Lot 28: The Flight of Daedalus and Icarus

Orazio Samacchini (Bologna 1532-1577) The Flight of Daedalus and Icarus with inscriptions '55', 'del Francesco Salviati' on the mount and 'Expertius vacuum Aedalus aera Pennis non homini datis. Ho r. Lib. I Ode 3.v. 34' on the verso of the mount black chalk, heightened with white (partially oxidized), squared in black chalk, on blue paper, on an 18th century English mount 8¾ x 15 3/8 in. (223 x 390 mm.)

London, Courtauld Institute Galleries, Drawing in Bologna 1500-1600, 1992, no. 57.

J. Richardson Sen. (L. 2183).
C. Rogers (L. 624); T. Philipe, London, 15-23 April 1799, part of lot 593 (as 'Francesco Salviati, Rebecca at the Well, bistre, heightened and Daedelus and Icarus, black chalk, heightened, both on blue paper').
V. Ezekiel.
with P. & D. Colnaghi, London, 1956, no. 15, as Francesco Salviati, where acquired by the present owner.

FROM A EUROPEAN PRIVATE COLLECTION


As was first recognized by Philip Pouncey, this drawing, traditionally attributed to Francesco Salviati, is a study by Orazio Samacchini for a fresco on a ceiling of the Palazzo Vizzani, Bologna (J. Winkelmann, op. cit., p. 681).
While the figure of Daedalus appears virtually unchanged in the fresco, the position of Icarus has been radically altered, as have the indications of the signs of the zodiac in the background.
The date of the fresco is uncertain. Winkelmann suggests circa but Faietti (op. cit., 2001) thinks it may have been excuted earlier, in the second half of the 1560s, as it is close in style to Samacchini's work in the Castello dei Rossi at San Secondo. Dr Faietti compares the drawing to Diligence rebuffing Enmity and chaining Hate, now in the Louvre (M. Faietti, op. cit., 2001, no. 50) which shares the same precise and powerful handling and which may also have been preparatory to Sammachini's frescoes in Palazzo Vizzani.