Giulio Benso

With Galerie de Bayser, Paris; acquired in 1995

Laid down. Hinged to a relatively modern mount. Big vertical fold/crease with some losses at center. Another vertical crease through the kneeling bishopto the left. Small losses at left edge.
In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective qualified opinion.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING CONDITION OF A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD "AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF SALE PRINTED IN THE CATALOGUE.

As an adolescent, Benso left his native town and came to Genoa, where he made such a strong impression on Giovanni Carlo Doria, the city's most important patron, that he entered the workshop of Giovanni Battista Paggi, the leading artist of the early seventeenth-century Genoese school.  Consequently, the young Benso came to be influenced by numerous artists, not only Paggi and his master, Luca Cambiaso, but also Vouet and Procaccini, who were in Genoa at the end of the second decade. 

Benso painted the subject of the Assumption many times. The frequency with which the theme occurs in his work may be due to the fact that in 1637 the Genoese Senate declared the Virgin the patron saint of Genoa and its republic.  Both the artist's fame and that of the subject were not, however, confined to the city: in 1644 Benso painted the same subject for the Schottenkirche in Vienna.¹  The present representation replaces the Apostles who witnessed the event with two kneeling bishops, one of whom may be St. Ambrose.

Stylistically, the Horvitz drawing can be compared to a sheet depicting Christ and the Adulterous Woman, in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.²  In both drawings, we see the same monumental figures, but combined with free, expressive pen-work and a lightness in the use of wash which seems particularly sensitive for the artist.

1. M. Newcome, Genoese Baroque Drawings, exhibition catalogue, Binghampton, New York, University Art Gallery, 1972, p. 19

2. See C. Bambach and N.M. Orenstein, Genoa, Drawings and Prints 1530-1800, exhibition catalogue, New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1996,  p. 14, cat. no. 2