Poppy Harvey-Jones
Head of Sale
Lot 80
Giacomo Ceruti called il Pitochetto(Milan 1689-1767)Portrait of a nun, half-length, holding a prayer-book
3 December 2014, 14:00 GMT
London, New Bond Street£40,000 - £60,000
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Giacomo Ceruti called il Pitochetto (Milan 1689-1767)
Portrait of a nun, half-length, holding a prayer-book
oil on canvas, oval
100 x 74cm (39 3/8 x 29 1/8in).
oil on canvas, oval
100 x 74cm (39 3/8 x 29 1/8in).
Footnotes
Provenance
Private Collection, Milan, early 20th century, from which purchased directly by the present private owner in 2003
Literature
M. Valsecchi, 'Nei pitocchi la nobilità del '700. Tre inediti di Jacopo Ceruti detto Pittochetto', in Il Giornale nuovo, 28 November, 1975
M. Gregori, Giacomo Ceruti, Bergamo, 1982, cat. no. 5, p. 423, ill. pl. 4, p. 125
An early work by the artist, most likely painted when he was in his 20s, this portrait is compared by Mina Gregori to that of Notaio Silvestro Ponziano Patirani, which is datable to 1734.
Ceruti, one of a group of artists working in Bergamo and Brescia, later became known by the nickname, 'il Pitochetto', from his many pictures of beggars and vagabonds (pitocchi) for which he was celebrated. By the same token his portraits were also less conventional and strikingly naturalistic, observing reality with the same freshness and directness. From 1734, the time from which the present portrait is believed to date, Ceruti received payments for canvases for the Church of Santa Maria Assunta at Gandino, including the Birth of the Virgin, and the Death of the Virgin, several oval pictures of saints, a series of prophets and the nave spandrels. The works were accomplished in two distinct phases, during which the artist made a long visit to the Veneto.
