Lot 59: Giovan Francesco de Rosa, called Pacecco de Rosa , Naples 1607 - 1656 Venus and Adonis oil on canvas

oil on canvas

measurements note 79 3/4 by 59 3/4 in.; 202 by 150 cm.

N. Spinosa, La Pittura napoletano del '600, Milan 1984, fig. 273.

Anonymous sale, London, Sotheby's, December 15, 1982, lot 83, where purchased by the present collector.

PROPERTY FROM A PRIVATE COLLECTION, ENGLAND
The story of Venus and Adonis is most famously told in Ovid's Metamorphoses, Book X: 503-739. Here Pacecco de Rosa chooses a quiet, peaceful moment from the story: the two lovers sit under the shade of a poplar tree, Venus' head resting on her lover's breast, and they are surrounded by each of their attributes: the doves of Venus, the hunting dog of Adonis, and playful putti. Only the downward and melancholy gaze of Adonis towards his hound hints at his impending death.

Pacecco de Rosa was the son of the painter Tommaso de Rosa and trained with his stepfather, the Caravaggesque painter Filippo Vitale, with whom he was associated until Vitale's death in 1650. Pacceco continued his studies under Massimo Stanzione, whose classical style was of tremendous importance to the development of his art. He was Stanzione's most talented pupil and in this work we see the strong influence of his master in the treatment of the figures and the handling of the composition. Pacecco's masterpiece The Massacre of the Innocents in the Philadelphia Museum of Art, with its bright palette and attention to detail, also strongly betrays the influence of his master's work from the 1630s. Pacecco's elegant secular paintings were highly valued by the nobility and he also received several important ecclesiastical commissions including his Annunciation in San Gregorio Armeno, Naples and his Deposition in Nunziatella, Naples .