Giovanni Pratesi: The Florentine Eye

Francesco Conti

The Lamentation

Auction Closed

March 22, 07:15 PM GMT

Estimate

8,000 - 12,000 EUR

Lot Details

Description

Francesco Conti

Florence 1681-1760

The Lamentation

oil on canvas

unframed: 88.5 x 142.5 cm; 34⅞ x 56⅛ in

framed: 103 x 157.5 cm.; 40½ x 62 in.

This lot has an artistic export license. Please refer to the specialist department for further information about export procedures and shipping costs.

Private collection;
Where acquired by the present owner in 1990.

Florence, Galleria degli Uffizi, Il fasto e la ragione. Arte nel Settecento a Firenze, 30 May – 30 September 2009, no. 68.

S. Bellesi in Dodici dipinti antichi. Nuove acquisizioni al museo. Opere di una collezione pratese, M.P. Mannini (ed.), Prato 1993, n. pag.;
S. Bellesi in La donazione Tintori. Nuove acquisizioni al museo. Opere di una collezione pratese, M.P. Mannini (ed.), Prato 1994, n. pag.;
S. Bellesi, 'Ricognizioni sull'attività di Francesco Botti', in Bollettino dell'Accademia degli Euteleti di San Miniato, 63, 1996, pp. 80 and 96, no. 103, reproduced fig. 40;
S. Bellesi, 'La pittura a Prato in età medicea', in Il Settecento a Prato, 1999, pp. 93 and 120 n. 263;
F. Berti, 'Francesco Conti e il compianto sul Cristo morto di Budapest', in Bulletin du Musée Hongrois des Beaux-Arts, 102–3, 2005, pp. 113 and 115, reproduced in colour fig. 63;
F. Berti in Il fasto e la ragione. Arte nel Settecento a Firenze, C. Sisi and R. Spinelli (eds), exh. cat., Florence 2009, pp. 206–7, no. 68, reproduced in colour;
S. Bellesi, Catalogo dei pittori fiorentini del '600 e '700, Florence 2009, vol. I, p. 113, vol. II, p. 162, reproduced fig. 330;
F. Berti, Francesco Conti, Florence 2010, pp. 168–69, no. 41a, reproduced in colour.

Hailed by Federico Berti as one of Francesco Conti's masterpieces from his mature period, this work depicts the dead Christ laying at the foot of the cross with the figure of the Magdalene extending dramatically towards him. These two figures are vividly depicted, their iridescent flesh tones contrasting with the remainder of mourning characters surrounding them. These are more loosely painted, focusing attention on the centre of the composition and heightening the dramatic impact of the scene.

A bozzetto of this composition, smaller and sketchier in handling, is in the collection of the Museum of Fine Arts, Budapest.¹

¹ Inv. no. 84.1; oil on canvas; 65 × 84 cm; https://www.mfab.hu/artworks/the-lamentation-over-the-dead-christ-8/

This lot has an artistic export license. Please refer to the specialist department for further information about export procedures and shipping costs.