Benedetto Luti Florence 1666 - 1724 Rome

This is a previously unrecorded painting by Benedetto Luti, and is a significant addition to his œuvre of oil paintings, of which only 75 or so survive. Luti portrayed this subject on several occasions, although this is perhaps the most intimate of all. The best known treatment of the subject survives in at least two versions, the prime original probably being that stored in the Staatsgalerien, Munich, painted in Rome in 1715;¹ here the protagonists are seated in a classical chamber which overlooks a large garden and temple. Another variant of the subject was sold Vienna, A. Kende, 4-5 November 1921, lot 62.

Luti was a prolific draughtsman; the subtle juxtaposition of colours and the softness of execution in his oil paintings are undoubtedly the result of having made numerous pastel and coloured chalk drawings, the medium in which he was most famed. With his many studies of single heads of children and saints he deliberately evoked the charm and luminosity of Correggio, whose influence is quite apparent in the young Virgin’s face here. Luti made many drawings of his daughters and it is quite possible that the Virgin’s face is here transcribed from one such drawing. The figure of Saint Elizabeth is similarly a typecast of Luti’s and in her monumentality may be compared with his portrayal of the prophet Isaiah of 1718 in the Church of San Giovanni in Laterano, Rome.²

This lot is accompanied by a letter from Prof. Giancarlo Sestieri dated 10 November 2004, endorsing the attribution to Benedetto Luti.


1. H. Voss, Die Malerei des Barock in Rom, Berlin 1924, p. 610, reproduced fig. 366.
2. S. Rudolph (ed.), La pittura del ‘700 a Roma, Milan 1983, reproduced fig. 409.