Lot 49: An architectural capriccio with classical ruins bearing the Medici coat-of-arms, two travelers admiring a tomb, and peasants by a stream, a village beyond

Gaetano Bernardino Ottani Bologna 1736-1808
An architectural capriccio with classical ruins bearing the Medici coat-of-arms, two travelers admiring a tomb, and peasants by a stream, a village beyond
signed and dated 'Gaetano Ottani/Pinx 1761' (lower left)
oil on canvas
74½ x 63 1/8 in. 188.6 x 160.3 cm.

Blaquier collection, Buenos Aires.

The present composition can be compared to a pair of capricci by Ottani exhibited in Turin in 1963 (see the catalogue of the exhibition, Mostra del Barocco Piemontese , Turin, 1963, vol. II, pp. 107-8, pl. 186a-b). The Medici coat of arms, a varying number of red balls emblazoned on a shield, can be found on buildings financed by the Medici family all across Florence and Tuscany.