Lot 11
  • 11

Mattia Preti

bidding is closed

Description

  • Mattia Preti
  • David Playing the Harp before Saul
  • oil on canvas

Provenance

Duca di San Severino Gruther, Naples, by 1742;
Private collection (acquired in Naples, 1890s);
Thence by descent to M. Fraser, Córdoba, Argentina;
With Matthiesen Fine Art, Ltd., London, 1986;
Anonymous Sale, New York, Sotheby's, 24 January 2008, lot 104;
Private Collection, United States.

Exhibited

London, Matthiesen Fine Art, Ltd., Baroque III 1620 - 1700, An Exhibition in Aid of The National Art-Collections Fund, 1986, no. 25, reproduced p. 119;
Jerusalem, The Israel Museum, on loan, 1999 - March 2002;
Bartlesville, Oklahoma, The Price Tower Arts Center, 'Music's Power:' Great European Paintings on Musical Themes, 10 May - 28 July 2002, no. 9;
Jerusalem, The Israel Museum, on loan, 2005 - 2008.

Literature

B. De Dominici, Vite de' Pittori, Scultori ed Architetti Napoletani, Naples 1742 (reprint Bologna 1979), vol. III, p. 372;
J. Spike, "The Feast of Absalom by Mattia Preti," in Annual Bulletin-National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa, 1979, p. 8;
J. Spike, Mattia Preti, Catalogue Raisonné of the Paintings, Florence 1999, pp. 368-369, cat. no. 307, reproduced p. 369 (as circa 1668);
O. Sirkin, "The Drama of David and Saul," in The Israel Museum Journal, 2000, vol. XVIII, pp. 88-89, reproduced p. 88.

Catalogue Note

David Playing The Harp Before Saul, painted circa 1670, marks the transition to Preti's late style, which can be characterized by a more muted palette, and is one of the important recent additions to Mattia Preti's oeuvre.  It is recorded by the artist's biographer, Bernardo De Dominici, and was one of four paintings that he saw in the Gallery of the Palazzo of the Duca di San Severino Gruther in Naples in 1742.