Corrado Giaquinto

(Molfetta 1703–1765 Naples)
A Bacchanal,
oil on canvas, 71.5 x 100 cm, framed

Provenance:
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1871–1956 (as Unknown Neapolitan Painter, 17th Century);
their sale, Sotheby’s, New York, 25 October 1956, lot 360 (as Italian School, 17th Century);
with Victor de Koenigsberg, Le Passé Ltd, Buenos Aires/New York;
sale, Finarte, Rome, 12 November 1996, lot 355 (as Corrado Iaquinta);
Private European collection

Exhibited:
New York, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, permanent exhibition, inv. no 71.136, until at least 1956 (as Unknown Neapolitan Painter, 17th Century);
Rome, Palazzo Venezia, Giaquinto. Capolavori dalle corti di Europa, 8 March – 13 May 1993, no. 5 (as Corrado Giaquinto; according to a label on the reverse)

Literature:
H. B. Wehle, A catalogue of Italian, Spanish and Byzantine paintings, vol. I, New York 1940, p. 262 (as Unknown Neapolitan Painter, 17th Century, formerly attributed to Domenico Piola);
M. d’Orsi, Corrado Giaquinto, Rome 1958, pp. 43–44, fig. 28 (as Corrado Giaquinto);
Lia Di Giacomo, in: Giaquinto. Capolavori dalle corti in Europa, exhibition catalogue, Milan 1993, pp. 126–127, mentioned under cat. no. 5

We are grateful to Stefano Causa for endorsing the attribution of the present painting and for his help in cataloguing this lot.

The present painting is registered in the Fototeca Zeri under no. 65856 (as Corrado Giaquinto).

The present work is a bozzetto for the ceiling decoration in the Villa della Regina, Turin, destroyed during World War II, commissioned by Maria Cristina of Savoy between 1736 and 1737 (see M. d’Orsi, op. cit., pp. 42–44, fig. 26).