(Rome 1633–1731)
The Temptation of Saint Anthony,
oil on canvas, 72 x 96 cm, framed

Provenance:
sale, Christie’s, Paris, 26 June 2002, lot 33;
sale, Woolley & Wallis, Salisbury, 7 March 2018, lot 333

(Probable) Documentation:
mentioned in the estate inventory accompanying Odazzi’s last will from 1731 under no. 176: ‘tela di palmi 4 ½ lunghezza e 4 larghezza rapp.a la tentazione di S. Antonio Ab.e’ (published in: M. Trimarchi, Giovanni Odazzi pittore romano [1663–1731], Rome 1979, p. 103)

Literature:
E. Schleier, Aggiunte a Giovanni Odazzi, in: Arte Cristiana, XCVI, no. 844, January – February 2008, pp. 51 and 54, fig. 10

We are grateful to Erich Schleier for reconfirming the attribution of the present painting on the basis of a photograph and for his help with the research and cataloguing of this painting (written communication).

A hermit, Saint Anthony had to withstand numerous temptations he was led into by evil spirits, such as in the present painting, where a demon appears to him in the guise of a young woman. Between the sixteenth and eighteenth centuries demons were often shown as female figures especially in Venetian painting, such as in the works of Sebastiano Ricci, who dealt with the theme several times (see A. Scarpa, Sebastiano Ricci, Venice 2006, p. 249, no. 299, fig. 232), and Giovanni Battista Tiepolo, who in his painting in the Pinacoteca di Brera in Milan depicted a woman almost entirely nude. Odazzi, adhering to the Roman painting tradition of the eighteenth century, chose a more conservative variant. That the young woman is actually a demon is only recognisable by her fingernails, which resemble claws.

Erich Schleier was the first to identify the present painting as a work by Odazzi when it was sold at auction at Christie’s in Paris on 26 June 2002. He assigns the painting to the artist’s late period and dates it into the years around 1730.

When Odazzi made his will on 1 May 1731 he appointed his sister Caterina as his universal heir. An inventory of his possessions was attached to it (both documents are now conserved at the Archivio di Stato in Rome), also comprising estimates of the works present in this studio at the time of his death. The present painting can probably be identified with the picture listed under no. 176: ‘tela di palmi 4 ½ lunghezza e 4 larghezza rapp.a la tentazione di S. Antonio Ab.e’ (Trimarchi 1979, p. 103; Schleier 2008, p. 51). The dimensions of this landscape format are somewhat smaller than the standard size commonly used in Rome at the time and referred to as ‘tela d’imperatore’ (4 x 6 palmi romani = approx. 95 x 130 cm). The measurements indicated correspond to a size of 89 x 100 centimetres, but the picture could have been measured together with its frame. The subject was rarely treated in eighteenth-century Roman painting.

In examining Saint Anthony’s facial type and the style of his garment, the present painting can be compared to the figures in Odazzi’s altarpiece in the Santuario della Madonna della Costa in San Remo, which was executed between 1724 and 1730 (see Trimarchi 1979, pp. 62/63, no. 53, fig. 56), as well as to the altarpiece in the church of the Capuchins in nearby Taggia in Liguria (see ibid., pp. 61/62, no. 52, fig. 55), and to the large altar fresco in San Giovanni in Laterano in Rome, the artist’s last work (see ibid., pp. 63/64, no. 54, fig. 57). The facial type of the female figure recurs in the Virgin Mary of a Rest on the Flight into Egypt that was sold at Christie’s, New York, on 5 October 1995 as a late work by Odazzi (see Schleier 2008, pp. 51/52, fig. 9). The landscape approach in the present painting betrays influences from Gaspard Dughet, Jan Frans van Bloemen, and particularly Salvator Rosa. However, Odazzi’s style is highly individual and stands out for its compact and filigree treatment of foliage that can also be observed in the above mentioned Rest on the Flight into Egypt and a monumental landscape featuring Diana and Endymion (formerly in an Italian private collection), a masterpiece from the artist’s late period that can probably also be identified with a picture listed in the estate inventory (see E. Schleier, Giovanni Odazzi: inediti e nuove proposte, in: Pittura Toscana e Pittura Europea nel Secolo del Lumi, atti del convegno Pisa, Domus Galileana, 1990, Florence 1993, pp. 13/14, pl. 21).

Odazzi was a pupil of Ciro Ferri and later studied under Giovanni Battista Gaulli. In 1706 he became a member of the Accademia di S. Luca in Rome. In his lifetime Odazzi was a highly successful and prolific painter. His works, most of which are frescoes, have survived in many Roman churches. The present painting is one of the most brilliant compositions from his late period.