Lot 191: Giovanni Battista Merano , Genoa 1632 - 1698 Piacenza Christ among the doctors oil on canvas

oil on canvas

measurements note 132 by 205 cm.; 52 by 80 3/4 in.

London, John Lishawa & Co., A Journey through Taste: Exhibition of Old Master Paintings from the Spier Collection and other Loans, June - July 2004, no. 17 (as Domenico Fiasella).

A Journey through Taste: Exhibition of Old Master Paintings from the Spier Collection and other Loans, exhibition catalogue, London, John Lishawa & Co., June - July 2004, cat. no. 17, reproduced in colour (as Domenico Fiasella);
M. Newcome Schleier, "More Merano", in Paragone, year LVI, no. 667, vol. 63, September 2005, pp. 66-67, and p. 71, footnote 19, reproduced plate 39.

Private collection, Novi, in 2000;
Acquired shortly afterwards by the present owner in Paris.

Giovanni Battista Merano was born in Liguria and was active in that area, in Mantua, Pavia, Parma and Piacenza (where he died). A number of studies on the artist were published in the early 1980s and a monograph is due to appear shortly.υ1 Merano was taught by Giovanni Andrea de Ferrari and Valerio Castello, the latter encouraging him to study the works of Correggio and Parmigianino in Parma, where he went in the 1650s. His earliest known painting is a monogrammed Crucifixion with Saints Lawrence and George in the Palazzo Ducale, Genoa, datable to circa 1652. Merano was hugely influenced by his godfather and mentor Giulio Benso, as Mary Newcome Schleier has pointed out: "Merano remained tied to an early seicento tradition and perhaps of all his contemporaries, he was most affected by the robust colouring and gregarious figure style of Benso".υ2 Like his contemporary Domenico Piola, who had also studied with Valerio Castello, Merano's activity in Genoa greatly increased in the 1660s and by 1670 he was taking on accomplished pupils such as Giovanni Maria delle Piane. In the 1680s Merano travelled to Piacenza where he was patronised by Duke Ranuccio II Farnese, from whom he received an annual stipend. He also had patrons in Novi, where genoese nobleman owned country retreats.υ3 1. Past articles include those by J.P. Marandel, "Giovanni Battista Merano in Parma", in Paragone, vol. 377, 1981 pp. 3-11, and M. Newcome Schleier, "Giovanni Battista Merano in Liguria", in Paragone, vol. 389, 1982, pp. 10-32. The catalogue raisonné of the artist's works is due to be published by Mary Newcome Schleier and Giuseppe Cirillo.
2. See Newcome Schleier, under Literature, p. 70.
3. Newcome Schleier, op. cit., notes that the painting may once have belonged to the Sauli family in Novi.