- 533
Pietro Antonio Rotari
Description
- Pietro Antonio Rotari
- The meeting of Alexander the Great and Roxana, behind a trompe-l'oeil curtain
- oil on canvas
Provenance
By whom sold, Bautzmann, Dresden, 16 April 1860, lot 46 (without attribution);
Bader collection, USA, by 1987;
Anonymous sale, New York, Christie's, 3 October 2001, lot 57, where acquired.
Exhibited
Milwaukee, Milwaukee Art Museum, The Detective's Eye. Investigating the Old Masters, 19 January - 19 March 1989, no. 49A (as Bolognese school);
Washington, National Gallery of Art, Deceptions and Illusions: Five Centuries of Trompe l'Oeil Painting, 13 October 2002 - 2 March 2003, no. 11.
Literature
J.A. Riedel and C.F. Wenzel, Catalogue des Tableaux de la Galerie Electorale à Dresde, supplement, Dresden 1765, p. 244;
J.A. Riedel, Verzeichnis der Königlich-Sächsischen Bildergalerie zu Dresden, neu gefertigt und vollendet im Jahr 1809, Dresden 1809, vol. II, cat. no. 1767, (erroneously described in reverse and as depicting Alexander and the wife of Darius);
Verzeichnis der Gemälde im Doubletten-Saal 1821, Dresden 1821, cat. no. 382;
Verzeichnis der im Vorrat befindlichen Gemälde, Dresden before 1841, cat. no. 165;
G.J.M. Weber, in Pietro Graf Rotari in Dresden; ein italienischer maler am hof Konig
August III, exhibition catalogue, Dresden 1999, pp. 48-50 and 128;
P. Conisbee, in S. Ebert-Schifferer (ed.), Deceptions and Illusions: Five Centuries of Trompe l'Oeil Painting, exhibition catalogue, Washington 2002, pp. 132-133, cat. no. 11, reproduced and in detail p. 122;
Y. Yapou, "Trompe l'oeil in Washington", in Apollo, March 2003, p. 46.
Condition
"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."
Catalogue Note
As Gregor J.M. Weber notes, the painting reprises the composition of the artist’s Meeting of Alexander the Great and Roxana, unobscured by the trompe l’oeil curtain, now in the State Hermitage Museum, Saint Petersburg (inv. no. 2223, fig. 1). The painting depicts an episode from the life of Alexander the Great, during a siege of a fortress in Bactria. In an attempt to garner support from the Persian aristocracy, Alexander resolves to marry Roxana, the recently captured daughter of a local Bactrian nobleman. Rotari here depicts the moment in which Roxana appears demurely before the startled Alexander who is astounded by her beauty. Whereas in the Hermitage version Rotari sets the stage with the viewer in plain sight of the seductive story as it unfolds, here the artist imbues the scene with a theatrical and rather playful dynamic as he paints a delicately embroidered trompe l’oeil lace curtain between the viewer and the protagonists. Alexander’s attendant in the lower right corner gathers the emperors armor as he gazes curiously at the strategic courtship taking place before him. Only he is afforded an unobstructed view of the scene, whilst the viewers behind the curtain catch merely a tantalizing yet fleeting glimpse of the power play in action.