Lot 123: SIMONE BRENTANA

SIMONE BRENTANA VENICE 1656 - 1742 VERONA ELIJAH AND THE WIDOW OF ZAREPHATH oil on canvas 177 by 164.2 cm.; 69 3/4 by 64 5/8 in.

The son of a dealer, like Balestra, Simone Brentana was probably born in Venice but from around 1684 moved definitively to nearby Verona, where he was active for much of his life. Very few secure works by him are known: among them a painting of Job in Villafranca, dated 1727, and a pair showing the Old Testament figures Job and Judith (both in the church of San Nicolò, Verona).υ1 The figures here are shown in dynamic poses, in sharp foreshortening, and both paintings demonstrate Brentana's unusual sense of colour (itself probably influenced by Dorigny whom Brentana would have come into contact with in Venice).

The subject is taken from the Old Testament (I Kings 17: 17-24). When Elijah came to the city of Zarephath he met a widow gathering sticks, who gave him food and drink. The widow's son was mortally ill and Elijah, calling upon God for help, revived him.

We are grateful to Prof. Lino Moretti for his assistance in cataloguing this lot, and to Prof. Giorgio Fossaluzza for endorsing the attribution on the basis of photographs and suggesting that this is an early work by the artist.

1. La pittura nel Veneto. Il Seicento, Milan 2000, vol. I, pp. 395-96, reproduced on pp. 407-8, figs. 505 and 506.