Private collection, Venice;
Ali Loebl;
M.M. Steinmeyer and Stephan Bourgeois, Paris, before 1910;
With Frederik Muller & Cie., Amsterdam, 1918;
With Demotte, Paris, 1923-25;
Francesco Pospisil, Venice;
With Italico & Alessandro Brass, Venice;
From whom purchased by The Cleveland Museum of Art  ꧒in 1949 [Mr. and Mrs. Willi♒am H. Marlatt Fund, acc. nos. 1949.571.1 and 1949.571.2].

Amsterdam, Frederik Muller & Co., Tentoonstelling van Oude Meesters bij Frederik Muller & Co., 1918, nos. 20, 21;
Cleveland, The Cleveland Museum of Art, Art: The International Language, 1956.

H.S. Francis, "A Drawing and Two Oils by Tiepolo," in Cleveland Museum of Art Bulletin, vol. 38, 1951, pp. 130-133, reproduced pp. 136-137;
J.D. Morse, Old Masters in America, 1955, p. 157;
A. Pallucchini, "L'opera completa di Giambattista Tiepolo", in Classici dell' Arte, vol. 23, Milan 1958, p. 136 (as by Giustino Menescardi);
A. Morassi,  A Complete Catalogue of the Paintings of G.B. Tiepolo Including Pictures by his Pupils and Followers Wrongly Attributed to Him, London 1962, pp. VII, 9;
Cleveland Museum of Art, Handbook, 1966, p. 144;
B. Fredericksen and F. Zeri, Census of Pre-Nineteeenth-Century- Italian Paintings in North American Public Collections, Cambridge 1972, pp. 196, 482, 574 (as school of G.B. Tiepolo);
A Pigler, Barock-Themen, Budapest 1974, vol. II, p. 395 (as by G.B. Tiepolo);
J.D. Morse, Old Master Paintings in North America, New York 1979, p. 256;
E. Martini, La Pittura del settecento Veneto, Udine 1981, pp. 512, 513, reproduced fig. 598 (as by Maestro della Gerusalemme);
Cleveland Museum of Art, Catalogue of Paintings:  Part Three.  European Paintings of the 16th, 17th, and 18th Centuries, Cleveland 1982, pp. 428-431, nos. 188a-b, reproduced (as Attributed to Giovanni Battista Tiepolo);
R. Duffin, "The Cleveland Museum of Art", in RIDIM/RCMI Inventory of Music Iconography, no. 251, New York 1991,  p. 13;
A. Chong, European & American Painting in The Cleveland Museum of Art:  A Summary Catalogue, Cleveland 1993, reproduced p. 237, reproduced (as Follower of Domenico Tiepolo);
M. Gemin and F. Pedrocco, Giambattista Tiepolo.  I Dipinti.  Opera completa, Venice 1993, p. 504, nos. 12-13, reproduced (under works Attributed to Tiepolo);
G. Knox,"The Drawings of Giustino Menescardi," in Arte/Documento, 10, 1996, p.213 (list🧔ed in "Checklist of the Paintings Here Attributed to Menesc𒀰ardi" as nos. 2 and 3).

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 pair of paintings has probably not been restored recently however, with a fresh coat of varnish and adjustment to the retouching, the works could be made presentable fairly easily. It would be an extremely extensive project to clean and restore these pictures again. Both canvas have been lined and were quite pressed in the lining process. Both paintings have received a good deal of restoration, some of which is visible under ultraviolet light but some of which may not be. There is abrasion visible here and there, more particularly in the composition of Horatius Cocles Defending Rome against the Etruscans, but given the large and decorative impact of both pictures, with a respectable amount of effort from a good restorer, these paintings could be considerably sharper and richer.
"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."

This grand and imposing pair of paintings depicts the exploits of the Roman hero Horatius Cocles.  The account, as told by the ancient historians, was a compelling story for artists and a number of paintings of the subject exist.¹  The present pair, however, is unique in that it shows Horatius' exploits as the battle unfolds.  The Etruscan King Lars Porsena led his troops against the city of Rome, shown in the background of both paintings on the banks of the River Tiber.  His point of attack was the Sublician Bridge, a crossing to the west of the city.  Outnumbered, the Roman army began to fall back across the bridge until a young officer, Publius Horatius,🧔 nicknamed "Cocles" -- or "One-Eye" as he had already sustained a head wound -- rushed forward, telling his comrades to destroy the bridge behind h🐻im. 

The first painting shows just this moment of mind-boggling heroism.  Horatius is depicted at the center of the composition, bounding across the wooden bridge as the Etruscans fall away in absolute disbelief. 🦄; To the right, the Roman defenders chop at and pry up the planks of the bridge which has already begun to fall away into the river.  The second painting represents the next part of the narrative.  Having successfully confronted the enemy army by himself (although sustain🥃ing a few wounds) Horatius jumps—in full armor no less—into the Tiber and swims to safety.   The frustrated and humiliated Etruscans are able to do little more than fire arrows at the retreating hero, who has just single-handedly foiled their attempt to subjugate Rome.

Although painted by artists from many schools, this subject, an exemplar of republican virtue and bravery, would have particularly resonated with an audience in Venice, itself a republic modeled—if somewhat loosely—on the ancient Roman system.  The handling of the paint, in loose, expressionistic brushstrokes, and the composition, with overlapping and truncated figures, are clearly indebted to the art of Giovanni Battista Tiepolo, the greatest history painter that 18^th century Venice produced.  Indeed, for much of their known history these paintings were attributed to Tiepolo himself.  It was Morassi who first saw that the facture of the figures, while certainly Tiepolesque, was different than that of the master himself, and he suggested an attribution to Giustino Menescardi, an artist of Milanese origin who worked in Venice.  This attribution was followed by Ridolfo Pallucchini (see Literature), who related the Cleveland pair to a set of Evangelists and Prophets painted by Menescardi for the ceiling of the Scuola dei Carmini, Venice.²  Egidio Martini also dismissed the attribution to Tiepolo, giving the canvases to the so-called "Maestro della Gerusalemme Liberata" whom he christened after a group of canvases with subjects derived from Tasso's epic, formerly in the Besozzi collection and with Cailleux, Paris.  He differentiated this artist from Menescardi, whom he noted had been given many of the Master's works, especially by Morassi, and he considered the present canvases to be "tra le sue migliori" (among his best).  The 🐈figure of the Master, however, has not been clearly or convincingly outlined in the opinion of most scholars, who have preferred to give the Cocles paintings to an asꦬ yet anonymous, if highly distinctive, follower of Tiepolo.   

1.   Dionyssus of Halicarnassus, The Roman Antiquities, Books XXIV-25; Livy Ab Urbe Condita, Book 2.10; Pliny the Elder, Natural Histories, XXXIV.11.
2.  The paintings, he notes, have the "stesse sgrammaticature nell'impianto delle figure, le stesse sbavature cromatiche [Trans: the same disorderly placement of the figures, the same smud💯ged coloration]."