Francesco Trevisani Capodistria (Cape of Istra, Slovenia) 1656 - 1746 Rome

Painted for Cardinal Pietro Ottoboni (1667-1740) and probably sold on his death in 1740;
Thought to have been acquired by Mary Anne Shelley in Italy in the 1850s;
Thence by family descent.

"The following condition report has been provided by Henry Gentle, an independent restorer who is not an employee of Sotheby's. The copper panel is in good condition as is the paint layer apart from some minor raised paint upper right and left. The varnish is discoloured and beneath this can be seen some minor paint losses. The painting is in good condition overall."
"This lot is offered for sale subject to Sotheby's Conditions of Business, which are available on request and printed in Sotheby's sale catalogues. The independent reports contained in this document are provided for prospective bidders' information only and without warranty by Sotheby's or the Seller."

This exquisite small copper was almost certainly painted for Cardinal Pietro Ottoboni (1667-1740) in the early 18th century while Trevisani was under the cardinal's protection. As with many of the paintings Trevisani executed for him, Ottoboni's emblem, the double-headed eagle, is included; in this case on the vase of flowers centre left. In Trevisani's portrait of the cardinal in the Bowes Museum, Barnard Castle, the emblem appears twice, on the bell and on a chair in the background (fig. 1). As Ottoboni's 'painter-in-residence' from the late 1690s, living under his roof at the Palazzo della Cancelleria in Rome, Trevisani painted numerous pictures for the Cardinal. By 1698 Ottoboni had two pictures by Trevisani in his collection² and, as a mark of the esteem in which he held his painter, in 1709 he sought to secure a knighthood for the artist, albeit unsuccessfully; Trevisani was however finally granted one in 1730 by Cardinal Coscia, along with a pension of 300 scudi.

This is one of two known versions of the composition by Trevisani, the other being in the Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence, dated by DiFederico to 1690-1700;³ it is of approximately the same dimensions as this copper. The Uffizi version may have been painted as the right hand pendant to the Dream of St. Joseph, also in the Uffizi collection,⁴  which is also on copper and of the same approximate dimensions. 

The painting is not listed in the inventory of the cardinal's goods drawn up after his death on the 5th March 1740.⁵  Olszewski has argued that the omission of a number of key commissions from the inventory, such as Trevisani's Holy Family in the Cleveland Museum of Art, and indeed the overall low number of his paintings listed there (only thirty for approximately four decades of service), suggests that a substantial amount of Trevisani's paintings were disposed of before the inventory was completed.  Olszewski further argues that if pictures from Ottoboni's collection were indeed sold after his death, those by Trevisani would be the obvious choice, being both of the greatest value and not bound by the complicated papal uncle's primogeniture, fidecommissio restrictions, that so much of Ottoboni's collection was restricted by as a result of his having inherited it from his uncle Alexander VIII.⁶ 

The painting remains untraced after leaving the Ottoboni collection until the nineteenth century when it is believed to have been acquired in Italy in the 1860s by Mary Anne Shelley, a descendant of the present owner. Mary Anne Shelley was the granddaughter of Samuel Shelley (1750-1808), a miniaturist and founder member of the Royal Watercolour Society, and cousin of the poet Percy Bysshe Shelley. She lived in Florence during the 1860s after the death of her husband and during this time became a close friend and supporter of Garibaldi. 

1.  See F. R. DiFederico, Francesco Trevisani: Eighteenth-Century Painter in Rome, Washington D.C., 1977, p. 73, cat. no. P5, reproduced plate 100.
2.  The Dead Christ with angels at Stanford and the Three Maries in a private collection, California; idem, cat. nos. 24 and 25.
3.  Idem, p. 46, cat. no. 30, reproduced plate 24.
4.  Idem, p. 46, cat. no. 29, reproduced plate 23.
5.  E.J. Olszewski, The Inventory of Paintings of Cardinal Pietro Ottoboni (1667-1740), New York/ Oxford 2004.
6.  Idem, pp. 10-11.