(Florence 1646–1712)
Portrait of a youth as Hylas
oil on canvas, 101 x 78.7 cm, framed

We are grateful to Filippo Gheri for suggesting the attribution and for cataloguing the present painting.

The contemporary biographer Francesco Saverio Baldinucci praised Pier Dandini’s skills as a portraitist and this painting of a Portrait of a youth in the guise of Hylas is an example of his work.

The choice of mythological ‘disguise’ in portraiture was not uncommon, and the subject of Hylas was depicted in 17th Century Florentine by Baldassare Franceschini (‘il Volterrano’) in the Staatsgalerie in Stuttgart as well as by Francesco Furini in his celebrated canvas formerly in casa Galli in Florence and now in the Galleria Palatina, Florence, which depicts the last moments of the youth when he falls into the fatal embrace of the Naiads. In the present work importance is placed on the large vase the young man holds with his left arm and Dandini appears to introduce a narrative in his work. The depiction of the costume and the gaze of the sitter appear to illustrate a precise moment in the events of the unfortunate Hylas: the instant when the youth, having disembarked from the Argonauts’ ship in Mysia, goes to find a source of fresh water.

The present work reveals an artistic debt towards Vincenzo Dandini, Pier’s uncle and teacher, which suggests that the present work was painted when the artist was still relatively young. The painting also displays influence from the Venetian painterly tradition, which was apparent in Tuscan painting particularly during the late 1670s, represented by the Mystic marriage of Saint Catherine of Siena painted for the Duomo in Siena between 1678 and 1679. The common theme that runs through almost all of the portraits by the artist to have emerged so far, display Dandini’s interest in the contemporary developments in portraiture in Rome, by Ciro Ferri and Carlo Maratta.

We are grateful to Filippo Gheri for suggesting the attribution and for cataloguing the present painting.

The contemporary biographer Francesco Saverio Baldinucci praised Pier Dandini’s skills as a portraitist and this painting of a Portrait of a youth in the guise of Hylas is an example of his work.

The choice of mythological ‘disguise’ in portraiture was not uncommon, and the subject of Hylas was depicted in 17th Century Florentine by Baldassare Franceschini (‘il Volterrano’) in the Staatsgalerie in Stuttgart as well as by Francesco Furini in his celebrated canvas formerly in casa Galli in Florence and now in the Galleria Palatina, Florence, which depicts the last moments of the youth when he falls into the fatal embrace of the Naiads. In the present work importance is placed on the large vase the young man holds with his left arm and Dandini appears to introduce a narrative in his work. The depiction of the costume and the gaze of the sitter appear to illustrate a precise moment in the events of the unfortunate Hylas: the instant when the youth, having disembarked from the Argonauts’ ship in Mysia, goes to find a source of fresh water.

The present work reveals an artistic debt towards Vincenzo Dandini, Pier’s uncle and teacher, which suggests that the present work was painted when the artist was still relatively young. The painting also displays influence from the Venetian painterly tradition, which was apparent in Tuscan painting particular with the late 1670s, represented by the Mystic marriage of Saint Catherine of Siena painted for the Duomo in Siena between 1678 and 1679. The common theme that runs through almost all of the portraits by the artist to have emerged so far, display Dandini’s interest in the contemporary developments in portraiture in Rome, by Ciro Ferri and Carlo Maratta.