Echoes of the Past: Property from an Important Private Collection

Annalisa Scarpa Sonino has previously confirmed the attribution of the present lot to Ricci.

Provenance:

Private Collection, France

Jean-Luc Baroni, Ltd., London, 2014, cat. no. 8

Lot Essay:

Exceptionally refined amongst Ricci's surviving head studies, this beautifully painted and powerful work has been dated by Annalisa Scarpa Sonino to the late 1690s. Although the handling is typical of Ricci, the painting is rather unique amongst his identified works. A well-known series of head studies from the Consul Smith collection, purchased by George III and now at Hampton Court, all record figures from Veronese's painting now in the Gallerie dell' Accademia, The Feast in the House of Levi. Apart from these, an imposing self-portrait painted for the collection of the Medici Grand Dukes and an elegant, classicized profile study of a woman appear to be the only other works by Ricci done in a portrait format.

Dignified and profoundly thoughtful, the present figure is swathed in a blue coat with a brown silk stripe, the style of which is strongly reminiscent of the robes worn by Veronese's sitters. The long beard also gives the man a senatorial air, but his hair is tousled, creating an informal effect. It is tempting to believe that the work is a portrait of a fellow artist, friend, or relation. As a prototype, with its rich painterliness and strong contrasts of light and shade, the painting prefigures the splendid series of philosophers and Orientalists painted by Giovanni Battista Tiepolo, and his son and nephew.