Giacomo Ceruti

Brescia, Monastero di Santa Giulia, Giacomo Ceruti: Il Pitocchetto, 13 June - 31 October 1987.

Giacomo Ceruti: Il Pitocchetto, exhibition catalogue, Milan 1987, pp. 60-61, reproduced p. 61.

"The following condition report has been provided by Henry Gentle, an independent restorer who is not an employee of Sotheby's. There is restoration to the upper corners and to the brown of the sleeve, instability of the paint layer is still an issue in these areas. The rest of the painting is in good original, untouched condition. Offered in a carved gilt and black painted frame with some worm damage."
"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."

When this painting was rediscovered prior to the 1987 Ceruti exhibition in Brescia, Prof. Luciano Anelli described it as "un importante e recentissimo ritrovamento" (see under Literature, p. 60). Prof. Anelli has pointed out that the glass support is unusual in Ceruti's oeuvre but was in fact quite common in the north of Italy during the eighteenth century.

This work clearly shows the influence of Venetian painting on Ceruti's work, both in style and design. The composition is in fact based on a lost drawing (or painting) by the Venetian artist Giovanni Battista Piazzetta (1682-1754) known through the engraving, in reverse, by Marco Alvise Pitteri (see M.A. Wiel, L'eredità di Piazzetta: Volti e figure nell'incisione del Settecento, Venice 1996, p. 23, cat. no. 23, reproduced).