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A Bacchanal (c. 1638)
A Bacchanal (c. 1638)
A Bacchanal (c. 1638)
Public Domain
Artist
Giulio Carpioni
Artist Dates
c. 1613-1678
Artist Nationality
Italian
Title
A Bacchanal
Date
c. 1638
Medium
oil on canvas
Dimensions
90.8 x 110.1 cm (35-3/4 x 43-1/4 in)
K Number
K1639
Repository
Columbia Museum of Art
Accession Number
CMA 1954.4
Notes

Provenance

Anonymous Collection, Italy. (Ars Antiqua, New York); sold to the Samuel H. Kress Foundation on 5 April 1949; gift to the Columbia Museum of Art in 1961, no. CMA 1954.4

Catalogue Entry

Giulio Carpioni
A Bacchanal
K1639

Columbia, S.C., Columbia Museum of Art (54-402/21), since 1954.(1) Canvas. 35 3/4 x 43 3/4 in. (90.8 x 111.1 cm.). Fair condition; female figure at the right of the foreground group is totally new; cleaned 1953. While subject and composition recall Poussin, the heroic spirit of the French master is here replaced by a genrelike interpretation, characteristic of Carpioni's many mytho­logical and allegorical paintings.(2) In keeping with this mood is the introduction at the left, in K1639, of what appears to be the portrait of a man who seems to be calling our attention to the curious herm of Bacchus raised high on its sculptured pedestal. K1639 is assigned to Carpioni's early period, probably about 1638, near the time he was trans­ferring his studio to Vicenza.(3) Provenance: Private Collection, Italy. Ars Antiqua, New York. Kress acquisition, 1949 –exhibited, after entering the Columbia Museum of Art: 'La Pittura del Seicento a Venezia,' Ca' Pesaro, Venice, June 27-Oct. 25, 1959, p. 81, no. 121 of catalogue by G. M. Pilo, as Carpioni; 'Baroque Painting,' Rhode Island School of Design, Providence, R.I., and elsewhere, circulated by American Federation of Arts, 1968-69, no. 27 of catalogue, as Carpioni.

References

(1) Catalogue by W. E. Suida, 1954, p. 51, and by A. Contini Bonacossi, 1962, pp. 125 f., as Carpioni. (2) Cf. R. Pallucchini's comments (in Arte Antica e Moderna, Jan.-Mar. 1959, pp. 99 f., fig. 56) on a similar composition by Carpioni, an Offering to Venus in a private Venetian collection. (3) Pilo, loc. cit. in Provenance, above. Pilo here treats K1639 as an important painting by Carpioni, and notes that it is in the Columbia Museum of Art. However, in his monograph (Carpioni, 1961, p. 99) K1639 is accounted for only by title, medium, size, and photograph number under London, Ubicazione ignota. P. Zampetti (A Dictionary of Venetian Painters, vol. III, 1971, pl. unnumbered) reproduces K1639 as by Carpioni.

Catalogue Volume

Italian Paintings XVI – XVIII Century