Lot 1039 | The Temptation of Saint Anthony

, DOMENICO ROBUSTI
('Tintoretto')
Venice 1560 - 1635


attributed
Title: The Temptation of Saint Anthony.
Date: 1st h. 17th c.
Technique: Oil on canvas.
Mounting: Relined.
Measurement: 75 x 74cm.
Frame/Pedestal: Framed.
Provenance:
Private ownership, Italy.

Domenico Tintoretto was Jacopo's firstborn: at the age of twenty he began working in his father's workshop and was actively involved in Jacopo's commissions. In his will, his father designated him heir to "all things belonging to his profession" and to carry on the unfinished works.
Domenico was a prolific painter and throughout his career he experimented with all drawing techniques and means, from chalk to modern oil sketches on paper: it was with this technique that he produced the spectacular series of the Temptations of St Anthony, which is preserved in the British Museum in London.
Roland Krischel kindly pointed out that the present painting can be related compositionally to two of the London sheets, including a sketch showing St Anthony seated on the floor on the left with his hands folded, surrounded by animals, a crouching figure on the right and another holding a cannon (inv. no. 1907.0717.67). The canvas faithfully reproduces the left part with the figure of the saint and perhaps suggests that the two works were created at the same time and dependent on each other. Presumably the painting remained in Domenico's studio as a draft or unfinished work and was only sold after the painter's death in 1635.

We are grateful to Roland Krischel, Cologne, who confirmed the attribution after examining the present painting in the original.