Lot 103: Antoine Rivalz (1667-1735)

Venus appearing to Aeneas as he lands on the site of Rome, with allegories of the Tiber and Rome in the foreground; and The Sacrifice of Iphigenia signed 'MA Rivalz tolosas delineavit Tolosas delineavit' (1) and signed and dated 'M.A. Rivalz Tolosas delineavit anno 1691' (2) black chalk, pen and brown ink, brown wash heightened with white on brown paper 222 x 363 mm. and 223 x 349 mm. (2) NOTES These two drawings are part of a series on Aeneas and the Iliad which Rivalz drew in the early 1690's while he was working in Carlo Maratta's studio in Rome. Two drawings from this series dating from 1692, The Murder of Priam and Neptune calming the Waves were recently exhibited in the Mus‚e Paul-Dupuy, Toulouse, Les collectionneurs Toulousains du XVIII e siŠcle, 2001, nos. 5-6. The very finished aspect and the quality of these drawings indicate that they were intended as independent works of arts, and show the strong influence of Raymond Lafage, with whom Rivalz studied in Toulouse in 1683.