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拍品专文
In exceptional condition and painted with great verve, this exuberant canvas can rightly be considered a masterpiece of Andrea de Leone’s maturity. Directly inspired by the bacchanalia of Titian and Poussin, the picture brims with character and finely studied detail, as a singular cast of revellers are shown dancing and drinking before a term, with instruments, musical scores and fruit strewn out across the floor.
Born in 1610, Andrea de Leone (whose name has been reported alternatively as De Lione or Di Leone) first trained under Belisario Corenzio, specialising in fresco decoration and assisting his master on important commissions for the royal palace in Naples. It was his move to the workshop of Aniello Falcone, however, together with the influence of Giovanni Benedetto Castiglione, that would see him develop as a draughtsman and begin to find his own idiosyncratic style in the 1630s. His focus on battle scenes in the earlier part of his career revealed Falcone’s bearing, whereas Grechetto’s sense of pastoral lyricism and varied palette informed his later pictures. The introduction of vibrant tones of red, blue and green enlivened the more typically darker hues present in his earlier work. By the end of the 1630, he was well established in the upper ranks of a new generation of Neapolitan artists, receiving commissions from the Viceroy Ramiro Núñez de Guzmán, Duke of Medina de las Torres, on behalf of the king of Spain, and from the wealthy merchants whose collecting habits coloured the artistic scene in Naples at the time, notably Gaspar Roomer and Antonio Ruffo, the great Sicilian collector who owned pictures by Rembrandt and Caravaggio.
Even though de Leone remained in Naples for the majority of his career, he is thought to have spent some time in Rome, probably in the 1640s, a trip that may in part explain the classicising tendency and the undoubted Poussinesque influence that abounds in his mature work. Indeed, the impact of Poussin is keenly felt here: the palette, the subject and the arrangement of figures are all reminiscent of Poussin’s bacchanalia, notably A Bacchanalian Revel before a Term (fig. 1; London, National Gallery), and it is perhaps unsurprising that the picture was for a time attributed to Poussin himself. An even more significant influence though was, arguably, Titian’s famous The Bacchanal of the Andrians (fig. 2; Madrid, Museo del Prado), which was almost certainly known to de Leone, as it was owned between 1633 and 1637 by the Viceroy Monterrey while in Naples, making a keen impression on Neapolitan artists of the time. The motif of the ‘puer mingens’ on the far left of the picture is clearly inspired by Titian’s almost identical figure in the Madrid canvas, and Viviana Farina has in fact seen the present picture as a purposeful homage to, and liberal interpretation of, Titian’s masterpiece, declaring that: ‘not even Poussin perhaps would have known how to capture so well the poetic energy of the Venetian master’ (op. cit., p. 21).
William Waldegrave, 1st Baron Radstock (1753-1825) was the younger son of John, 3rd Earl Waldegrave. He had a long and successful naval career, retiring in 1802, at the time of the Peace of Amiens. He formed a small but distinguished collection of pictures, a number of which were bought at Christie’s, where this picture was sold after his death. Poussin, to whom this picture was attributed, was evidently an artist of particular interest to Radstock, who owned eight works attributed to him. Among the most highly prized pictures in the sale were Parmigianino’s Portrait of a Collector (London, National Gallery) and a now lost Madonna from Capodimonte, also attributed to Parmigianino, which was bought by Lord Ailesbury and stolen after the war from the garage of his descendant, Hector Binny, in the late 1940s.
George Augustus Frederick Cavendish-Bentinck, M.P. (1821-1891), Secretary to the Board of Trade and Judge Advocate-General in Disraeli’s administration of 1874-80, spent much time in Italy and assembled a notable collection of Venetian pictures, including works by Giovanni Domenico Tiepolo and Longhi (including London, National Gallery, nos. 1833, 1834, 5041 and 5842). Much of the collection was sold at Christie’s in 1891, but some pictures were retained by his son Frederick Cavendish-Bentinck, F.S.A., while others were purchased at the sale by his son-in-law, Arthur James.
Born in 1610, Andrea de Leone (whose name has been reported alternatively as De Lione or Di Leone) first trained under Belisario Corenzio, specialising in fresco decoration and assisting his master on important commissions for the royal palace in Naples. It was his move to the workshop of Aniello Falcone, however, together with the influence of Giovanni Benedetto Castiglione, that would see him develop as a draughtsman and begin to find his own idiosyncratic style in the 1630s. His focus on battle scenes in the earlier part of his career revealed Falcone’s bearing, whereas Grechetto’s sense of pastoral lyricism and varied palette informed his later pictures. The introduction of vibrant tones of red, blue and green enlivened the more typically darker hues present in his earlier work. By the end of the 1630, he was well established in the upper ranks of a new generation of Neapolitan artists, receiving commissions from the Viceroy Ramiro Núñez de Guzmán, Duke of Medina de las Torres, on behalf of the king of Spain, and from the wealthy merchants whose collecting habits coloured the artistic scene in Naples at the time, notably Gaspar Roomer and Antonio Ruffo, the great Sicilian collector who owned pictures by Rembrandt and Caravaggio.
Even though de Leone remained in Naples for the majority of his career, he is thought to have spent some time in Rome, probably in the 1640s, a trip that may in part explain the classicising tendency and the undoubted Poussinesque influence that abounds in his mature work. Indeed, the impact of Poussin is keenly felt here: the palette, the subject and the arrangement of figures are all reminiscent of Poussin’s bacchanalia, notably A Bacchanalian Revel before a Term (fig. 1; London, National Gallery), and it is perhaps unsurprising that the picture was for a time attributed to Poussin himself. An even more significant influence though was, arguably, Titian’s famous The Bacchanal of the Andrians (fig. 2; Madrid, Museo del Prado), which was almost certainly known to de Leone, as it was owned between 1633 and 1637 by the Viceroy Monterrey while in Naples, making a keen impression on Neapolitan artists of the time. The motif of the ‘puer mingens’ on the far left of the picture is clearly inspired by Titian’s almost identical figure in the Madrid canvas, and Viviana Farina has in fact seen the present picture as a purposeful homage to, and liberal interpretation of, Titian’s masterpiece, declaring that: ‘not even Poussin perhaps would have known how to capture so well the poetic energy of the Venetian master’ (op. cit., p. 21).
William Waldegrave, 1st Baron Radstock (1753-1825) was the younger son of John, 3rd Earl Waldegrave. He had a long and successful naval career, retiring in 1802, at the time of the Peace of Amiens. He formed a small but distinguished collection of pictures, a number of which were bought at Christie’s, where this picture was sold after his death. Poussin, to whom this picture was attributed, was evidently an artist of particular interest to Radstock, who owned eight works attributed to him. Among the most highly prized pictures in the sale were Parmigianino’s Portrait of a Collector (London, National Gallery) and a now lost Madonna from Capodimonte, also attributed to Parmigianino, which was bought by Lord Ailesbury and stolen after the war from the garage of his descendant, Hector Binny, in the late 1940s.
George Augustus Frederick Cavendish-Bentinck, M.P. (1821-1891), Secretary to the Board of Trade and Judge Advocate-General in Disraeli’s administration of 1874-80, spent much time in Italy and assembled a notable collection of Venetian pictures, including works by Giovanni Domenico Tiepolo and Longhi (including London, National Gallery, nos. 1833, 1834, 5041 and 5842). Much of the collection was sold at Christie’s in 1891, but some pictures were retained by his son Frederick Cavendish-Bentinck, F.S.A., while others were purchased at the sale by his son-in-law, Arthur James.