FOLLOWER OF GIUSEPPE ARCIMBOLDO, 18TH CENTURY | An anthropomorphic portrait of Herod the Great

oil on canvas; inscribed lower center: 'Caput_. Herodis.'

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. This work has been restored. The canvas is lined with a non-wax adhesive. The painting is probably clean, even though it seems very dull. The retouches are perhaps slightly broad, but are reasonably adequate. Retouches can clearly be seen under ultraviolet light in the background of the oval and in the brown surround to a lesser degree. Retouches in the shadowed area of the column and the lit areas of the column are quite broadly applied, and seem to be misleading. There are retouches in the face that mainly address small cracks. More clarity would be achieved if the work were cleaned and retouches applied more accurately. The condition is reasonably good, but the restoration does not accurately reflect this. However, the work could be hung as is if the varnish were freshened.
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There are two known versions of this composition that depict the head of Herod by the Rudolfine court painter Arcimboldo: one formerly in the collection of the Prince of Liechtenstein, now in the Cardazzo collection, Venice and one in the Poletta collection, Brescia.¹  A third version, which was once attributed to Arcimboldo, but is now thought to be a seventeenth century copy possibly based on a now lost original, is also in the Tiroler Landesmuseum Ferdinandeum, Innsbruck.² Although each version has different depictions of Herod the Great (74/73 BC-4BC), the King of Judea, one factor is consistent: his portrait is made up of nude bodies, symbolizing the innocent people he massacred according to Christian Gospel of Matthew. The far reaching influence of Arcimboldo spanned into the 18th century as seen in the present lot, through which his originality lives on. The author of this innovative representation of Herod was clearly aware of Arcimboldo's work, and its core influence is indeed that of the Milanese inventor of this anthropomorphic type.

1.  B. Geiger, 'I Dipinti Ghiribizzosi di Giuseppe Arcimboldi: Pittore Illusinista del Cinquecento (1527-1593),' Florence 1954, p. 67, reproduced figs. 82 and 83.
2. Ibid., fig. 81.