Lot 290: PIETRO DAMINI CASTELFRANCO VENETO 1592 - 1631 PADUA

SAINT PROSDOCIMUS, JUSTINA, DANIEL AND ANTONY OF PADUA IN GLORY WITH A VIEW OF THE PRATO DELLA VALLE (PADUA) BELOW

measurements note
10 7/8 by 13 3/4 in; 27.5 by 35 cm.

oil on copper

PROVENANCE

Maria Cristina di Borbone Parma, Austria;
Elie di Borbone Parma (according to the sale below, when his label was recorded on the reverse of the frame);
Anonymous sale, Christie's, London, July 20, 1990, lot 21, where purchased by
Masoud Rajee, New York;
Anonymous Sale, Sotheby's, New York, October 17, 1997, lot 87, (where the picture was withdrawn due to an ownership dispute that has now been resolved).

EXHIBITED

Padua, Palazzo della Ragione, Pietro Damini, May 15- September 30, 1993, p. 122-23, cat. no. 16, illus.

NOTE

This elegant painting on copper was unpublished until it was exhibited in the monographic exhibition on Damini in 1993 (see below). It depicts the four patron saints of Padua overlooking the Prato della Valle, now a large square, but then a marshy open area in the south of the city (it was drained by the Venetian podestà Andrea Memmo in 1775). Depicted in great detail is an accurate depiction of the skyline of Padua as it would have appeared in the 1610's (when the painting would stylically date to). From the left can be seen the church of Bethlehem, while behind it, the great structure of the Basilica of Saint Anthony, with the chapel and hospital of San Leonino and the monastery of San Giustina at right.

Damini was from a family of artists from the town of Castelfranco, and he studied paintings with a local artist, Giovanni Battista Novello. His early style exhibits the influence of Paolo Veronese, as is suggested by the old inscription on the reverse of the present copper. Pier Luigi Fantelli has dated this painting to between 1617 to 1619 (see exhibited below p. 122) after the artists sojourn in Vicenza.