Lot 91: GIOVANNI MARTINELLI FLORENCE 1610 - 1659

A VANITAS SCENE WITH DEATH HOLDING AN HOUR GLASS BEHIND A STARTLED MAN, ('DEATH AT THE TABLE')

measurements note
55.3 by 64 cm.; 21 3/4 by 25 1/4 in.

oil on canvas

NOTE

The present composition may be closely compared to Martinelli's La Gioventù sopresa dalla Morte in Florence, Uffizi, in which a younger man is similarly surprised from behind by Death holding an hour glass. The present work may be dated to after the artist's presumed sojourn in Rome from 1625-1632 when his work reveals the influence of the Lucchese Pietro Paolini. Compare, for example, Paolini's Man at a desk watched by Death, formerly with Simon Dickinson 2001 (see P.G. Maccari, Pietro Paolini, pittore lucchese, Lucca 1987, pp. 91-2, cat. no. 13, reproduced) in which the same compositional technique, subject matter and distinctly Roman use of light and dark apply.