Lot 119
  • 119

Polidoro da Caravaggio

Estimate
20,000 - 30,000 GBP
bidding is closed

Description

  • Polidoro da Caravaggio
  • The Adoration of the Shepherds
  • oil on panel, shaped top, unframed

Provenance

A religious institution, Dublin;
Anonymous sale, London, Christie's, 9 April 2003, lot 90, for £40,000.

Catalogue Note

The lot is accompanied by a copy of a letter endorsing the attribution by Professor Pierluigi Leone de Castris, author of the monograph dedicated to the artist. He believes this to be a mature work by Polidoro, datable to his Sicilian sojourn during the 1530s. The coarse wooden panel is typical of Polidoro's Sicilian phase, when he often painted on doors or made use of pieces of furniture as supports.

Leone de Castris proposes that a drawing in the Louvre, inv. no. 6068, may be a first idea in the development of the design of the present work.1

1. P. Leone de Castris, Polidoro da Caravaggio, L'opera completa, Naples 2001, p. 485, cat. no. D209, reproduced p. 414, fig. 513.