Lot 181: f - GIOVANNI MARTINELLI FLORENCE 1610 - 1659

oil on canvas

168 by 196 cm.; 66 by 77 in.

Manuscript inventory by Colin Macleurin his book, Pictures 1752 and
Manuscipt inventory of pictures at Newbattle, 1833, no. 477 (unpublished, both in the Lothian archives);
C. McCorquodale, in Paintings in Florence 1600-1700, exhibition catalogue, London, Royal Academy of Arts, 20 January - 18 February 1979, & Cambridge, Fitzwilliam Museum, 27 February - 28 March 1979, p. 88, under cat. no. 37.

PROPERTY FROM A PRIVATE COLLECTION

In the collection of William Kerr, 3rd Marquess of Lothian, by 1752;
Thence by descent to the Most Hon. The Marquess of Lothian;
By whom sold, London, Sotheby's, 20 April 1988, lot 18, where acquired by the present owner.

The scene illustrates the moment in which Noah, having survived the Flood, made a burnt offering to God (as told in Genesis, VIII: 20). The present picture is very probably identical with a Noah's Family given to "Palma" by Colin Macleurin in 1752 (see Literature). That picture is subsequently listed in the inventory of pictures at Newbattle Abbey in 1833 (as no. 477), when (or shortly after which) the collection number was painted in the lower left hand corner. Another slightly smaller autograph version of The Sacrifice of Noah was purchased in the 18th Century by Sir Francis Dashwood for his collection at West Wycombe Park (129.5 by 173 cm.; see McCorquodale, under Literature, cat. no. 37, reproduced). The overall composition of both pictures is broadly the same, though the figure group is more centralised in the Dashwood painting and there are changes in the lamb and secondary figures. The man in the background holding the metal basin and the moustached man lower left (who is absent from the Dashwood version) may be portraits, as their direct gaze and vivacity would also suggest. Stylistically, this canvas may be closely associated with Martinelli's acknowledged masterpiece of Belshazzar's Feast in the Gallerie degli Uffizi, Florence (see G. Cantelli, Repertorio della Pittura Fiorentina del Seicento, 1983, p. 107, reproduced fig. 544).