François de Nomé

Vittorio Ciri;
From whom acquired as a gift by Colette Roselli, 1961 (according to an inscription on the reverse of the stretcher);
Private collection, Rome.

C. Maltese, "Monsù Desiderio Architetto di rovine," Scritti in onore di Lionello Venturi, vol. II, Rome 1956, p. 76, reproduced fig. 13;
F. Sluys, Didier Barra et François de Nomé: dits Monsù Desiderio, Paris 1961, p. 129, cat. no. 109;
M. R. Nappi, François de Nomé e Didier Barra: l'enigma Monsù Desiderio, Milan 1991, pp. 205-206, cat. no. A 123, reproduced.

The following condition report has been provided by Simon Parkes of Simon Parkes Art Conservation, Inc. 502 East 74th St. New York, NY 212-734-3920, simonparkes@msn.com, an independent restorer who is not an employee of Sotheby's. The sculpture and architecture in this work are portrayed with a unique technique. Nonetheless, it does seem that the work has been slightly flattened, and some of the glazes in the lighter colors have been removed. Opacity has developed in the darker colors. Some pentimenti have perhaps become more visible over time. The canvas has been lined, but the painting is quite loose on its stretcher. The poor restoration and the opaque varnish give a misleading impression of the painting. Although the condition is weak in areas, the picture would certainly improve if it were properly restored.
"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."

This fantastical architectural capriccio is a mature work by François de Nomé, a French artist active in Italy in the early seventeenth century whose work is defined its detailed and almost dream-like qualities.¹  As collaborators sometimes added the staffage to his scenes, it has been suggested that Filippo Napoletano may have completed the figures as well as the landscape at the far left of the painting.²  This canvas relates to a larger group of paintings found today in the Houston Museum of Fine Arts, in The Göteborgs konstmuseum, in the Musée des Arts Décoratifs, Paris, and in a Roman private collection.³

1.  Although Francois de Nomé and Didier Barra have both historically been linked to the pseudonym Monsù Desiderio, the pseudonym is now generally associated with the latter. 2.  See Nappi, in Literature, 206.
3.  ibid., cat. nos, A54-A57, A119-A120, and A122.