- 241
Follower of Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio
Estimate
25,000 - 35,000 GBP
bidding is closed
Description
- Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio
- Saint John the Baptist drinking from a spring
- oil on canvas
Provenance
Cecchi collection, Florence.
Literature
E. Borea, "Caravaggio e la Spagna: Osservazioni su una mostra a Siviglia", in Bollettino d'arte, vol. 59, 1974, p. 45, reproduced p. 53, fig. 1 (as Spadarino);
B. Nicolson, Caravaggism in Europe, Turin 1990, vol. I, p. 89 (as by a Roman-based anonymous follower of Caravaggio).
B. Nicolson, Caravaggism in Europe, Turin 1990, vol. I, p. 89 (as by a Roman-based anonymous follower of Caravaggio).
Catalogue Note
This painting was known in the late 1950s to Roberto Longhi, who considered it to be a work by Caravaggio (private communication to the uncle of the present owners). It was subsequently published by Borea as Spadarino but was not included in Gianni Papi's 2003 monograph, neither among autograph nor rejected works. Although evidently very caravaggesque in spirit, the composition does not appear to be based on a Caravaggio original. Another version of the composition, of slightly larger dimensions (177 by 121 cm.), is in Plasencia Cathedral in western Spain (see Nicolson, under Literature, reproduced vol. II, fig. 254).