喬瓦尼·巴蒂斯塔·高里 – 或稱巴西齊奧

Private collection, Paris;
Private Collection, Rome;
From whence purchased

F. Petrucci, Baciccio, Rome 2009, p. 357, reproduced fig. A4a. 

The following condition report has been provided by Simon Parkes of Simon Parkes Art Conservation, Inc. 502 East 74th St. New York, NY 212-734-3920, simonparkes@msn.com, an independent restorer who is not an employee of Sotheby's. This work on copper is in good condition. There are a few retouches around the extreme edges and a few spots on the right side above the hand holding the paint brush, but none within the figure. The work should be hung as is.
"This lot is offered for sale subject to Sotheby's Conditions of Business, which are available on request and printed in Sotheby's sale catalogues. The independent reports contained in this document are provided for prospective bidders' information only and without warranty by Sotheby's or the Seller."

Giovanni Battista Gaulli, known as Il Baciccio, was one of the most esteemed artists of the Roman High Baroque both during his lifetime and for generations to follow.  Born in Genoa in 1638, at about the age of twenty, he moved to Rome where he met the famed sculptor Gian Lorenzo Bernini.  It was through Bernini that Baciccio was introduced to a number of Roman patrons, including the Pamphilij family, from whom he received the most important commission of his career, namely the decoration for the ceiling of the Church of il Gesù, which he completed over an eleven year period from 1672-1683.  Soon after he received this monumental commission, Baciccio was appointed as Principe of the Accademia di San Luca in Rome.  His energetic and exuberant style that defined his grand vaulted ceiling frescoes and altarpieces ranked among the most popular in the Eternal City and competed with the more restrained and classicizing art of Andrea Sacchi and Carlo Maratti.

In addition to his frescoes and altarpieces, Baciccio was also recognized for his skills in the realm of portraiture.  In contrast to the lively brushwork of his frescoes, his portraits were defined by an elegance and refinement reminiscent of Anthony van Dyck.  As one of the most important portraitists of the second half of the seventeenth century in Rome, Baciccio captured the likenesses of many esteemed sitters including Bernini as well as all seven popes from Alexander VII to Clement IX.  Perhaps among his most captivating portraits, however, were those he made of himself.  In the present self-portrait, Baciccio situates himself at the center of a small, oval copper plate.  Wearing a dark billowy coat, a white collar, and ruffled white cuffs, he directly engages his audience with a kind and inquisitive countenance, standing within his studio in front of a blank canvas wielding a paint brush and palette, as if about to begin a new portrait.

Another version of this self-portrait on copper can be found in the Koelliker Collection, Milan.¹  According to Petrucci, the facial features of the artist as well as the costume suggest a date of about 1675, around the same time that Baciccio completed the version of his arresting self portrait now in the Uffizi Gallery, Florence.²

1. Oil on copper, 17 by 13 cm.  See Petrucci, under Literature, p. 357, cat. no. A4, reproduced.
2. See Petrucci, under Literature, p. 356, cat. no. A3b, reproduced.