Giovanni Stefano Danedi, called Montalto

The canvas has a recent relining. There are 3 old vertical seams. There is small recent 2 cm hole lower right visible in the catalogue illustration and some old marginal losses and tears, the largest of 12 cm in the upper right corner. Overall the painting is in good condition. The paint surface is generally well preserved with no major losses or damages, although it has suffered a little in some of the dark areas. The picture has been fairly recently surface cleaned and restored. Restoration work is generally confined to touching in old areas of wear. for example in most of the darks, in the shadowed flesh tones and legs of the Cupid, in the shadows and foliage to the right of Hercules and behind the female figures. There are also repairs to the areas of damage along the seam, notably in the drapery of the girl next to Hercules and in Omphale's torso, and to a lesser extent to the body of Hercules. Offered unframed
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Danedi's debt to his probable master Pier Francesco Mazzucchelli, il Morazzone can clearly be seen here in the muscular modelling of his figures and softly depicted skin tones.  Although establishing a chronology for Danedi's work is difficult a possible date in the late 1640s can be suggested for the present painting which has much in common with other works of his early maturity such as the Mystical Marriage of Saint Catherine, in a private collection.¹ 

We are grateful to Professor Francesco Frangi for endorsing the attribution to Danedi on the basis of photographs.

1. L.B. Gregori, I Montalto. Pittori Trevigliesi del '600, exhibition catalogue, Treviglio 1985, p. 86, no. 12, reproduced p. 87.