Simone Pignoni

The Rape of Lucretia; Jael and Sisera

Auction Closed

March 22, 07:15 PM GMT

Estimate

15,000 - 20,000 EUR

Lot Details

Description

Simone Pignoni

Florence 1611 - 1698

The Rape of Lucretia; Jael and Sisera

a pair, both oil on canvas, oval

each unframed: 129 x 102 cm.; 50¾ x 40⅛ in.

each framed: 150 x 122 cm.; 59 x 48 in.

(2)

This lot has an artistic export license. Please refer to the specialist department for further information about export procedures and shipping costs.

Anonymous sale, Paris, Tajan, 22 March 2002, lot 31, for €60,000;
Where acquired by the present owner.

V. Sgarbi in Il male: Esercizi di pittura crudele, V. Sgarbi (ed.), exh. cat., Turin 2005, pp. 16, 146–47 and 331, nos 84–85, reproduced in colour;
F. Baldassari, Simone Pignoni, Turin 2008, pp. 159–60, nos 101a and 101b, reproduced;
F. Baldassari, La pittura del Seicento a Firenze: indice degli artisti e delle loro opere, Milan 2009, p. 597;
G. Cantelli, Repertorio della Pittura Fiorentina del Seicento. Aggiornamento, Pontedera 2009, p. 161;
S. Bellesi, Catalogo dei pittori fiorentini del '600 e '700. Biografie e opere, Florence 2009, vol. I, p. 224.

Turin, Palazzina di Caccia di Stupinigi, Il male: Esercizi di pittura crudele, 26 February – 26 June 2005, nos 84–85.

Unknown until their re-appearance on the art market in 2002, this pair of oval canvases by Simone Pignoni depict the dramatic stories of two female heroines from antiquity, that of Jael and Sisera from the Old Testament and The Rape of Lucretia from classical literature.

While the story of Lucretia is depicted by Pignoni in a number of versions, the canvas depicting Jael and Sisera is the only known iteration of this subject by the artist. According to Sandro Bellesi (private communication to the client) similarities between the face of the figure of Jael and that of other female figures in Pignoni's paintings, for example his Saint Dorothy (Marchesi Mainoni Collection, Rome), suggest the artist may have employed the same model for this and a number of his works.¹On the other hand, according to Francesca Baldassari in her catalogue raisonné the figure of Lucretia is a derivation of a celebrated work of the same subject (Accademia Nazionale di San Luca, Rome) by Felice Ficherelli (1605–1660), an artist much admired by Pignoni.²

¹G. Cantelli, Repertorio della Pittura Fiorentina del Seicento, Florence 1983, p. 636, reproduced.

² Baldassari 20🅰08, p. 160; Inv. no. 0324; oil on canvas; 163.5 x 117 cm.;

This lot has an artistic export license. Please refer to the specialist department for further information about export procedures and shipping costs.