Lot 121: FEDERICO CERVELLI

FEDERICO CERVELLI MILAN CIRCA 1638 – 1698 VENICE DIANA AND ACTAEON oil on canvas 159 by 232.2 cm.; 62 1/2 by 91 1/2 in.

Anonymous sale, Rome, Christie's, 1 December 1998, lot 211 (though wrongly reproduced as lot 218).

When this painting was last at auction in 1998 it was accompanied by a letter by Prof. Ugo Ruggeri, in which the painting was unequivocally attributed to the painter Federico Cervelli. It was offered there with a pendant, of very similar dimensions, representing Diana and Callisto.υ1 Though born in Milan, Cervelli worked principally in Venice where he received commissions from religious orders as well as from the nobility. He probably arrived in Venice in the mid-1660s for he is not mentioned in Boschini's 1664 edition of painters in Venice but he is in the later edition of 1674. Cervelli's paintings demonstrate the influence of Pietro Liberi, particulary those of the 1660s and early '70s, but he later moved away from a naturalistic baroque style to a lighter, more fluid way of painting that is more in line with early rococo painting in Venice.

1. 156 by 231 cm.; also sold, Rome, Christie's, 1 December 1998, lot 218 (though wrongly reproduced as lot 211).