Lot 97: Giovanni Paolo Cavagna (Bergamo c. 1556-1627)

The Holy Family with Saint John the Baptist, a landscape with the flight into Egypt beyond signed 'io. paulus Cavaneus.f.' (centre left) oil on canvas 381/2 x 32 in. (97.7 x 81.2 cm.) PROVENANCE Lochman collection, Garmisch, since the 19th century, from which acquired by the present owner. NOTES Paolo Cavagna is recorded in the workshop of the Bergamese artist Cristoforo Baschenis the Elder where he worked together with Cristoforo Baschenis the Younger. According to Tassi (1793) he also trained with Titian in Venice, although there is no notice of him there in sixteenth-century sources, and the relative ages of the two artists would appear to make such a relationship unlikely, although not impossible. His early work, an example of which is the Saint John the Baptist (1588, Bergamo, S. Maria Maggiore), shows the influence of Simone Peterzano, Savoldo and Moretto. He soon became a much requested artist in Bergamo and painted several altarpieces in the city and its province, often in competition with Enea Salmeggia. The consistency in style of the work by Cavagna makes it difficult to establish a chronology, but the similarity with Madonna and Child Enthroned with Saints and Donors in the Church of S. Giorgio, Alzano Lombardo (near Nese) suggests a dating in the 1590s.