This elegant oval canvas of the mythological Hylas holding an elaborate gold vase is an autograph version of a composition Volterrano originally painted in fresco for Cardinal Giovan Carlo de’ Medici for the Villa Castello.1 The present lot dates to circa 1650, very shortly after the fresco’s creation, and it was commissioned by Cosimo di Antonio Citerni. Cosimo was the fifth and last son of Antonio di Bartolomeo Citerni, a wealthy grain merchant, and though it seems his brothers Luca and Benedetto held offices at the Medici court, Cosimo himself did not. Benedetto in fact worked for Cardinal Giovan Carlo and Cosimo certainly had the opportunity to see Volterrano’s fresco of Hylas at the Villa Castello and commission his own version on canvas from the artist. Cosimo died in 1653 without heirs, and the painting passed to his brother Bendetto and later Benedetto’s son Antonio (1651 - 1720), who also had an illustrious career in the service of the Medici, first at the Palazzo Pitti and later as the curator of the Villa di Poggio a Caiano under Grand Prince Ferdinand.2

Hylas was the companion and servant of Hercules and accompanied the demigod on the Argonaut and other adventures. While gathering water for the Argonauts at the Pegae in Mysia, water nymphs fell in love with Hylas and captured him, dragging him to an underwater cave, never to return. Hercules had loved the young man like a son and was devastated to lose his friendship. Here Hylas is shown holding the water vessel, likely in the moments before his capture, giving the boy’s wistful gaze a melancholy air for viewers who knew the tragic ending to his story.

Fig. 1. Baldassare Franceschini, called Volterrano, Hylas with a vase, circa 1657. Oil on canvas, 101 by 86 cm. Staatsgalerie, Stuttgart, inv. 3335.

The subject of a young man as Hylas was popular among Volterrano’s patrons: Baldinucci lists three depictions of the subject, but more have since been identified. In addition to the fresco for Cardinal Giovan Carlo and the present lot, a rectangular canvas today in the Staatsgalerie, Stuttgart (fig. 1) includes a vase illustrating Hylas being carried off by the nymphs. A Portrait of the Marchese Altoviti as Hylas was sold at Christie’s New York, 26 April 2017, lot 31,3 and a further painting of a similar size depicting Altoviti as either Hylas or Ganymede, painted for Francesco Parrocchiani, was recently with Robilant + Voena.4

  1. “Per Cosimo Citerni dipinse a olio in un ovato un Ilo col vaso…”
  2. Detached fresco. M.C. Fabbri 2013, cat. no. 29.
  3. See M.C. Fabbri 2013, p. 153.
  4. Oil on canvas, 38 x 30 ¼ in.