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a painting of a group of people standing around a man with a swordan image of a painting of a man with a helmet on his headpainting of a woman holding a child ' s hand with a ring on her fingerpainting of a man and a woman in armor looking at each othera picture of a painting of a man with a doga painting of a woman holding a baby in her lapa painting of a man with a helmet on his headan old wooden window with a glass pane in the middle of it
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10 - CAMPI, Antonio (Cremona 1523–1587) ‘The Death of Lucretia’.
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Estimate €40,000 - €60,000
Sale commission
Description
CAMPI, Antonio (Cremona 1523–1587) ‘The Death of Lucretia’. Large oil on canvas, 125 x 150 cm. Re-stretched and minor restoration. In a substantial 19th-century wooden frame with gilded stucco. Provenance: formerly in the collection of King Louis Philippe’s physician (as attested by a wax seal) In a private collection since the early 20th century, subsequently passed down through the family. Lucretia was a woman renowned for her beauty and, even more so, for her virtue. The wife of Tarquinius Collatinus, a powerful man close to King Tarquinius, the young woman took her own life after being raped by Sextus Tarquinius, the king’s son. Lucretia is an ‘exemplum’ (the story of a person whose actions are worthy of emulation), as she did not wish to set an example of a woman who had survived such dishonour. It was following Lucretia’s rape that Rome is said to have transitioned from a monarchy to a republic in 509 BC, as noted by numerous ancient authors, such as Livy. Antonio Campi was an Italian painter, engraver and architect. He began as a pupil of his brother Giulio, then worked in Italy – in Cremona, of course, but also in Brescia and Milan. A pupil of his elder brother Giulio, he began with an altarpiece for the Church of Sant’Ilario in Cremona, dated 1546. In this work, he displays the influences of Giulio Romano, Parmigianino and even Primaticcio, which are equally evident in the paintings he executed with his brother Giulio for the loggia in Brescia (1549). Around 1550, again in collaboration with Giulio, he worked on the decoration of the Palazzo Pallavicino in Torre Pallavicina, creating highly refined and colourful mythological paintings. It was during these same years that he made his first visit to Milan, where he began decorating the Church of San Paolo Converso with the cycle of frescoes in the chancel (1564) and where he painted an altarpiece, The Resurrection of Christ, for Santa Maria presso San Celso. His painting began to be characterised by a dramatic and spectacular style which is said to have won him the favour of Archbishop Carlo Borromeo, a leading figure of the Counter-Reformation. On his return to Cremona, he painted the Pietà (1566) for the dome and the *Decollazione del Battista* for the church of San Sigismondo, a work which already displays a distinctive and pronounced chiaroscuro, created by a strong lateral light source that Roberto Longhi would describe as a precursor to Caravaggio’s painting. These intensely productive years were marked by a wealth of works: numerous frescoes (again for the church of San Sigismondo and for those of San Vittore in Meda), canvases (the ‘Sacra Conversazione’, now in the Brera Gallery, *San Girolamo*, now in the Prado Museum at El Escorial, *The Beheading of John the Baptist* for San Paolo Converso in Milan, and *The Adoration of the Shepherds* for the Sanctuary of Santa Maria della Croce in Crema). Among his most accomplished works in Milan, the following stand out: the triptych in the Church of San Marco in Milan (1577), now housed in the small museum adjoining the church, and the two canvases in the Gallarati Chapel at the Church of Sant’Angelo (1583–1584), with an almost Caravaggesque tone, and the decoration of the vault of the Church of San Paolo Converso, featuring a spectacular perspective and figures of Christ, the Virgin and the Apostles rendered with dramatic effect – almost a foreshadowing of Baroque painting – executed in collaboration with his brother Vincenzo. The painter was the subject of an exhibition in Turin, at the Galleria Canesso, from 7 December 2023 to 10 March 2024. Expert: René MILLET in Paris
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About the sale Coming soon – Prestige: Paintings, Art Objects and Furniture
Auction location
Auction time 11/26/2026 at 1:30 PM
Pictures credits: Contact the Auction House
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