Giovanni Martinelli

Anonymous sale, Florence, Palazzo Capponi, 18 October 1969, lot 22;
Cafrish collection, Catania;
Private collection, Lugano;
With Old and Modern Masters, London, from whom acquired by the present owner.

London, Voena, Florence: From the Medici to the Habsburg Lorraines. Paintings, Drawings and Works of Art, 24 June - 14 July 2006.

G. Cantelli, Repertorio della pittura fiorentina del Seicento, Fiesole 1983, p. 108;
R. Chiappini, Opere d'Arte della Città di Lugano. La Collezione, Muzzano 1998, p. 42, no. 24, reproduced.

The following condition report has been provided by Simon Parkes of Simon Parkes Art Conservation, Inc. 502 East 74th St. New York, NY 212-734-3920, simonparkes@msn.com , an independent restorer who is not an employee of Sotheby's. This painting has been recently restored and should most likely be hung as is. The canvas has been recently lined; the paint layer is clean and has been varnished very accurately and well-retouched. There are two significant damages. One is a horizontal tear running through the arm in the lower right; this runs approximately seven inches long. In the shadowed side of the face beneath the brooch here, there is another loss approximately two by one inches. Elsewhere, in the background, there are very few retouches and the hand in the palette are also in good shape. The torso and the face have received numerous very small and accurate retouches to address some thinness and cracking. The retouches provide the picture with a lot of character and there is no reason to reexamine the conservation.
"This lot is offered for sale subject to Sotheby's Conditions of Business, which are available on request and printed in Sotheby's sale catalogues. The independent reports contained in this document are provided for prospective bidders' information only and without warranty by Sotheby's or the Seller."

Martinelli painted a number of half or bust length female figures, representing either female saints, ancient queens or allegorical ideals. Two such works are in the Uffizi, Florence, and represent allegories of Sculpture and Music.¹ These works have been dated by Cantelli to circa 1640-50 and, on stylistic grounds, a similar dating for the present work would seem appropriate. During this time Martinelli's work took on a greater sense of drama, usually, as here, in the shape of striking light effects, and in this he was clearly inspired by Caravaggio and his followers whose work he would have studied during his sojourn in Rome from 1625 to 1632.  Much of Martinelli's oeuvre is allegorical in flavour and, other than the works mentioned above, this is perhaps best illustrated by his famous series of works which follow a vanitas theme, depicting a skeleton approaching a group of usually well-to-do people seated around a dinner table; see for example, the Death comes to the Table sold London, Christie's, 5 July 1996, lot 42. Of other female half lengths the present work is perhaps best compared with Vanity of Earthly Pleasures, in a private collection, Italy.²

1. See Gli Uffizi. Catalogo Generale, Florence 1979, p. 371, nos. P1020 and P1021.
2. For which see C. d'Afflito, in Il Seicento Fiorentino. Pittura, Florence 1986, pp. 330-1, no. 1.172, reproduced.