Lot 1108 | Allegory of Truth

ROMANELLI, GIOVAN FRANCESCO
Viterbo 1610 - 1662


Title: Allegory of Truth.
Technique: Chalk on paper.
Mounting: Mounted. Measurement: 37,5 x
29cm. Old collection stamp "Marquis de Lagoy" bottom right.
Provenance:
Joseph-Hyacinthe-François de Paule de Rigaud collection, comte de Vaudreuil (1780s), Paris;
Art market, Paris (1791);
Vincent Donjeux collection (1793), Paris;
Art market, Paris (1794);
Jean-Baptiste-Florentin-Gabriel de Meryan Marquis de Lagoy collection (1764-1829), Aix-en-Provence, France;
Private ownership, Germany.

Giovanni Francesco Romanelli was considered one of the Italian painters of the Baroque period, who was successful both in his home country and abroad, especially in France. After he had executed some paintings for the French minister of finance Michel Particelli d'Émery in 1640, through the mediation of Cardinal Giulio Mazzarino, the artist was able to make his first trip to France between June 1646 and September 1647. Among the first commissions in Paris were the decoration of several rooms in the Duret-Tubeuf Palace and the cabinet of the Hôtel Lambert. Romanelli's second stay in Paris (1655-57) was at the request of Queen Mother Anne of Austria, who commissioned Romanelli to decorate five rooms of her summer residence at the Palais du Louvre.

Besides making canvases, Romanelli also made drawings, which served as preliminary studies for decorations or can be regarded as independent works of art. Among these can be counted the present Allegory of Truth, whose presence in France is documented at least from the end of the 18th to the middle of the 19th century. It appears in the sales catalogue of the collection of Joseph-Hyacinthe-François de Paule de Rigaud, Count of Vaudreuil, 26 November 1787: "F. Romanelly. Une Femme debout relevant un voile qui lui couvre la tête; elle est appuyée contre un tertre au bas duquel on voit deux masques. Ce dessin agréable, précieux & très-terminé, est aux trois crayons sur papier blanc. Pastel trois coloured pencils on paper blank, hauteur 20 pouces, largeur 15 p.". Until 1794 the sheet appeared in further sales in Paris, organized by the famous art dealer and collector Jean-Baptiste-Pierre Lebrun. Finally the paper work came into the famous collection of Jean-Baptiste-Florentin-Gabriel de Meryan, Marquis de Lagoy. The famous "marque de collection" with a large L in the triangle in black ink, which is shown at the bottom right, refers to this provenance.