Angelica and Ruggiero
Angelica and Ruggiero
- Artist
- Cecco Bravo
- Also Known As
- Francesco Montelatici
- Artist Dates
- 1607-1661
- Artist Nationality
- Italian
- Title
- Angelica and Ruggiero
- Date
- c. 1660
- Medium
- oil on canvas
- Dimensions
- 32.4 x 44.5 cm (12-3/4 x 17-1/2 in)
- K Number
- K1371
- Repository
- Smart Museum of Art
- Accession Number
- 1973.42
- Notes
Provenance
(Ehrich Galleries, New York); sold 1905 to Dan Fellows Platt [1873-1938], Englewood, New Jersey; [1] sold November 1943 by the Trustees of the Platt Estate to the Samuel H. Kress Foundation, New York, as Francesco Furini "Perseus and Andromeda;" [2] gift 1973 to David and Alfred Smart Museum of Art, University of Chicago, no. 1973.42. [1] See Dan Fellows Platt Papers, Department of Rare Books and Special Collections, Princeton University, NJ; box 2, folder 23, call number C0860. [2] The bill of sale for six paintings from Ethel Bliss Platt, as trustee of the estate of Dan Fellows Platt, to the Kress Foundation is dated 30 November 1943. A letter of the same date from the Foundation to Mrs. Platt confirms that the purchase is "made with the understanding that [the paintings] are to be deeded to the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C." (Copies of both documents are in NGA curatorial files.)
Catalogue Entry
Cecco Bravo
Angelica and Ruggiero
K1371
New York, N.Y., Samuel H. Kress Foundation, since 1960. Canvas. 12 3/4 x 17 1/2 in. (32.5 x 44.5 cm.). Fair condition; cleaned 1969. Formerly attributed to Furini(1) and then to Mazzoni,(2) K1371 has found an unchallenged place in the oeuvre of Cecco Bravo now that the peculiarities of his style have been recognized.(3) The insubstantial bodies, the filmy draperies, and the dreamy mood, even suggesting comparison with the Pre-Raphaelites, indicate a dating for K1371 at the end of the artist's life, about 1660, when he was painting the life-size equestrian portrait of Ferdinando Carlo now in the Vienna Gallery, which had been left unfinished by Sustermans.(4) The subject of K1371 is taken from Ariosto's Orlando furioso.(5) Two other paintings illustrating Orlando furioso, in the collection of Conte Merenda, Forlì, have been cited but not examined by critics. One of these paintings is presumed to be a replica or copy of K1371.(6) An effect very similar to that of K1371 is to be seen in the Meeting of Isaac and Rebecca, attributed to Cecco Bravo, included as no. 44, fig. 25, in the 1969 exhibition cited in Provenance. Provenance: Dan Fellows Platt, Englewood, N.J. (sold by estate trustee to the following). Kress acquisition, 1943 –exhibited: National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. (801), 1945-60; 'Art in Italy, 1600-1700,' Detroit Institute of Arts, Detroit, Mich., 1965, no. 128 (catalogue note by D. C. Miller), as Cecco Bravo; 'Florentine Baroque Art from American Collections,' Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Apr. 16-June 15, 1969, no. 45 of catalogue by J. Nissman, as Cecco Bravo.
References
(1) Exhibited at the National Gallery of Art with a tentative attribution to Furini. This was an earlier attribution, since F. M. Perkins (in Rassegna d'Arte, vol. XI, 1911, p. 145) expresses disagreement with it, suggesting sixteenth-century Ferrarese, in the neighborhood of Dosso Dossi. (2) This attribution was offered by N. Ivanoff (see Ivanoff, in Saggi e Memorie ... , vol. II, 1959, p.222) and M. Muraro (in Rivista d'Arte, vol. XXXV, 1960, p. 75 n. 5). (3) The attribution to Cecco Bravo seems to have been first suggested by G. Ewald (in Burlington Magazine, vol. CII, 1960, pp. 351 f., and vol. CIII, 1961, p. 348 n. 6); it is approved by A. R. Masetti (Cecco Bravo, 1962, pp. 59 and 91) and Miller (loc. cit. in Provenance). (4) See Masetti, p.91 of op. cit. in note 3, above. (5) End of Canto X and beginning of Canto XI of the 1532 edition, as published by the Società Filologica Romana, 1913, pp. 113 ff. (6) Ewald, in Burlington Magazine, vol. CIII, 1961, p. 348 n. 6; and Masetti, p. 59 of op. cit. in note 3, above.