Lot 210: The Nativity; and The Adoration of the Shepherds

Giovanni Battista Merano (Genoa 1632-1698 Piacenza)
The Nativity; and The Adoration of the Shepherds
oil on canvas, unlined
43¾ x 61 in. (111.1 x 154.9 cm.)
a pair (2)

We are grateful to Dr. Mary Newcome Schleier for proposing the attribution, on the basis of photographs, noting the typical nervous drapery, colouring and facial types, and comparing the paintings with the Rest on the Flight into Egypt in the church of San Nicola di Bari in Pietra Ligure (exhibited in Frankfurt, Schirn Kunsthalle, Kunst in der Republik Genua. 1528-1815 , 1992, p. 159, no. 79, fig. 79). Dr. Newcome Schleier and Dr. Giuseppe Cirillo will include the paintings in their forthcoming catalogue raisonné on the artist.

The Genoese painter Giovanni Battista Merano trained in his native city with Giovanni Andrea de' Ferrari and later Valerio Castello. By 1651 he was in Parma, where he absorbed the tradition of Correggio and Parmigianino. Shortly after his return to Genoa around 1658, he undertook his first prestigious commission, in the Church of Il Gesù, painting a lunette with the Massacre of the Innocents , which exhibited a mature style and revealled his keen awareness of both Rubens and Giovanni Battista Castiglione. His subsequent career developed in Genoa, Piacenza and expecially Parma, where he worked for the Duke Ranuccio II Farnese.