Lot 1012 | Paolo Veronese | Venus and Adonis

VERONESE, PAOLO
('Paolo Cagliari')
1528 Verona - 1588 Venedig

Workshop

Title: Venus and Adonis.
Technique: Oil on canvas.
Mounting: Relined.
Measurement: 108 x 134cm.
Frame: Framed.

Verso:
On the mounting-canvas transferred ownership information from 1668.

Provenance:
Private ownership, Germany;
acquired auction Lempertz, Cologne 20th November 2020, lot 1028;
delivered there from Rhinish private ownership with reference to the information Joh. Paulus Imhof, 1668 verso.

The present painting refers to the famous work "venus and Adonis" by Paolo Veronese from 1580-1582 (Madrid, Museo Nacional del Prado). However, it displays several differences to the painting at the Prado and thus cannot be viewed as a mere copy. According to Thomas Dalla Costa the peinting stems from the 90s of the 16th century and presumably is a work by Carletto Caliari, Paolo Veronese's son. Paolo Veronese painted the painting, today kept in Spain, for a Venetian patrician as it was purchased by Diego Velázquez for Philipp IV of Spain in Venice in 1651. There was a corresponding painting, Cefalo e Procris (Musée des Beaux-Arts in Strasbourg). Admittedly, we do not know for whom the present painting offered here originally was painted and whetehr it had an equivalent. Nonetheless, it bespeaks the success of the first version by Paolo Veronese because the studio created a high quality variant within one decade after finishing the former.

We are grateful to Thomas Dalla Costa, Rovereto for suggesting the attribution of the present painting on the basis of a high-resolution digital photograph and for his kind support with cataloguing it.