- 315
Giovanni Battista Langetti Genoa 1635 - 1676 Venice
Estimate
40,000 - 60,000 USD
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Description
- Giovanni Battista Langetti
- Mercury Presenting Thunderbolts to Jupiter
- oil on canvas
Exhibited
New York, Robert Simon Fine Art, From Palace and Chapel, Important Old Master Paintings, 2005.
Literature
C.A. Levi, Le collezione veneziane d'arte e di antichita dal sec. XIV ai nostri giorni, Venice 1900, pp. 150, 152-153;
M.S. Mantovanelli, "Giovanni Battista Langetti", in Saggi e Memorie di storia dell'arte, XVII, 1990, p. 83;
R. Simon, From Palace and Chapel, Important Old Master Paintings, exhibition catalogue, New York 2005, reproduced p. 50.
M.S. Mantovanelli, "Giovanni Battista Langetti", in Saggi e Memorie di storia dell'arte, XVII, 1990, p. 83;
R. Simon, From Palace and Chapel, Important Old Master Paintings, exhibition catalogue, New York 2005, reproduced p. 50.
Catalogue Note
At an early age, Langetti moved from his native Genoa to Rome, where he studied under Pietro da Cortona. From there, he is thought to have travelled to Naples, where he absorbed the work of Neapolitan masters like Ribera, Francesca Fracazano, and, especially, Luca Giordano, whose work would have a profound impact on Langetti's own oeuvre.
In the present painting, the fusion of Langetti's personal style with the Neapolitan principles is evident in the artist's vigorous, vibrant brushwork and his theatrical use of light and chiaroscuro. Also evident in this painting is Langetti's own interest in human anatomy: he has cleverly posed Mercury and Jupiter in a way that displays their dramatically muscled torsos.