(Belluno 1659–1734 Venice)
Figures offering homage to a Deity,
bears signature lower left: Ricci Fecit.,
oil on canvas, 57 x 49 cm, framed

Provenance:
Jean Francois de Vinck de Westwezel (1747–1811) collection, Antwerp;
his sale, Artaria & Co, Vienna, 27 April 1813, lot 40 and 41;
there acquired by the family of the present owner,
thence by descent, private collection, Belgium

The present beautifully executed canvas is a work by Sebastiano Ricci. The picture appears to have never been published, and as such, it is a significant addition to the oeuvre of Sebastiano Ricci, the great innovator of Venetian painting in the early eighteenth century. Both its small size and the lively, open brushwork indicate that this picture was a modelletto, presented to the client for approval. A copy of the present painting, inscribed “da Ricci”, was sold at Sotheby’s, London, 29 April 2015, lot 363.

At present, nothing is known about who commissioned the present painting. Its vivid chromatic quality and elaborate architectonical background would seem to indicate a date in the late maturity of the painter, probably the late 1720s, when the artist’s fame stood at a high point, as is evident from his many commissions, both in and outside Italy.

The picture was evidently meant as a pendant to lot 122 and this would also be reflected in the subject matter. In fact, both scenes are centered around an altar. Whilst its pendant shows the Sacrifice of Iphigenia, the present painting demonstrates something of an iconographic puzzle. It does not show a scene of sacrifice but rather an episode of offering, which is being performed by the young man kneeling in the right foreground with a basket of fruit by his side. Over the altar, in a cloud, we perceive a young woman, with a snake and a dog as attributes. This would seem to identify her as Diana, but it should be admitted that she is rather young and pretty for the austere goddess of hunting. There was a tradition of renderings of Offerings to Diana in European art around 1700, but, again, the present picture does not quite match these representations. Hecate, too, was sometimes shown with a dog and a snake, but otherwise, nothing in the present picture seems to match her iconography. In typological terms, the composition shows some similarities with the Sacrifice of David after the Conquest of Jerusalem, a Sebastiano Ricci composition from about 1727 known from a print by Gian Antonio Faldoni (see A. Scarpa, Sebastiano Ricci, Milano 2006, fig. 638). But whatever the subject matter is, the present modelletto is an important example of Sebastiano Ricci’s late style.

We are grateful to Bernard Aikema for his assistance in cataloguing the present painting.