Lot 287: Filippo Gagliardi (Rome c.1606-1659)

Filippo Gagliardi (Rome c.1606-1659)
A capriccio with the Colosseum, the Arch of Constantine, and the Tower of Maecenas, Rome
oil on canvas
58 x 76¾ in. (147 x 195 cm.)

London, Chaucer Fine Arts, Rome: A Vision of Antiquity. Pictures and Drawings, Classical Sculpture, November-December 1980, no. 4, as 'Codazzi'.
Washington, Osuna Gallery, The Pleasure of Ruins. Viviano Codazzi and His Legacy, November-December 1985, no. 10, as 'Codazzi'; also New York, Shepherd Gallery, January-February 1986.

G. Briganti, et al., 'Viviano Codazzi', in I Pittori Bergamaschi dal XIII al XIX secolo, Il Seicento, Bergamo, 1983, I, pp. 691, 732, no. 32, fig. 2, as 'Codazzi, fairly late, figures by a Bambocciante close to Jan Miel'.
A. Wagner, 'Freude an Ruinen', Die Kunst, XCVIII, no. 5, 1986, pp. 365-367, as 'Codazzi'.
D.R. Marshall, Viviano and Niccoló Codazzi and the Baroque Architectural Fantasy, Milan, 1993, pp. 521-522, 542-543, no. FG 21.

with Chaucer Fine Arts, London, 1980.

THE PROPERTY OF AN EAST COAST COLLECTOR

Filippo Gagliardi is documented in primary sources as 'Filippo delle Prospettive', an artist active in Rome from the early 1630s until his death 1659. A contemporary of Viviano Codazzi, Gagliardi was elected as a principle to the Accademia di San Luca and specialized in the teaching of perspective. He produced large-scale festival scenes in collaboration with Jan Miel, Filippo Lauri and Salvatore Castiglione. Gagliardi's architectural capricci are generally topographical and factual, rather than fanciful, as evidenced in the present lot.

In this architectural capriccio Gagliardi shows the Colosseum, the Arch of Constantine and the Arch of Titus, in their correct geographical relationships, as well as an unfamiliar and fantastic multi-layered building on the right, which can be identified as the Tower of Maecenas. The Tower, as documented by Suetonius in the Lives of Caesars, was the site from which Nero watched the burning of Rome. This unusual building was the subject of an engraving by Giacomo Lauro as published in, Antiquae Urbis Splendor, 1612. Gagliardi apparently relied on a different source for his building, which is more conceptual and less detailed than Lauro's version, nevertheless providing an unusual view into Roman history and architecture.

David Marshall tentatively dates the present painting to the 1640s, when Gagliardi's work was close in style to Viviano Codazzi.