Giovanni Ghisolfi

G. Sestieri, Capriccio architettonico in Italia nel XVII e XVIII, Rome 2015, vol. II, p. 107, cat. no. 19, reproduced p. 106.

The canvas has been relined. As a result the surface has been flattened, although there are traces of good quality impasto, particularly in the sky. The paint surface is secure. The light tones, particularly those in the sky, have discoloured, probably due to a dirty varnish. Very few small scattered retouchings can be seen at the lower left margin. A horizontal retouching measuring approximately 6 cm can be seen half way up the third column from the left. A retouching measuring approximately 4 by 4 cm can be seen in the piece of architectural debris at the right. Inspection under ultraviolet light reveals an even varnish and very small scattered retouchings to the mountain landscape and the two figures just to the left of Alexander. The other figures, the foliage, the sky and the architectural elements are otherwise free of retouchings. Overall the work is in good condition. The work is offered in a gilt carved frame with a few minor knocks.
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The monogram GAE, found at the lower left of the present work, has traditionally been accepted as belonging to the Milanese painter Giovanni Ghisolfi.¹ David R. Marshall has recently suggested that the dozen or so known works possessing this monogram are either early works by Ghisolfi, prior to his arrival in Rome in 1650, or by another artist called the Monogrammist GAE, who was possibly of north Italian origin and owed the basis of his style to the example of the mature Ghisolfi.² In Sestieri's recent publication (see Literature) he writes that in his opinion the works signed by the monogrammist GAE are likely to be by Ghisolfi in collaboration with a second artist who was responsible for the staffage, and whose initials have been included alongside his own within the monogram. The rare subject depicts Thalestris, queen of the Amazons, arriving at Alexander's camp in Hyrcania with the intention, later realised, of conceiving his child.

1. See F. Bruillot, Dictionnaire des Monogrammes etc., Munich 1832, p. 39, no. 288 and G.K. Nagler, Die Monogrammisten und die jenigen bekannten und unbekannten Künstler aller Schulen, Munich 1919, p. 964, no. 2697.
2. D.R. Marshall, 'Giovanni Ghisolfi or the 'Monogrammist GAE' at Stourhead?', in The Burlington Magazine, vol. CXXXVIII, no. 1123, October 1996, pp. 685–90.