- 181
Pietro Paolini
Estimate
60,000 - 80,000 GBP
bidding is closed
Description
- Pietro Paolini
- The intercession of Esther with King Ahasuerus and Haman
- oil on canvas
Provenance
Mugnani family, Lucca, until 1930;
Helen Dill;
Bought by the Denver Art Museum, Denver, in the first half of the 1960s (as Bolognese School, later attributed to Paolini);
By whom sold to benefit the acquisitions fund, New York, Christie's, 29 January 1998, lot 159 (as circle of Donato Creti), for $150,000.
Helen Dill;
Bought by the Denver Art Museum, Denver, in the first half of the 1960s (as Bolognese School, later attributed to Paolini);
By whom sold to benefit the acquisitions fund, New York, Christie's, 29 January 1998, lot 159 (as circle of Donato Creti), for $150,000.
Literature
C.M. Bach, Language of vision, Denver Art Museum Quarterly, Winter 1966, p. 15, reproduced;
P.G. Maccari, Pietro Paolini pittore lucchese 1603–1681, Lucca 1987, p. 112, cat. no. 29, reproduced fig. 29.
P.G. Maccari, Pietro Paolini pittore lucchese 1603–1681, Lucca 1987, p. 112, cat. no. 29, reproduced fig. 29.
Catalogue Note
The episode depicted here comes from chapters 5–7 in the Old Testament book of Esther, in which Esther intercedes with King Ahasuerus to spare the Jews. The king had taken Esther as his wife, not knowing she was Jewish, but when his councillor Haman decreed that all Jews in the Persian empire should be massacred, Esther intervened on behalf of her people and the king granted her request.
This painting was formerly owned by the Mugnani family in Lucca, along with another picture of identical dimensions, now in the Donzelli collection in Florence.1 The two pictures were possibly conceived as pendants, although they would appear to represent the same subject. Maccari proposes an alternative title for the present work as The Queen of Sheba before King Solomon.2
1. See Maccari 1987, p. 113, cat. no. 30, reproduced fig. 30.
2. Maccari 1987, p. 112, under cat. no. 29.