(Rome 1693 - after 1764) and (Rome 1642–1707)
Preparing for the Race of the Berber Horses, Rome,
oil on canvas, 49.5 x 65 cm, framed

A seal on the reverse of the frame shows the coat-of-arms of the Altieri and Della Rovere families.

Provenance:
Noble collection, Rome;
sale, Minerva Auctions, Rome, 26 May 2016, lot 98 (as Bambocciante artist active in Rome, second half of the 17th Century);
Private collection, Rome

We are grateful to Giancarlo Sestieri for suggesting the attribution of the present painting on the basis of a high resolution digital photograph and for his help in cataloguing this lot.

The present painting is a record of the collaboration between Giovanni Reder and Domenico Roberti, who was responsible for the depiction of the classical architecture on the right.

Giovanni was the son and pupil of Christian Reder, an established painter of battle scenes, who worked for much of his career for the Rospigliosi family. This family was famous for breeding horses that were sometimes engaged in urban races, as, for example, demonstrated by the Portrait of the horse ‘Capriolo’ with his jockey in the Museo di Roma (see G. Sestieri, Repertorio della Pittura Romana della fine del Seicento e del Settecento, Turin 1994, vol. I, pp. 156-57; vol. III, fig. 965).

The present painting represents a champion stallion that may have belonged to the Rospigliosi family: his jockey waves a flag of victory and is attended by three stable hands to the right. The architectural setting is by Domenico Roberti, who has recently been identified by Giancarlo Sestieri (see G. Sestieri, Il Capriccio architettonico in Italia nel XVII e XVIII secolo, Rome 2015, vol. III, pp. 192-215). Since his identity has been revealed, it has become increasingly clear that Roberti played a prominent role in the genre of architectural painting in Rome during the final years of the Seicento, and during the first decade of the Settecento.