Echoes of the Past: Property from an Important Private Collection

Provenance:

Sold: Christie's, London, July 5, 2011, Lot 93

Lot Essay:

In 1807, Bartolomeo Pinelli was 26 years old and, after training in the studio of Felice Giani, had set up a studio of his own. At this date, the artist was involved in a number of different projects. He worked closely with Franz Kaisermann, painting staffage in some of his landscapes, and he was beginning to work on his famous prints of Roman costume, the first collection of which (Costumi romani) was published in 1809, with another (La nuova raccolta di cinquanta motivi pittoreschi e costumi di Roma) published the following year. The present drawing and the prior lot clearly demonstrate that he was also absorbed with scenes from Classical literature and history, which would later come to fruition in illustrations for the Aenied (1811) and on the subject of Greek history (1812).

Lucius Junius Brutus has traditionally been seen as the founder of the roman Republic, owing to his part in the expulsion of the Tarquin Kings of Rome. The present drawing shows the event which confirmed Brutus as a role model for Roman stoicism: as Consul, he uncovered a plot to return the Tarquins to the throne. His own two sons were implicated and, rather than cheapen the justice of the Republic, Brutus condemned them to dealt as traitors along with the others involved. He then watched the sentence carried out upon them, to emphasize his commitment to the new regime.

The subject of Brutus condemning his sons had particular resonance for Pinelli, as it was the subject of a bas-relief he had submitted to the Accademia Clementina in Bologna in 1798, during his family's exile there. Pinelli was granted the prize for his work, which was his first taste of critical acclaim. He used the present work, with some changes to the composition, as the basis for one of the engravings in his Istoria romana, inventata ed incisa da Bartolomeo Pinelli romano, published in Rome in 1821.