Venus and Cupid in a landscape, a paper label inscribed in an old hand on the reverse: “Attribué au Primaticcio (Le Primatice)/1504 – 1570” oil on panel, 32.8 x 69 cm, framed

Provenance:
European private collection
We are grateful to Prof. Elisabetta Fadda for confirming the attribution for the present composition after examining the painting in the original (written communication 12th July 2012).
We are grateful to Prof. Claudio Strinati for independently confirming the attribution after examining the painting in the original (written communication).

The present composition with a reclining Venus in an idealised landscape with a sensual and slender body is typical for the early School of Fontainebleau, the group of artists employed to decorate the magnificent royal chateau in Fontainebleau. In 1531, the Florentine artist Rosso Fiorentino was invited by François I Valois to begin an extensive decorative program for the Château de Fontainebleau and in 1532 he was joined by Francesco Primaticcio from Bologna. On the advice of Primaticcio, Nicolò dell’Abbate was invited to France in 1552 by François’s son Henri II.

The present work has traditionally been given to Francesco Primaticcio (Bologna 1504/5 – Paris 1570) and an inscription on the reverse of the panel testifies to this. The traditional attribution is significant as Primaticcio worked closely along side Nicolò dell’Abate at Fontainebleau and was part of his immediate artistic circle. This painting, according to Fadda, is distant from the intellectual painterly manner of Primaticcio, and Dell’Abate’s painterly style is characterized by the clear and shimmering palette of colours or the reds in the incarnate, which are identifiable in the present panel together with a vibrancy of execution. He borrowed various elements from Parmigianino, whom he had studied intensively in his youth and during his stay in Bologna.

As Fadda points out, the face and the hairstyle of the female figure, such as the small head surrounded by curls, whose sensuality contrast with the sense of shame transmitted by her expression, are extremely similar to other works by Nicolo Dell´Abate. The type of the female figure is identical to that in the painting Cupid and Psyche (Detroit, Institute of Arts), also from Nicolò´s maturity, and a young woman shown in a drawing called the Mezzana (Munich, Staatliche Graphische Sammlung, Inv. 2250). The cut of the dresses allows to date the work on paper to the years of Charles IX, the latest phase of his career as a painter. The present painting can furthermore be compared with a series of works in the Louvre (formerly Collection Jabach, Inv. 5848, 5850-5853, 5858, 5874-5876, 5887r) that represent the Gods of the Olympus and allegories. Silvie Béguin dated these drawings to the 1570s (see S. Béguin in: Maestri Emiliani del secondo Cinquecento, Biblioteca di Disegni, no. XII, Florence 1979, p. 23; G. Kazerouni, Nicolò dell’Abate. Storie dipinte nella pittura del Cinquecento tra Modena e Fontainebleau, exh. cat. (Modena, Foro Boario), Milan 2005, p. 441, no. 231).

The closest comparison in terms of iconography and style is a drawing showing a Fanciulla seminuda distesa (Paris, Louvre, Inv. 5893). It is assumed that the drawing is related to the lost fresco decoration of the cryptoporticus of the Hôtel du Faur called Torpanne (Paris), known only through copies drawn by Theodor Van Thulden (Brussels, Bibliothèque Royale, see S. Béguin and B. Bessard, L’Hôtel du Faur, dit Torpanne, in: Revue de l’Art, nos. 1-2, 1968, pp. 39–56.). Because of stylistic qualities the drawing can be dated to between 1567 and 1571, which would also correspond with the dating of present panel.

This Venus and Cupid is one of the rare examples from the late period of Nicolò dell’Abate oeuvre. It constitutes one of the few independent commissions from this period that are known by the master today.

We are grateful to Prof. Elisabetta Fadda for her assistance in cataloguing the present lot.

Provenance:
European private collection
We are grateful to Prof. Elisabetta Fadda for confirming the attribution for the present composition after examining the painting in the original (written communication 12th July 2012).

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