20th century, both attributions were independently questioned by Anthony Blunt (‘Poussin Studies XIII: Early Falsifications of Poussin’, The Burlington Magazine, CIV, no. 716, November 1962, pp. 489-90) and Richard Spear (loc. cit.), the latter suggesting the Chatsworth picture is by Maratti and proposing the possibility that the ‘lost’ prototype was also painted by him or by Sacchi.
Professor Stella Rudolph dates the present painting to 1649-1651. In this context, the misattribution of the version at Chatsworth to Sacchi is understandable given the elder artist’s influence on the young Maratti, which can be felt in the arrangement of the composition, comparable to Sacchi’s Sacrifice to Pan (Castelfusano, Villa Chigi) in the encircling swathes of figures around a central fire. Indeed, the dexterity of Maratti’s draughtsmanship is the result of his time in Sacchi’s studio, which followed the customary Roman training program of copying models of Antique sculpture and celebrated Renaissance works. This working method is attested to by the existence of several preparatory drawings directly related to this Sacrifice, all now held at the Academia de San Fernando, Madrid. Notably, the profile of the standing figure to the left of the composition, modelled on the Apollo Belvedere, appears in one drawing together with studies of robes for the figure of God that only appear in Cossin’s engraving of the composition (inv. no. 1584, recto). Other sheets show studies of the leaning female figure to the left (inv. no. 1584, verso); Noah’s right leg and the arms of the figure behind the altar (inv. no. 1478); the hands and legs of the keeling figure in the foreground (inv. no. 1572); and a further study of Cossin’s God and supporting angels (inv. no. 1424).
We are grateful to Professor Stella Rudolph for confirming the attribution to Carlo Maratti and for her assistance in cataloguing this lot. Professor Rudolph will include the present canvas in her forthcoming catalogue raisonné of the artist's work.
A studio version of this composition was also offered at Sotheby’s, London, 9 July 1998, lot 248.
The historic confusion surrounding the attribution stemmed from misinterpretations of two engravings: the first by Louis Cossin (fig. 1) in the 17th century, then believed to be after a composition by Poussin; and the second by Mathieu Liart (1767; fig. 2), made after a second version of the present picture in the collection of the Duke at Devonshire, Chatsworth House, which had been traditionally attributed to Sacchi. In the mid-20th century, both attributions were independently questioned by Anthony Blunt (‘Poussin Studies XIII: Early Falsifications of Poussin’, The Burlington Magazine, CIV, no. 716, November 1962, pp. 489-90) and Richard Spear (loc. cit.), the latter suggesting the Chatsworth picture is by Maratti and proposing the possibility that the ‘lost’ prototype was also painted by him or by Sacchi.
Professor Stella Rudolph dates the present painting to 1649-1651. In this context, the misattribution of the version at Chatsworth to Sacchi is understandable given the elder artist’s influence on the young Maratti, which can be felt in the arrangement of the composition, comparable to Sacchi’s Sacrifice to Pan (Castelfusano, Villa Chigi) in the encircling swathes of figures around a central fire. Indeed, the dexterity of Maratti’s draughtsmanship is the result of his time in Sacchi’s studio, which followed the customary Roman training program of copying models of Antique sculpture and celebrated Renaissance works. This working method is attested to by the existence of several preparatory drawings directly related to this Sacrifice, all now held at the Academia de San Fernando, Madrid. Notably, the profile of the standing figure to the left of the composition, modelled on the Apollo Belvedere, appears in one drawing together with studies of robes for the figure of God that only appear in Cossin’s engraving of the composition (inv. no. 1584, recto). Other sheets show studies of the leaning female figure to the left (inv. no. 1584, verso); Noah’s right leg and the arms of the figure behind the altar (inv. no. 1478); the hands and legs of the keeling figure in the foreground (inv. no. 1572); and a further study of Cossin’s God and supporting angels (inv. no. 1424).
We are grateful to Professor Stella Rudolph for confirming the attribution to Carlo Maratti and for her assistance in cataloguing this lot. Professor Rudolph will include the present canvas in her forthcoming catalogue raisonné of the artist's work.
A studio version of this composition was also offered at Sotheby’s, London, 9 July 1998, lot 248.