Pietro Paolini and workshop

This painting is comparable to Pietro Paolini's depiction of a lute player in the Museo d'Arte Ponce Fundaciòn Luis A. Ferrè, Puerto Rico.¹ The works are not only similar in size and composition, but also appear to feature the same male model. This figure may have been known to Paolini, as he is also portrayed in the monogrammmed Bagpiper that sold in 1989 for $46,200.²

We are grateful to Nikita de Vernejoul for endorsing the attribution to Paolini and workshop upon the inspection of digital images. This painting will be included in De Vernejoul’s forthcoming monograph on the artist with the same attribution, no. PA.13.

¹ Oil on canvas, 114 x 87 cm.; P. Giusti Maccari, Pietro Paolini pittore lucchese, 1603–1681, Lucca 1987, p. 136, no. 56, reproduced fig. 54.

² Oil on canvas, 122 x 93.4 cm.; New York, Christie's, 11 January 1989, lot 137A, for $46,200.