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Giuseppe Cesari, known as the Cavalier d'Arpin
(Arpino, 1568…
See original version (French)
201
-
Giuseppe Cesari, known as the Cavalier d'Arpin
(Arpino, 1568…
See original version (French)
Estimate €25,000 - €30,000
Voluntary lot
Description
Giuseppe Cesari, known as the Cavalier d'Arpin
(Arpino, 1568 - Rome, 1640)
Perseus delivering Andromeda
Oil on panel
52 × 37 cm
Provenance: Rome, private collection; Florence, Marco Chiarini collection.
Bibliography: H. Röttgen, 1973, p. 110; Schleier-H. Röttgen, Mostra antologica delle opere..., 1993; H. Röttgen, Il Cavalier Giuseppe Cesari d'Arpino. Un grande pittore nello splendore della fama e nell'incostanza della fortuna, Rome, 2002, p. 336, no. 103, cat. 98.
This subject represents one of the most successful themes painted by the painter from Arpino, an ancient hilltop town in the Liri valley south of Rome. Cesari acquired considerable fame and prestige in Rome at the end of the sixteenth century, thanks in particular to major papal commissions in the last two decades of the century. He produced frescoes and decorations of remarkable importance: first at Sant'Anastasio dei Greci, the church of Trinità dei Monti and San Lorenzo in Damaso; in the early 1590s, with the decoration of the ceiling of the Contarelli chapel at San Luigi dei Francesi, and the Olgiati chapel at Santa Prassede (1593-1595); then the ceiling of the Orsini loggia at Pio Sodalizio dei Piceni (1594-1595). He then frescoed the sacristy of the Certosa di San Martino in Naples (1596-1597) and decorated the Sala degli Orazi e Curiazi in the Palazzo dei Conservatori on the Capitoline Hill with The Discovery of the She-wolf.
In November 1599, Cesari was appointed principle of the Accademia di San Luca, and the following year, thanks to the pictorial qualities of his fresco of the Ascension in the transept of San Giovanni in Laterano, he was awarded the Order of Christ. During the last decade of the century, the Cavalier d'Arpino also produced a large number of small, refined easel paintings that were much sought after by private clients, including Perseus and Andromeda (c. 1592-1593), The Resurrection of Lazarus (c. 1591-1593), The Flight into Egypt (c. 1592-1593), Saint Michael Overcoming the Rebel Angels (c. 1593), The Arrest of Christ (c. 1596-1597), The Expulsion from Paradise (1597), Diana and Actaeon and The Rest during the Flight into Egypt.
The refined execution of these works - characterised by brilliant lacquers and elegant forms rendered in vivid, intense colours - contributed greatly to their success with an elitist clientele. This explains the existence of several autograph replicas of the same subjects, executed with slight variations. Other versions of Perseus Delivering Andromeda are held by the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute in Williamstown and the Accademia di San Luca in Rome.
The dense, vigorous brushwork of the present panel does not prevent us from discerning lapses in certain essential passages, such as around the figure of Pegasus or along the contours of Andromeda's diaphanous nude body, painted with rapid sensitivity. This lively execution - already indicative of the master's hand - can be seen in every detail of the composition, centred on the dramatic arrival of Perseus to rescue Andromeda, daughter of Cepheus, King of Ethiopia, and the proud Cassiopeia. Cassiopeia had boasted that she was more beautiful than the Nereids, provoking their anger; in retaliation, the sea nymphs implored Neptune, who condemned his daughter to be sacrificed to a sea monster.
Ovid's Metamorphoses tells us that Perseus initially mistook Andromeda for a marble statue; only the wind stirring her hair and the hot tears on her cheeks revealed her human nature. Having triumphed over Medusa, Perseus asked the young girl her name and the reason for her chains. Falling in love, he asked her parents for her hand, then threw himself against the sea monster, killing it with his sword and freeing the ecstatic Andromeda, whom he married.
The rich symbolic values of this myth no doubt explain its appeal to private commissioners. The lively execution of the painting - marked by refined brushstrokes, freshness and an inventiveness full of élan - makes this panel an indisputable testimony to the peak reached by the Cavalier d'Arpino, an absolute master in Rome at the end of the 16th century and the beginning of the 17th. It is to this period that this remarkably well-preserved work should be attributed.
See original version (French)
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