48
Domenico Maria Canuti (Bologna, 1626 - Bologna, 1684)
Portrait of an old man in oriental dress
Oil on canvas
cm. 98x75
Expertise by Prof. Andrea Emiliani. Expertise by Prof. Giuseppe Maria Pilo. Expertise by Prof. Pietro Zampetti. Expertise by Prof. Giancarlo Sestieri. Art Loss Register Certificate.
The work is accompanied by reports on the results of the diagnostic investigations of radiography, reflectographic imaging, chemical-stratigraphic study of the pictorial fragments, and chemical-stratigraphic analysis of the non-destructive tests.
The work was notified by the Ministry of Cultural Heritage and Activities on 31-10-2012, with a related historical-artistic report.
"The canvas is a replica of a painting in a private collection, attributed by Simonetta Stagni to the Bolognese painter Domenico Maria Canuti, depicting a half-length man with a showy Turkish turban, placed in front of an imposing twisted column. The figure, with a frowning face, a stern look and mouth, and a thick black beard, holds a whip and with the other hand holds his heavy and rich oriental cloak to his chest. He is accompanied by a dark-haired page boy in the background on the left, a detail that is omitted in the version presented here. According to Simonetta Stagni, it is a work executed during Canuti's stay in Rome (1672-6) and is a very rare, if not unique, example of Canutian portraiture, "perhaps a memento of the passage of some oriental ambassador through the capital or more likely a concession to the taste for the exotic that was very much in vogue at the time" (p. 77).
The work is accompanied by reports on the results of the diagnostic investigations of radiography, reflectographic imaging, chemical-stratigraphic study of the pictorial fragments, and chemical-stratigraphic analysis of the non-destructive tests.
The work was notified by the Ministry of Cultural Heritage and Activities on 31-10-2012, with a related historical-artistic report.
"The canvas is a replica of a painting in a private collection, attributed by Simonetta Stagni to the Bolognese painter Domenico Maria Canuti, depicting a half-length man with a showy Turkish turban, placed in front of an imposing twisted column. The figure, with a frowning face, a stern look and mouth, and a thick black beard, holds a whip and with the other hand holds his heavy and rich oriental cloak to his chest. He is accompanied by a dark-haired page boy in the background on the left, a detail that is omitted in the version presented here. According to Simonetta Stagni, it is a work executed during Canuti's stay in Rome (1672-6) and is a very rare, if not unique, example of Canutian portraiture, "perhaps a memento of the passage of some oriental ambassador through the capital or more likely a concession to the taste for the exotic that was very much in vogue at the time" (p. 77).
This simultaneously lively and elusive figure, however, is not free from a certain genericity and abstraction that casts doubt on its status as a portrait and seems to represent more of a type than an individual, more of a character than a personality. Be that as it may, the two works fully demonstrate Canuti's approach to representation, thanks to the fluid and highly skilled medium of his painting, as a broad, open, and restless movement of "baroque" forms: from the twisted column, to the exaggerated, almost wave-like, "billow" headdress, to the face with its furrowed, wrinkled brow, to the ample volume of the torso, to the sinewy beauty of the long fingers, and the silky texture of the heavy cloak.
The work [...] could advantageously integrate the collections of the Pinacoteca di Bologna which owns by Canuti in addition to the two sketches for the frescoes of the staircase of Palazzo Pepoli Campogrande, an altarpiece (Death of Saint Benedict) and a painting of a mythological subject (Hercules and Omphale).
Simonetta Stagni, Domenico Maria Canuti, Rimini, Luisè, 1988, pp. 77-79, pp. 173-174, n.35.
Jadranka Bentini, Vera Fortunati Pietrantonio, Elisabetta Sirani. "Heroine Painter" 1638-1665, Bologna, Compositori, 2004, p. 209, entry no. 56."
Ministerial historical-artistic report attached to the Notification of Cultural Interest provision, Ministry of Cultural Heritage and Activities.
Ministerial historical-artistic report attached to the Notification of Cultural Interest provision, Ministry of Cultural Heritage and Activities.
€ 15.000,00 / 25.000,00
Estimate