Giovanni Battista Salvi, called Sassoferrato

With Bob Haboldt, New York;
With Eric Turquin, Paris, 2005.

"The following condition report has been provided by Henry Gentle, an independent restorer who is not an employee of Sotheby's. The original canvas is lined and the paint layer is stable, though slightly raised in places. There are areas of the paint surface, particularly around the blue mantle and the flesh tones, where burst microscopic blisters of paint can be detected, a phenomenon of a degraded ground layer, these have been assiduously restored out and are visible under ultraviolet light. The rest of the painting is in a well preserved state, especially the texture of the blue robe and the white veil. The varnish is only slightly degraded. Offered in an ornate carved gilt wood frame in good condition."
"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."

Giovanni Battista Salvi was known by the name of his town of birth, Sassoferrato, and was primarily active in nearby Urbino and other central Italian cities. In Rome he came under the influence of Annibale Carracci and Domenichino, of whom he was a pupil for some time. His style appears to be almost deliberately archaic and the precise draughtsmanship and choice of colouring, which were not typical of his Italian Baroque contemporaries, led eighteenth-century historians to believe that he was in fact a contemporary of Raphael.

Other than a few public commissions, Sassoferrato painted mainly small devotional pictures for private clients and The Madonna at prayer was one of his most popular subjects. This is a fine example of a composition which the artist repeated on various occasions; other autograph versions can be found, for example, in the Pinacoteca dei Musei Civici in Pesaro and in the Monastero di Santa Chiara in Sassoferrato.¹  

We are grateful to Monsieur François Macé de Lépinay for endorsing the attribution to Sassoferrato on the basis of photographs. Monsieur de Lépinay plans to publish the painting in his forthcoming catalogue raisonné on the artist.

1. See Giovan Battista Salvi: "Il Sassoferrato", Milan 1990, exh. cat., pp. 100 & 127, cat. nos. 39 & 63, both reproduced.