- 48
Antonio Joli Modena circa 1700 - 1777 Naples
Description
- Antonio Joli
- Architectural capriccio with figures in oriental dress amongst ruins
- oil on canvas
Provenance
With Thomas Agnew & Sons Ltd., London (inv. no. 19511);
From whom acquired by Mr. G. Wiles, Queenstown, New Zealand (the above according to a label on the reverse);
Anonymous sale, London, Christie's, 11 November 1972, lot 40.
Literature
F. Arisi, Gian Paolo Panini e i fasti della Roma del '700, Rome 1986, p. 38;
M. Manzelli, Antonio Joli opera pittorica, Venice 1999, p. 132, cat. no. C.28, reproduced fig.122.
Catalogue Note
The foreground architecture and statuary in the present composition are almost identical to those which appear in three paintings, given by Ferdinando Arisi to Gian Paolo Panini: the first, an Architectural capriccio with a palace beyond, was sold at Sotheby's in London, 5 July 1967, lot 33; the second, showing Alexander the Great visiting the tomb of Achilles, in a Roman private collection, is of upright format and therefore closest to the present work; and the third, of the same subject as the latter, is in a private collection, Berlin (see Arisi, under Literature, pp. 242-3, cat. nos. 52-54 respectively, all reproduced).
Dr. Ralph Toledano, to whom we are grateful, has endorsed the attribution to Joli and plans to publish the work in his forthcoming catalogue raisonné.