Jacopo Amigoni

With L'Art Ancien, Lugano, Switzerland, circa 1921 (as featured in that firm's catalogue no. 1, in which the painting was priced at 4,000 Swiss francs);
Pat Newbern, Dallas, acquired circa 1960s;
Thence by descent until sold, Dallas, Heritage Auctions, 9 December 2015, lot 66036;
There acquired by the present owner.

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 work is in lovely condition. The canvas has a non-wax lining. The surface is slightly uneven but attractive nonetheless. The texture and condition of the paint are extremely good. There are a few retouches in the sky addressing the odd crack and small loss, but the lower half of the work, including all of the figures, shows almost no retouches at all. The work is very presentable in its current state and should be hung as is.
"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."

Only recently rediscovered, this rich and exotic representation of Sophronia and Olindo was painted around 1740 by Jacopo Amigoni.  Unseen since its sale in 1960 (see Provenance), when the painting recently reappeared, Dottoressa Annalisa Scarpa, author of the artist’s catalogue raisonné, endorsed the attribution and date, observing stylistic affinities between this painting and Amigoni’s Abrocome and Anzia in the Staatsgalerie, Stuttgart (inv. no. 3351).¹  The present canvas corresponds with paintings executed by Amigoni in the period following his return to Venice from Great Britain in 1739.  The artist remained in Italy until 1747 when he relocated to Spain at the invitation of King Ferdinand VI, holding the position of First Court Painter.

Amigoni takes his subject from Torquato Tasso’s Gerusalemme Liberata, an epic poem completed in 1575 and published in Parma six years later. Tasso’s poem recounts tales from the first crusade, culminating in Godfrey de Bouillon's liberation of Jerusalem in 1099.  The episode selected by the artist is an account from Book II, in which a female mercenary, Clorinda, dramatically rescues two Christian lovers from burning at the stake. In the painting we see Sophronia, a Christian accused of desecrating an Islamic image, sentenced to death by the Saracens and lashed to the stake with her lover, Olindo, who has chosen to die by her side. A Saracen, poised to ignite the pyre, is interrupted by the arrival of the Persian Clorinda, in full armour, who rides in on a white stallion, to the evident surprise of the Saracen king at left:

The lovers standing in this doleful wise,
A warrior bold unwares approached near,
In uncouth arms yclad and strange disguise,
From countries far, but new arrived there,
A savage tigress on her helmet lies,
The famous badge Clorinda used to bear;
That wonts in every warlike stowre to win,
By which bright sign well known was that fair inn.² 

Touched by the plight of the two Christian lovers, Clorinda offers to fight alongside the Saracens in return for their lives being spared.  Tasso’s work enjoyed renewed success at the beginning of the eighteenth century, though this is the only known painting by Amigoni to have been inspired by the poem.  Other Venetian painters of the period, however, found inspiration in the subject, including Giambattista Pittoni, whose depiction of Clorinda rescuing Olinda and Sophronia is now in the Museo Civico, Vicenza.³

 

1. A. Scarpa Sonino, Jacopo Amigoni, Soncino 1994, pp. 132-135, cat. no. 34, reproduced p. 133.
2. T. Tasso, Gerusalemme liberata, (E. Fairfax translation, London 1600), H. Morley (ed.), New York 1901, book II, canto XXXVIII.
3. F. Zava Boccazzi, Pittoni, Venice 1979, pp. 179-180, cat. no. 241 reproduced figs. 35-36.