Lot 38: Vincenzo Damini (Venice late-17th Century-c. 1749 L'Aquila)

Vincenzo Damini (Venice late-17th Century-c. 1749 L'Aquila)
The Ascension: a modello for the apse and cupola of St. Peter-at-Arches, Lincoln
oil on canvas
31 5/8 x 34 1/8 in. (80.4 x 86.7 cm.)

London, Royal Academy, Italian Art and Britain, 1960, no. 192, p. 80.

G. Vertue, 'Notebooks of George Vertue', Walpole Society, 1929-52, III, p. 108.
E. Croft-Murray, Decorative Painting in England 1537-1837, London, 1962, I, pp. 197-8, p. 93, illustrated.

Part of a decorative scheme commissioned by the City of Lincoln for the Church of St. Peter-at-Arches, 1727/8.
Moved to the Church of St. Giles, Lincoln, 1936, following the demolition of St. Peter-at-Arches.
On loan to Lincoln Cathedral Library.

The Property of St. Giles Parish Church, Lincoln
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Vincenzo Damini was a pupil of Giovanni Antonio Pellegrini, who he accompanied to England in circa 1720. Whilst in England he was chiefly engaged in portrait painting, but was commissioned to paint frescoes in St. Peter-at-Arches, Lincoln (now destroyed), and the series in the north transept of Lincoln Cathedral, which date from the late 1720s and remain in situ.
After a long period of decline, the city of Lincoln began to commission a number of churches in the 1720s, one of which was St. Peters-at-Arches, built in 1724 beside the Guildhall as the civic church. Damini's modello for the apse and cupola of St. Peter-at-Arches, Lincoln, presented here, was commissioned by the City of Lincoln in 1727-8 as part of an overall decorative scheme. Croft-Murray aptly described this modello as 'a lively performance, with distinct touches of Pellegrini about it' (op. cit.). It was preserved in the church until the building's demolition in the 1930s. The painting was then transferred by the Bishop, together with other fittings from the building, to the newly built parish church of St. Giles.