Lot 3002 - A204 Old Master Paintings - Friday, 31. March 2023, 02.00 PM
ERCOLE DE' ROBERTI and Studio
(1456 Ferrara 1496)
A sovereign and his counsellors.
Oil and tempera on panel.
15 × 11 cm.
Provenance:
- Collection of Vincenzo Giustiniani, Rome, inv. no. 1638 (two panels with the stories of the Argonauts, 'di mano si crede di Ercole da Ferrara').
- Collection of Antonio Canova, Rome, acquired directly from the Giustiniani family in 1803.
- Collection of Carl Moll, Vienna.
- Collection of Edwin and Caroline Czeczowicka, Vienna.
- Sale Hermann Ball and Paul Graupe, Berlin, 12.5.1930, lot 27 (withdrawn).
- With art dealer Dr Schaeffer, Berlin, 1930.
- With art dealer Drey, Munich, c. 1931.
- Collection of Caroline Czeczowicka, London, 1947.
- Sale Sotheby's, 27.10.1948, lot 69.
- Acquired at above, P. C. Wilson Collection, London.
- By descent to private ownership.
- Sale Sotheby's, London, 19.4.1989, lot 9.
- Private collection, Switzerland.
Literature:
- Roberto Longhi: Officina Ferrarese, Florence 1934, p. 169, footnote 85 (as Ercole de' Roberti).
- Roberto Longhi: Officina Ferrarese 1934 seguita degli Ampliamenti 1940 e dai nuovi Nuovi Ampliamenti 1940-55, Florence 1956, p. 103, footnote 85 (as Ercole de' Roberti and Lorenzo Costa).
- Mario Salmi: Ercole de' Roberti, Ferrara 1960, p. 23 and 55, ill. 19b (as Ercole de Roberti and workshop).
- Federico Zeri: Appunti per Ercole de' Roberti, in: Bollettino d'arte, 1965.
- Bernard Berenson: Italian Pictures of the Renaissance, London 1968, vol. I, p. 121 (as Ercole de' Roberti).
- R. Heinemann (ed.): The Thyssen-Bornemisza Collection, Villa Favorita 1969, p. 289 (as Ercole de' Roberti).
- Paola Tosetti Grandi: Lorenzo Costa, in: Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani, 30, Rome 1984, pp. 211–218, p. 212 (as Ercole de' Roberti and Lorenzo Costa).
- Paola Tosetti Grandi: Lorenzo Costa miniatore, in: La miniatura italiana tra Gotico e Rinascimento, Atti del II Congresso di Storia della Miniatura Italiana (Cortona 1982), Florence 1985, pp. 329–353, p. 212 (as Ercole de' Roberti and Lorenzo Costa).
- Gertrude Borghero: Thyssen-Bornemisza Collection, Lugano 1986, p. 271 (as Ercole de' Roberti).
- Maria Grazia Diana: Alcune precisazioni per il percorso giovanile di Lorenzo Costa, in: Paragone, 37, 1986, 431–433, pp. 45–53, pp. 46–48 (as Ercole de' Roberti and Lorenzo Costa).
- Federico Zeri: Giorno per giorno nella pittura. Scritti sull'arte dell'Italia settentrionale dal Trecento al primo Cinquecento, Turin 1988, pp. 199–207, pp. 202–203.
- Paola Tosetti Grandi: Favole tolte da Ovidio e da altri poeti: per tre coppie di cassoni nuziali bolognesi, in: Bollettino del Museo Civico di Padova, 79, 1990, pp. 223–263, pp. 253–263 (as Ercole de' Roberti and Lorenzo Costa).
- Paola Tosetti Grandi, in: Da Bellini a Tintoretto. Dipinti dei musei civici di Padova dalla metà del '400 ai primi del '600, Catalogo a cura di Alessandro Ballarin et Davide Banzato, Rome 1991, pp. 75–77, p. 75 (as Ercole de' Roberti; possibly leaving a fragment of Jason, Alcinoos).
- Joseph Manca: The Art of Ercole de' Roberti, Cambridge 1992, pp. 184–185 (as Ferrara, last third of the 15th century).
- Giuseppe Pavanello: Sulla collezione di Antonio Canova: i cassoni degli Argonauti di Ercole da Ferrara, in: Bollettino del Museo Civico di Padova, 82, 1993, pp. 265–286, p. 266.
- Andrea Bacchi and Andrea De Marchi: La formazione a Bologna, in: Francesco Marmitta, Turin 1995, pp. 17–18, fig. 29 (as Bernardino Orsi da Collecchio (?)).
- Monica Molteni: Ercole de' Roberti, Cinisello Balsamo 1995, pp. 78–80, ill. p. 80, p. 172, cat. no. 36 (as Ercole de' Roberti and collaborator).
- Alessandro Serrani: Ancora su Lorenzo Costa, Bernardino Orsi e le Storie degli Argonauti, in: Paragone, LXXI, no. 150-151, March–May 2020, p. 21–34, fig. 11 (as Lorenzo Costa).
This superbly painted miniature of a crowned ruler with advisors captivates the viewer with its impressive composition, spatial design and individual rendering of figures. It epitomises the artistic traits of the painter Ercole de' Roberti, a leading exponent of the early Italian Renaissance and a member of the Ferrara School.
With a provenance dating back to the 19th century, it was Robert Longhi (1934) who attributed this depiction to Ercole de' Roberti, and Federico Zeri (1965) also concurred with this opinion. Longhi dated the work to around 1480, when the young Lorenzo Costa (1460–1535) was working in Roberti's workshop. Since then, other renowned art historians have devoted themselves to this panel, as the extensive bibliography demonstrates.
The composition is part of a larger pictorial sequence and it is assumed that it originates from the Greek mythological saga of Jason and the Argonauts in search of the golden fleece. Other panels, probably also originally part of this ensemble, can be found in Padua, Museo Civico (inv. no. 424, 46 × 53 cm); in Florence, in a private collection; in London, formerly the Lady Houston-Boswall Collection (45.7 × 53.4 cm); in Paris, Musée des Arts Décoratifs (inv. no. PE90, 45 × 51 cm) and in Madrid, Thyssen-Bornemisza Collection (35 × 26.5 cm; see Joseph Manca, 1992, p. 184, cat. no. R32). The latter is currently on show with other works of the Ferrara school in the exhibition 'Rinascimento a Ferrara - Ercole de' Roberti e Lorenzo Costa', in the Palazzo di Diamanti in Ferrara.
At the Ferrarese court under the rule of Duke Ercole d'Este (1431–1505), Ercole de' Roberti and other artists were commissioned to produce cassoni, among other things, and it may be assumed that this panel was conceived as part of a piece of furniture.
In addition to its extensive publication history, this painting has an intriguing provenance, which has been revealed thanks to recent research. In the late 1920s, some time after the Viennese entrepreneur Edwin Czeczokiczka and his wife Caroline had acquired the work, he was forced to sell part of his collection due to the financial crisis (see Sophie Lilie: Was einmal war, 2013, pp. 275ff). The present work was among those offered at auction at Graupe in Berlin on 12 May 1930. The export to Germany is attested by the round stamp of the Austrian Federal Monuments Office on the reverse, which can be dated to before 1934. After the required sum was reached, the remaining lots were returned to the consignors, including the present painting. A note in the Zeri archive indicates that the work was initially with the art dealer Drey in Munich in 1931 before travelling back to Vienna. After the war, in 1947, the work was sent to London via the art dealer Christian Nebehay, a family friend, to Caroline Czeczokiczka, who had previously moved to England with her children.
It is extremely uncommon to find works by Ercole de' Roberti on the art market, which means that the work offered here is a rare example.
CHF 40 000 / 60 000 | (€ 41 240 / 61 860)
Sold for CHF 55 200 (including buyer’s premium)
All information is subject to change.