CARLO DOLCI AND WORKSHOP (Italian, 1616-1687). The Martyrdom of Saint Andrew, circa 1646. Oil on canvas. 47-3/4 x 38-1/2...

Description

CARLO DOLCI AND WORKSHOP (Italian, 1616-1687)
The Martyrdom of Saint Andrew, circa 1646
Oil on canvas
47-3/4 x 38-1/2 inches (121.3 x 97.8 cm)

PROVENANCE:
Private collection, New York

Carlo Dolci painted different versions of this subject for distinguished Florentine patrons. The first and most intimate version of c. 1640 on panel was commissioned by Senator Paolo del Sera of Florence (52.5 x 41 cm., private collection New York; see Francesca Baldassari, Carlo Dolci, Catalogue Raisonné, Turin, 1995, no. 49). The next recorded version, dated 1643 and painted on canvas for an as yet unidentified collector, is now in the collection of the Birmingham City Art Gallery and Museum (inv. no. 45.62, 115.6 x 91.4 cm.), and is the most elaborate treatment of the subject (Baldassari, no. 50). It contains a self-portrait of the artist just below the right hand of the saint, quotations from the work of Titian and Rubens, and portraits of notable art world contemporaries such as that of Raffaello Ximines, a noted connoisseur and one of Dolci's earliest patrons who is shown in armor, and mustachioed, at the right. A third and largest recorded version also on canvas, painted in 1646 for Marchese Carlo Gerini, is now in the Palatine Gallery of the Palazzo Pitti, Florence (inv. no. 266; 122 x 99 cm.; Baldassari, no. 51). The present work is extremely close in size, composition, and handling to the Pitti version.

A studio copy sold recently at Christie's, London, February 12, 2008, lot 75.

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