Giovanni Pratesi: The Florentine Eye
Giovanni Pratesi: The Florentine Eye
Cristofano Allori
The tale of Cyparissus
Auction Closed
March 22, 07:15 PM GMT
Estimate
20,000 - 30,000 EUR
Lot Details
Description
Cristofano Allori
1577 - 1621
The tale of Cyparissus
oil on canvas
unframed: 117.5 x 88 cm; 46¼ x 34⅝ in.
framed: 135.5 x 104 cm.; 53⅜ x 41 in.
Where acquired by the present owner in 1999.
G. Cantelli, 'La pittura di paesaggio in Toscana: giardino d’Europa', in Il paesaggio toscano: l’opera dell’uomo e la nascita di un mito, L. Bonelli Conenna, A. Brilli and G. Cantelli (eds), Milan 2004, pp. 300–2, reproduced in colour fig. 53 (as Allori);
G. Cantelli, Repertorio della pittura fiorentina del Seicento, Aggiornamento, Pontedera 2009, vol. I, p. 13 and vol. II, reproduced in colour plate I (as Allori);
S. Bellesi, Catalogo dei pittori fiorentini del '600 e '700. Biografie e opere, Florence 2009, vol. I, p. 70 (as Allori);
F. Solinas in Cacce principesche. L’arte venatoria nella prima età moderna, F. Solinas (ed.), exh. cat., Tivoli 2013, pp. 78–79, no. 5, reproduced in colour (as by a Northern artist active between the late 16th and early 17th centuries; subsequently to this, the attribution was revised in an addendum to the catalogue and given to Cristofano Allori as an early work).
This refined work by Florentine painter Cristofano Allori is a rare depiction of the story of Cyparissus inspired by Ovid's Metamorphoses (X, 89–142). A favourite of the god Apollo, the handsome youth accidently kills his beloved pet stag with his arrow. Overcome with grief, he prays to the god that he might be allowed to mourn forever. Apollo cautions him against such a request, but still Cyparissus grieves, and so Apollo transforms him into a cypress tree, whose sap forms droplets like tears on the trunk.
Dated by Giuseppe Cantelli to the 1590s, this early work by Allori depicts the death of Cyparissus' stag as if it were set on a theatre stage. Apollo and Cyparissus are placed in a expansive verdant landscape reminiscent of the Florentine countryside, dressed in richly ornamented and bejeweled tunics. To the right, Cyparissus is seated wearing an ornate headdress laden with pearls and shells. Behind him is a cypress tree encircled by Ovid's verses, foreshadowing his transformation. Directly opposite him, the figure of Apollo, the sun god, is depicted with his characteristic attribute, the lyre.
Few interpretations of this subject are known. The most celebrated is possibly Domenichino's fresco executed in 1616 for the garden pavilion in the grounds of the Villa Aldobrandini in Frascati, depicting the moment of Cyparissus' transformation, in the National Gallery, London.1
1 Inv. no. NG6286; fresco, transferred to canvas and mounted on board; 120 × 88.3 cm.; https://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/paintings/domenichino-and-assistants-the-transformation-of-cyparissus
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