"PITTOCCHETTO"; GIACOMO CERUTI (Milan, 1698 - 1767). "Vecchio mendicante", 1730-1740. Oil on canvas. Re-tinted at the end of the 19th century. Present

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OLD MASTERS & SCULPTURE - Day 2

By Setdart Auction House

Jun 1, 2021

Set Reminder 2021-06-01 09:45:00 2021-06-01 09:45:00 America/New_York Bidsquare Bidsquare : OLD MASTERS & SCULPTURE - Day 2 https://www.bidsquare.com/auctions/setdart-auction-house/old-masters-sculpture---day-2-6999
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• Lot Description
  "PITTOCCHETTO"; GIACOMO CERUTI (Milan, 1698 - 1767). "Vecchio mendicante", 1730-1740. Oil on canvas. Re-tinted at the end of the 19th century. Presents patch. Frame of the seventeenth century, carved and gilded wood. In perfect state of conservation. Provenance: Work acquired at the auction "Importanti dipinti antichi" held at Finearte in 2003 for a total of 205000€. Previously Sotheby's New York. Sources consulted: "Giacomo Ceruti. Group of beggars, ca. 1737", Mar Borobia, Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza. Measurements: 68 x 51.5 cm; 91 x 64 cm. We are in front of a canvas faithful reflection of the exceptional style that led Giacomo Ceruti, also called the "Pittocchetto", to become one of the lights of the late European Baroque. In his production were especially valued the representations of the most disadvantaged classes of society (beggars, beggars, peasants, dwarfs and vagabonds), and of the humblest trades, depicted with great dignity and realism. Thus, in the present canvas we are faced with the representation of an elderly beggar, whose expressive face becomes the absolute center of the image, a portrait of great psychological depth worked by means of an exceptional technique of naturalistic heritage. The general intonation, very restrained and warm, also reveals great sobriety; it revolves around the earthy, ochre and reddish tones of naturalism, punctuated by touches of a very nuanced white. The lighting, on the other hand, is not as contrasting as in Caravaggist naturalism and, although it enjoys great importance at a formal level, excessive contrasts are avoided. Nevertheless, it is a key element for the modeling of the face, its details, small wrinkles and expression, of joyful complicity, which integrates the viewer into the pictorial space. Most probably, the present canvas could have been painted between 1730-1740, like some of his most significant works, such as the "Mendicant" kept in the Brera art gallery or "The group of beggars" from the Thyssen-Bornemisza collection on deposit at the Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya. According to the Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum itself, "Critics have tried to analyze the roots and influences that may have converged in the making of these themes, in which the environment was portrayed in a tone very different from that used by other painters of his time. Among the artists who have been mentioned as a source of inspiration are the Danish Bernhard Keil, the Italians Antonio Cifronti and Pietro Bellotti and especially the French Jacques Callot, whose engravings Ceruti used for some of his works." Active in the North of the Italian peninsula (Lombardy, Brescia, and Venice), where he developed a varied and unequal work, hardly any data is known of his first years. From 1726 to 1728 he worked on the fresco decoration of the Palazzo Broletto, the governor's residence, and in those same years he painted a series of paintings of beggars commissioned by the Avogrado family, which earned him the nickname of Pitocchetto (the little beggar). Among his most important commissions was the series of works made in 1736 for the Venetian palace by Marshal Matthias von Schulenburg, an important German collector, a commission to which the Thyssen's work belongs. Also in 1736 he worked on the fresco decoration of the Palazzo Grassi in Venice. From 1737 to 1742 Ceruti lived in Padua where he is documented working for the churches of the Franciscans and Santa Lucia, where an altar dedicated to the saint is preserved. Around 1743 he settled definitively in Milan, with some trips to Piacenza where he received various public commissions, occupied in the painting of sacred subjects and portraits.
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