(Antwerp 1700–1776 Munich) A hunting banquet held by Grand Duke Gian Gastone of Tuscany, the last Medici, in the presence of Prince John George of Lobkowicz, the imperial governor of Lombardy, and the latter‘s Moorish valet, Angelo Soliman, oil on copper, 43 x 60 cm, framed,

With a certificate issued by Professor Karl Koetschau, Düsseldorf, pasted to the reverse. We are grateful to Dr. Christian Beaufort-Spontin, Director of the Collection of Arms and Armour at the Vienna Kunsthistorisches Museum, and Dr. Andreas Cornaro, Vienna, for identifying the sitters (personal correspondence to the consignor). This picture by Horemans portrays a hunting party gathering for a banquet. The historical facts correspond with the painting‘s dating to the 1730s: In 1734, Prince Lobkowicz was appointed imperial governor of Parma and probably met with the sovereign of Tuscany that same year. Horemans placed Prince Lobkowicz opposite the Grand Duke of Tuscany, seated in the foreground. The latter is accompanied by his African valet and travel companion, Angelo Soliman, whom he had brought with him from Naples and who eventually became a famous personality. Having been a slave, Soliman was baptized as a Christian and advanced to become the personal tutor of the Prince of Liechtenstein, as well as a freemason and philosopher. After Soliman‘s death in 1796, his skin was prepared and stuffed and displayed in the cabinet of natural curiosities at the Vienna Hofburg, where it was burnt during the revolutionary uprising of 1848.