(Bergamo 1604–1670 Rome) and Filippo Lauri (Rome 1623-1694)
Arches in ruins and Hecuba’s vengeance over Polymestor
oil on canvas, 100 x 133 cm, framed

Provenance:
Duke of Norfolk (according a label on the reverse);
Private collection, Belgium

We are grateful to David Marshall for confirming the attribution on the basis of a high resolution digital photograph.

About a dozen examples of paintings executed by Viviano Codazzi together with Filippo Lauri are known. The present painting was previously unknown and Marshall has categorized it as one of the finest examples of its kind. The composition of the Arsenal at Civitavecchia is the first painting to document the artists’ collaboration and is dated 1668, however Lauri and Codazzi, who were both in Rome by the 1650s, are known to have worked together prior to that date (see D. Marshall, Viviano and Niccolò Codazzi and the Baroque Architectural Fancy, Milan 1993; p. 309). The finest results of their collaboration emerged when Lauri replaced Michelangelo Cerquozzi, who had been Codazzi’s primary staffage painter until his death in 1660.

Commissioned to paint four large scenes of Roman life for the Buen Retiro in Madrid in the 1630s, Codazzi developed a particular type of decorative architectural capriccio throughout this and the following decade, which formed the foundation for his later oeuvre in which Filippo Lauri features prominently. Rather than strictly adhering to the dictations of topography and archaeology, this period is marked by architectural arrangements that evoke aesthetic harmony. Codazzi’s acclaim as the almost-Vitruvius of 17th century painters of architectural views (Luigi Lanzi, cit. in: D. Marshall, ibid., p. 4) is indicative of his mastery in linear perspective and understanding of antique taste, a combination of which the present painting is an example.

The present painting is comparable to Massacre of the Innocents in a Piazza (Munich, Bayerische Staatsgemäldesammlungen), also a collaboration from the early 1660s. Although more explicitly daunting in its theme, the architecture in Munich’s painting gives way to the sky whilst in this painting Codazzi experiments with monumental arches to create a form of trompe l’oeil. The ruins tower monumentally above the miniature figures assembled below. The profanity of Hecuba’s vengeance over Polymnestor offers an explanation for this relationship between figures and setting. It is due to the arches’ alignment that the viewer’s gaze, otherwise dominated by the painting’s architectural magnificence, is directed towards the figures.

Provenance:
Duke of Norfolk (according a label on the reverse);
Private collection, Belgium

We are grateful to David Marshall for confirming the attribution on the basis of a high resolution digital photograph.

About a dozen examples of paintings executed by Viviano Codazzi together with Filippo Lauri are known. The present painting was previously unkown and Marshall has categorized it as one of the finest examples of its kind. The compostion of the Arsenal at Civitavecchia is the first painting to document the artists’ collaboration and is dated 1668, however Lauri and Codazzi who were both in Rome by the 1650s, are known to have worked together prior to that date (see D. Marshall, Viviano and Niccolò Codazzi and the Baroque Architectural Fancy, Milan 1993; p. 309). The finest results of their collaboration emerged when Lauri replaced Michelangelo Cerquozzi, who had been Codazzi’s primary staffage painter until his death in 1660.

Commissioned to paint four large scenes of Roman life for the Buen Retiro in Madrid in the 1630s, Codazzi developed a particular type of decorative architectural capriccio throughout this and the following decade, which formed the foundation for his later oeuvre in which Filippo Lauri features prominently. Rather than strictly adhering to the dictations of topography and archaeology, this period is marked by architectural arrangements that evoke aesthetic harmony. Codazzi’s acclaim as the almost-Vitruvius of 17th century painters of architectural views (Luigi Lanzi, cit. in: D. Marshall, ibid., p. 4) implies his mastery in linear perspective and understanding of antique taste, a combination of which the present painting is an example.

The present painting is comparable to Massacre of the Innocents in a Piazza (Munich, Bayerische Staatsgemäldesammlungen), also a collaboration from the early 1660s. Although more explicitly daunting in its theme, the architecture in Munich’s painting gives way to the sky whilst in this painting Codazzi experiments with monumental arches to create a form of trompe l’oeil. The ruins tower monumentally and above the miniature figures assembled below. The profanity of Hecuba’s vengeance over Polymnestor offers an explanation this relationship between figures and setting. It is due to the arches’ alignment that the viewer’s gaze, otherwise dominated by the painting’s architectural magnificence, is directed towards the figures.