Gerolamo Induno

Galeria Pisani, Florence
Acquired by the present owner's great-great-grandparents (circa 1900)
Thence by descent

The following condition report was kindly provided by Simon Parkes Art Conservation, Inc.: This picture has probably never been restored. In its marvelous and unrestored frame, the painting creates quite an image. The canvas is unlined and quite wavy. It could be tightened and relaxed without lining. The paint layer is extremely dirty and although there are a few cracks in the mother's face and a couple of blemishes along the bottom edge, hardly any retouches will be necessary and the condition is almost perfect.
"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."

In the tight compositional space of Induno's Baby's Delight, each carefully chosen visual detail speaks of secure social status, domestic comfort, and cultural erudition.  Here, a young mother dressed in fine silks sits before a piano, its simple keyboard juxtaposed with its heavily decorated and gilded legs, reflected in the highly polished floor.  The mother's hands are poised above the piano's keys as her child is held aloft, rattle in hand, by her more humbly-dressed caretaker. Domenico Cimarosa's score for Il Matrimonio Segreto is propped against the piano's music stand. Cimarora's operatic work was notable for its humor and eccentricity, and Il Matrimonio Segreto was hugely popular in its day, an excellent example of Italy's opera buffa (comic opera).  Based on the 1766 English comedy "The Clandestine Marriage" by David Garrick and George Colman and first performed in 1792 (Induno's apparent inscription of 1770 on the score's cover is likely a simple error), Cimarora's opera tells the story of Geronimo, a wealthy Bolognese who hopes to marry his two daughters Elisetta  and Carolina to fitting suitors.  Little does Geronimo know that Carolina has eloped with his secretary Paolino, and the subsequent discovery creates a series of hilarious episodes.  Such mature fare seems advanced for this young listener; indeed, the score's closed cover and the mother's hands gently placed upon the keys suggest that she has chosen to play a sweet refrain from a lullaby instead.   No matter the tune played, the status of the family is safely established in the composition.  Unlike Induno and his Italian contemporaries' genre scenes of peasant mothers and children at play in kitchens of open fires, humble crockery, and free-roaming chickens, this room's only rusticity appears in the country-village tapestry hung along the wall.  Induno uses this elaborate decorative backdrop, combined with the glossy wood-tiled floor, to turn this music room into a performative stage-like space.  For the late nineteenth century bourgeoisie, listening to and playing music had become both a recreational pastime and an important educational element, especially for girls. The expanding rate in the construction of concert halls was matched by demand for music rooms within private homes.  Such a proliferation of places to enjoy a concert--by Europe's great orchestras or an amateur woman of the house--reflected a shift in music appreciation.  No longer mere background ambiance for social events (balls, dinners), music had become an activity to be enjoyed in and of itself  (see: Anne Leonard, "Varieties of Attention: A (Mostly) Nineteenth-Century View," in Martha Ward and Anne Leonard, Looking and Listening in Nineteenth Century France, exh. cat., Chicago, 2007, pp. 1; 8-11). 

For a similar version of the present work titled Gioie materne, dating from 1876, see: A. M. Comanducci, Dizonario illustrato de Pittori, Disegnatori e Incisori Italiani Moderni e Contemporanei, Milan, 1971, 7th ed., vol. III, p. 1613, illustrated.