Lot 372: Giovanni Maria delle Piane, called Mulinaretto , Genoa 1660 - 1745 Monticelli d'Ongina Portrait of a Lady, holding a fan and a domino mask oil on canvas, oval

oil on canvas, oval

measurements note 49 1/2 by 39 1/2 in.; 125.7 by 100.3 cm.

Della Piane was one of the leading portraitists of the late Baroque in Italy, becoming court painter to the Farnese at their courts at Parma and Piacenza, and later to the Bourbons at Naples (no doubt due to the artist's relationship with Elisabetta Farnese, the mother of Carlo VII of Naples, whom he had painted numerous times). He was trained in his native Genoa by Giovanni Battista Merano, and later, during a sojourn in Rome, by Giovanni Battista Gaulli, called Baciccio. His style was eminently suited to royal taste, amalgamating the French manners of Rigaud and Largillierre with a uniquely Italian approach to ornament and lighting. The present canvas exemplifies his work, beautifully composed and lit, and painted in an oval format, then much in fashion both in France, and in Genoa (see D. Sanguineti, "Genovesi in Posa," in Pittura e Decorazione a Genoa e in Liguria nel Settecento, ed. E. Gavazza and L. Magnani, Genoa 2000, pp. 315-330, figs.474, 477, 479, 483 for examples of oval portraits by other Genoese artists). We are grateful to Anna Orlando who has attributed the present painting to the artist based on photographs.