Lot 170: Giovanni Battista Viola (Bologna 1576-1622 Rome)

An extensive river landscape with a ferry; and A mountainous landscape with a hunt
oil on canvas
47 1/2 x 68 1/4 in. (120.6 x 173.3 cm.) and 47 1/4 x 68 in. (122.5 x 172.7 cm.)
a pair (2)

Kansas City, William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art, 1962.

Dubois de Saint-Gelais, Description des Tableaux du Palais-Royal, 1727, nos. 43 and 45.
W. Buchanan, Memoirs of Painting, I, 1824, p. 79, no. 3 (as 'Landscape called Le Batelier' by 'Annibale Carracci') and no. 7 (as 'Landscape, called La Chasse au Vol', by 'Annibale Carracci').
Dr. G. Waagen, Treasures of Art in Great Britain, II, 1854, p. 489 and III, 1854, pp. 319-20.
C. Stryienski, La Galerie du Régent, 1913, pp. 11 and 168, no. 227 and 231 (as 'Le Batelier' and 'Les Chasseurs' by 'Annibale Carracci').
R.E. Spear, Domenichino, New Haven and London, 1982, p. 320 (under doubtful and wrongly attributed paintings: 'an attribution to Viola is preferable').
R.E. Spear,in the exhibition catalogue, Domenichino, Rome, Palazzo Venezia, 10 Oct. 1996-14 Jan. 1997, p. 165, fig. 6, as Giovanni Battisti Viola.

Etienne Texier d'Hautefeuille (d. 1703),as by Domenichino, who left his paintings to the Knights of Malta who presumably sold them (see A. Blunt, Nicolas Poussin, A Critical Catalogue, 1968, pp. 123 and 135).
Philippe, Duc d'Orléans, catalogue nos. 227 and 231 (as 'Le Batelier' and 'Les Chasseurs' by 'Annibale Carracci') and then by descent to Philippe Égalité, Duc d'Orléans; Bryan's, London, 26 December 1798, lots 19 and 27 as 'Annibale Carracci' (600 gns. each to the Earl of Carlisle); then by descent to
The Hon. Geoffrey W.A. Howard, Castle Howard, York, (+); Christie's, London, 18 February 1944, lots 17 and 18, as 'A. Carracci' (28gns. and 16 gns. to Beck).
Anonymous sale, Christie's, London, 29 March 1974, lots 29 and 30 (£44,100 and £29,400 respectively).

The first, by J. Couché; the second, by J.-B. Racine.

This fine pair of landscapes is first recorded in the possession of Etienne Texier d'Hautefeuille as by Domenichino, in whose collection were three other paintings attributed to the same artist. They then passed into the famous Orléans collection where they were catalogued as Annibale Carracci. This attribution remained unchanged until the 1974 sale when they were identified by Sir Denis Mahon as the work of the youthful Domenichino. This was not accepted by Richard E. Spear, who in his book and in a previous article, proposed the attribution of Giovanni Battista Viola. Spear's argument was recently challenged by Clovis Whitfield and Sir Denis Mahon in the exhibition Classicismo e natura (Musei Capitolini, Rome, 1996) where the pictures are attributed fully to Domenichino.

A pair of smaller but comparable landscapes given to Domenichino were exhibited in Bologna in 1999 (see Percorsi del Barocco, op. cit., no. 10 and 11), River landscape with boats, and Wooded landscape with a hunting scene from the Sir Denis Mahon collection and the Pinacoteca of Bologna. The compositions of these landscapes are very similar to those in the present lot, showing two fishermen in a boat in the River landscape with boats and a comparable mountainous landscape with groups of trees in the foreground. In the Wooded landscape with a hunting scene, similar figures attend to their dogs and mounted huntsmen appear in the foreground; in the distance a castle is perched on mountains while trees frame the composition. Like the present paintings, these have also been attributed by Spear to Viola but in the Bologna catalogue, Spear's theory is challenged by Gabriele Finaldi and Anna Stanzani.

The differences between Viola and Domenichino is most striking in their relative depiction of figures. Viola's sense of narrative is totally subservient to his painting of landscape while Domenichino's figures are given great significance. The discrepancies of scale in the figures, noted by Spear, is a particular characteristic of the present pair and of other independently conceived Domenichino's of the period. The Landscape with the Sacrifice of Isaac (Kimball Art Museum), Baptism of Christ (Kunsthalle, Zurich) or the St. Jerome (National Gallery, London) for instance, have analogous figures given disproportionate weight in the foreground of the composition. Domenichino had just arrived in Rome and was clearly not intent on establishing his reputation merely as landscape painter.
A drawing relevant to the genesis of the present paintings reproduced in the Musei Capitolini exhibition catalogue formerly given to Carracci but now thought to be by Domenichino, shows that, in fact, it was the younger artist who was the innovator in this area.

For a further discussion concerning differences of attribution between Viola and Domenichino, see R.L. Spear, 'A Forgotten Landscape Painter: Giovanni Battista Viola', in Burlington Magazine, CXXII, 1980, pp. 305-06 and Spear, op. cit., 1982, pp. 82-84, Spear, op.cit, 1996/7, pp. 163-69 and pp.522-36

Please note the additional information for this lot:

Exhibited
Rome, Musei Capitolini, Classicismo e Natura: La lezione di Domenichino (catalogue entry by C. Whitfield), 15 November 1996-2 February 1997, pp. 85-88, illustrated, as by Domenichino.