Pierre Subleyras and Workshop

Mansi Collection, Lucca, since its execution until circa 1961;

Art market, Italy;

From whom acquired by a private collector, United States;

From whom acquired by the present owner.

Mostra del Ritratto italiano dalla fine del sec. XVI all’anno 1861, Florence 1911, p. 101, cat. no. 18 (as Pompeo Batoni ?);

H. Voss, Die Malerei des Barock in Rom, Berlin 1924, p. 643 (as Pierre Subleyras);

O. Arnaud, "Subleyras, 1699 à 1749," in Les peintres francais du XVIIIe siècle, L. Dimier (ed.), vol. II, Paris 1930, p. 83, cat. no. 133 (as Pierre Subleyras);

H. Voss, Thieme–Becker Künstler-Lexikon, vol. XXXII, Leipzig 1938, p. 268 (as an autograph sketch);

V. Ovchinnikov, Kiev State Museum of Western and Oriental Art, Kiev 1961, p. 126;

L.F. von Pastor, History of the Popes from the close of the Middle Ages, vol. XXXV, London 1961, p. 35 (as Pierre Subleyras);

B. Giovannucci Vigi, "Benedetto XIV: appunti iconografici," in Un Papa, una città: Benedetto XIV e Cento nel XVIII° secolo: mostra documentaria ed iconografica, Cento, 6 – 17 dicembre 1979, Bologna 1983, p. 371 (as Pierre Subleyras);

O. Michel and P. Rosenberg, Subleyras, 1699-1749, exhibition catalogue, Paris and Rome 1987, p. 253 (as current whereabouts unknown);

G. Borella and P. Giusti Maccari, Il Palazzo Mansi di Lucca, Lucca 1993, pp. 196 and 197, cat. no. 48, reproduced (as Pierre Subleyras);

K. Baetjer, French Paintings in The Metropolitan Museum of Art from the Early Eighteenth Century through the Revolution, New York 2019, p. 133 note 5 (as a copy of the picture in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York);

N. Lesur, Pierre Subleyras (1699-1749), Paris 2023, p. 401, cat. no. 435 C.1, reproduced (as a workshop replica, current whereabouts unknown).

Florence, Palazzo Vecchio, Mostra del Ritratto italiano dalla fine del sec. XVI all’anno 1861, March - July 1911, sala XI, no. 18 (as Pompeo Batoni ?).

Subleyras painted Prospero Lorenzo Lambertini, elected Pope Benedict XIV in August 1740, on two distinct occasions. First between 1740 and 1741, when Subleyras won the commission for the pope's official papal portrait. In that work, the pope sits in a chair and is shown three-quarter length; the prime is likely the version today at the Musée Condé, Chantilly.¹ In 1746, Subleyras again produced a portrait of Pope Benedict XIV, but in this instance depicted him bust-length and looking directly at the viewer. The signed and dated prime version of the later work is today at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.² Both compositions were immediate successes and Subleyras and his workshop were frequently commissioned to produce replicas, as was the case with the present work.

¹ inv. no. PE 384.

² inv. no. 2009.145. Acquired at Sotheby's, New York, 30 January 2009, lot 73, for $986,500.