CIRCLE OF GIOVANNI DI NICCOLÒ DE LUTERO, CALLED DOSSO DOSSI | VENUS DISCOVERING THE BEAUTY OF PSYCHE

Prince Wenzel Anton Von Kaunitz-Rittberg (1711-94), Vienna;

Anonymous sale, Vienna, Dorotheum, 27-29 March 1933, lot 39 (as Benvenuto Tisi, called Garofalo);

With E. and A. Silberman Galleries, Vienna;

Anonymous sale, Zurich, Schuler, 19 June 2015, lot 3301 (as Follower of Garofalo), where acquired.

This painting bears a striking similarity to a work by Dosso Dossi, in the Galleria Borghese, Rome (inv. no. 304), dated by Alessandro Ballarin to circa 1529.(1) A nude, sleeping nymph is attended by an old woman, to whom a younger female figure, leaning on an urn, gestures with a raised hand. In both works the group is sheltered by trees, and a river landscape extends beyond them. The Borghese painting has previously been described as a scene from the story of Callisto, as has the present work, which has also been identified as a scene from the myth of Pandora. The Borghese picture is now thought to depict 'Venus Discovering the Beauty of Psyche'.

The collector's monogram, lower right, has been identified as that of Prince Wenzel Anton von Kaunitz-Rittberg, chancellor and foreign minister of the Austrian Empire under Maria Theresa and her sons, Joseph II and Leopold II. He was a keen patron of the Arts and assembled a notable collection; he also served as Protector for the Akademie der bildenden Künste in Vienna.

When offered for sale in 1933, this work was accompanied by a letter of expertise in support of an attribution to Garofalo from Wilhelm Suida.

1 http://www.galleriaborghese.beniculturali.it/it/opera/venere-scopre-la-bellezza-di-psiche