Lot 22
  • 22

FILIPPO PALIZZI | Noah's Ark

Estimate
300,000 - 500,000 GBP
bidding is closed

Description

  • Noah's Ark
  • signed and dated Filip. Palazzi 67' lower left
  • oil on canvas
  • 104.5 by 150.5cm., 41 by 59½in.

Provenance

Commissioned from the artist by a French private collector in 1867
Private collection, Italy (circa 1900)
Sale: Christie's, London, 21 November 2011, lot 54
Purchased at the above sale by the present owner

Exhibited

Vasto, Palazzo d'Avalos, I fratelli Palizzi, 1989, no. 31

Literature

Luigi Salerno, Da Palizzi a Mancini-diciotto dipinti di una raccolta privata, Rome, 1959, p. 16, illustrated
Enrico Piceni (ed.), Catalogo Bolaffi della pittura italiana dell'800, no. 3, Turin, 1970, p. 353, illustrated

Condition

The canvas has been lined and is securely attached to a keyed wooden stretcher. Inspection under ultra-violet light reveals strokes of retouching along the four framing edges. Scattered spots and strokes of cosmetic retouching are visible in the sky, possibly addressing thinness in the paint resulting from previous cleaning. There is a circa 15 by 5cm area of retouching in the lower right quadrant below the white horse, possibly addressing an old tear. Some other minor, finely applied lines and spots of retouching are visible throughout. Overall, this work presents very well and is in good condition. This work is ready to hang. Presented in a decorative gilt frame with a nameplate.
"In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective, qualified opinion. Prospective buyers should also refer to any Important Notices regarding this sale, which are printed in the Sale Catalogue.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS PRINTED IN THE SALE CATALOGUE."

Catalogue Note

Then the waters began to settle down,
And the ark touched bottom on the tallest peak
Of old Mount Ararat.
The dove brought Noah the olive leaf,
And Noah when he saw that the grass was green,
Opened up the ark, and they all climbed down,
The folks, and the animals, two by two,
Down from the mount to the valley.
And Noah wept and fell on his face
And hugged and kissed the dry ground.

And then—
God hung out his rainbow cross the sky,
And he said to Noah: That's my sign!
No more will I judge the world by flood—
Next time I'll rain down fire. From James Weldon Johnson's poem, Noah Built the Ark, 1927

This veritable panoply of the animal world, and a tour de force of animalier painting, reprises the 1864 version shown at the 1867 Exposition Universelle in Paris and bought there by King Victor Emmanuel II (now in the Museo Capodimonte, Naples). The scale of the work befits the subject's quite literally biblical proportions, yet every animal and its distinct character and gait is observed with painstaking and empathetic attention to detail.    

Palizzi is considered the leading Neapolitan animal painter of the Italian Ottocento. Known as a painter of horses and sheep, the subject of the Deluge provided him with the opportunity to show off his precocious skills at capturing fauna of all kinds. In conceiving this grand composition, from the spatial recession to the luminosity of the palette, he was no doubt inspired and influenced by the work of the Northern Renaissance masters, and of Jan Breughel the Elder in particular (fig. 1), which he saw during his travels to the Netherlands in the 1850s.