(Pieve di Soligo 1654–1726)
Susanna and the Elders,
oil on canvas, 168 x 120 cm, framed

Provenance:
Arsène van Hoorde, Belgium (according to a label on the reverse);
Lord Reg. Spellon (according to an inscription on the reverse)

The inscription referring to Lord Reg. Spellon is no longer apparent.

Exhibited:
Rovigo, Pinacoteca di Palazzo Roverella, Bortoloni, Piazzetta, Tiepolo il ‘700 Veneto, 30 January–13 June 2010, no. 7

Antonio Bellucci is one of the major exponents of painting in the late Baroque period in Venice and he was influenced by Emilian artists such as Cignani. Nevertheless, the traditional approach to colour, Venetian in origin, is clearly visible in the present composition. The influence of earlier Venetian painters such as Titian and, above all, Veronese, is also suggested by the rendering of the scant drapery. The architectural fragments are reminiscent of Palladio’s designs.

The present painting is characterised by a curbed uniform flow of light which is subdued, stylistically differing from the artist’s early work. Here the spatiality of the figures is interrupted now and then by bright brushstrokes which lend the contours more volume and produce shining, sumptuous bodies, as well as ballooning fabrics and colour compositions vibrating with powerful luminosity. The present composition is also characterised by loose brushwork, such as in the garments, where more contrast is created by the soft shadows of the folds. The artist’s pronounced tendency towards ‘correct drawing’ and ‘soft colours’ became his signature. Bellucci specialised in figures depicted in the nude with an emphasis on pleasing forms and it has been suggested that the painting dates from the artist´s late period. This is also supported by the painting’s Provenance:
in addition to a paper label attached to the frame and inscribed in an early 19th-century hand, identifying the picture as belonging to the collection of the Belgian Arsène van Hoorde, there is an inscription on the reverse side of the canvas that is only partly and not entirely clearly legible: ‘Lord Reg... Spellon’.

The present painting was probably created in an English context. Bellucci arrived in London in October 1716, following his famous compatriots Sebastiano Ricci and Antonio Pellegrini, both of whom came from the Veneto. Bellucci is known to have painted several pictures for a patron in Pall Mall that same year. This was followed by a commission for Buckingham House and the famous decorations of the houses of James Bridges, 1st Duke of Chandos, in 1719. In July 1722 the artist left London and returned to Venice (see F. Magani, Antonio Bellucci. Catalogo ragionato, Rimini, 1995, pp. 51–57).

The present subject was also depicted in an earlier composition by Bellucci in a painting executed between 1690 and 1692 (see Magani ibid, 1995 p. 89) The present work was most probably painted in London in 1716.

Provenance:
Arsène van Hoorde, Belgium (according to a label on the reverse);
Lord Reg. Spellon (according to an inscription on the reverse)

Antonio Bellucci is one of the major exponents of painting in the late Baroque period in V