(Lucca, circa 1620–1686)
Allegorical Figure with musical instruments and sheets of music,
oil on canvas, 128 x 96 cm, framed

Provenance:
Private European collection

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

The present painting can be compared to works by Pietro Paolini, also from Lucca, as well as artists in the circle of Guido Reni, especially Andrea and Elisabetta Siriani, and the Florentines Matteo Rosselli and Cesare Dandini.

In the present painting, Scaglia’s rapport with Paolini is most evident, especially on account of the impressive still life with musical instruments, as well as the woman’s facial expression, which moreover also recalls Scaglia’s female figures in the manner of Reni, such as his handling of the features of ‘Abundance’ in the Coat-of-Arms of the Republic of Lucca (Palazzo Orsetti, Lucca) of 1665. In the present painting, the precision with which the music is represented in the five line bars of the musical score is especially notable. This same female type, although rendered in a more purely classical manner (again revealing the influence of Reni’s followers) returns in the Saint Apollonia in the church of San Frediano, Lucca.

The rendering of the woman’s robes and her jewellery, as well as the horizontal arrangement of the composition, can be compared to other works by Scaglia such as the Vanitas in the Koelliker collection and the Allegory of Music in the collection of the Cassa di Risparmio di Lucca and the Vanitas in a Milanese private collection.

For all the above-mentioned works and for a full biography of the artist see the recent exhibition catalogue: Girolamo Scaglia pittore d’ingegno accortissimo, ed. by P. Betti, Lucca 2018.