Sold Without Reserve | REMIGIO CANTAGALLINA | FIGURES IN AN ORNAMENTAL GARDEN

Sale, Sotheby's, Monaco, November 29, 1986, lot 7,

Acquired at the above sale by A. Alfred Taubman

Cantagallina was a pupil of Giulio Parigi and is one of the most recognisable of the group of landscape artists active in Florence in the early 17th century. He was also a printmaker, and played an important role in encouraging Jaques Callot to master the art of etching. Described by Filippo Baldinucci, as "famous for his landscape drawings in pen," he was influenced by the northern artist, Paul Bril, whose work he could have encountered either in Rome or when traveling with his brother to the Low Countries.

This dynamic and vibrant study of figures in a park is a good example of the artist's pen drawings, as praised by Baldinucci. Elegantly framed by lines of trees, a decorated trellised archway dominates the center of the composition. Figures congregate in the foreground and a fountain is visible at the end of the trellised walkway.