FRANCESCO TREVISANI | Lucretia

Possibly Lodovico Sergardi (1660–1726);
Possibly thence by inheritance to his nephew, Abbot Lattanzio Sergardi (b. 1695), Rome, 1727, when recorded in his inventory as a 'copia di Lucrezia, che vien dal Trevisani, ritoccato dal medesimo, in tela d'imperatore, con cornice tutt'oro scudi 15.'

Possibly recorded in the Inventari diversi spettanti alla nobil famiglia Sergardi, Archivio di Stato di Siena, Sergardi, C.101, pages unnumbered;
F. Petrucci, Dipinti tra Rococò e Neoclassicismo da Palazzo Chigi in Ariccia e da altre raccolte, Rome 2013, p. 24, n. 8, reproduced in colour fig. 12.

The canvas has a firm relining, the paint surface is dirty, and the varnish is rather discoloured. There is evidence of wear throughout, most notably in the darker pigments of the shadows in her flesh tones, and her hair, the background, and the cloth resting above her proper left arm, as well as the table below it. Old, discoloured and significant retouchings are visible throughout these areas. There are further visible retouchings: to 4 vertical scratches in her chest (the largest approx. 5 x 1 cm.), in her proper right elbow and a spot in her forearm, and scattered throughout the background and the cloth lower left. Inspection under ultraviolet light confirms all these underneath the streaky varnish, and further reveals pin-prick retouchings scattered in the rest of the figure, notably her eyes and nose. In overall moderate condition.
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The present painting was most recently published in 2013 by Petrucci, who dates it to circa 1685–90, and compares it to the Cleopatra in the Lemme collection, Rome.¹ He also suggests it may be the painting listed in the inventory of the Abbot Lattanzio Sergardi from 1727, extrapolated from his uncle Lodovico's posthumous inventory to determine which paintings he wanted to keep for himself instead of selling. Karin Wolfe, to whom we are grateful, does not endorse the attribution to Trevisani, noting that some particular features of the anatomy and pose of the figure such as the hard angle of the bent wrist with the dagger, the attenuated neck, and the closed hand with the precisely rendered thumbnail, do not appear in the rest of the artist's œuvre.

1 D. Tomaselli, in Il Settecento a Roma, exh. cat., Rome 2005, pp. 262–63, cat. no. 159, reproduced.