(Bologna 1681–1760)
Atrium and Stairway; Imperial Baths,
oil on canvas, each 122.5 x 174 cm, framed
a pair (2)

Provenance:
Foresti Collection, Milan (until 1930);
European private collection

Literature:
C. Ricci, The Art of Scenography, in: The Art Bulletin, 1928, X, fig. 2;
C. Ricci, La scenografia italiana, Milan, 1930, figs. 80–81, plates LXIII–LXIV;
M. Viale Ferrero, La scenografia del ‘700 e i fratelli Galliari, Turin, 1963, p.12;
E. Landi, Stefano Orlandi (1681–1760), master’s thesis, Università degli Studi di Bologna, 1979/1980, pp. 54–58;
E. Landi, Per l’attività prospettica di Stefano Orlandi. Dipinti inediti e nuove aggiunte alle Terme Imperiali di Brera, in: Accademia Clementina. Atti e Memorie, 1991a, 28–29, p. 126, plates 60–61;
E. Landi, Stefano Orlandi (1681–1760). Terme Imperiali, in: Pinacoteca di Brera. Scuola emiliana, Milan, 1991b, p. 232;
E. Landi, Stefano Orlandi. Terme Imperiali, in: D. Lenz/J. Bentini (ed.), I Bibiena una famiglia europea, exh. cat., Venice, 2000, p. 424, no.134;
E. Landi, Stefano Orlandi, in: Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani, Rome (forthcoming)

The rediscovery of these two paintings, which were known only from photographs and we published as “lost” in 1991, represents an important contribution to architectural perspective painting created in Bologna during the 18th century. In 1928, one of the paintings, the Imperial Baths, prompted Corrado Ricci’s catalogue raisonné on the artist. Initially, Ricci grouped four works by Orlandi together: the present pair of Imperial Baths and Atrium and Stairway formerly in the Foresti Collection in Milan, as well as Royal Hall in the collection of Countess Gemma Martini Donati in Venice and another version of Imperial Baths in the Pinacoteca Brera in Milan.
Apart from the stylistic homogeneity of these paintings, all of which, except for the composition in the Donati Collection, deal with the subject of antique baths, their attribution was above all corroborated by their similarities to the frescoes by Orlandi (see Landi 1991b, pp. 230–232).

Orlandi was influenced by the work of Giuseppe Bibiena. The technical virtuosity and masterful execution of architecture in the present paintings show that Orlandi rendered Roman antiquity in a geometric rather than in an archaeological manner, not least because of his contacts to Filippo Juvarra. These are works of high artistic quality. In terms of the soft rhythm, the wealth of detail, and the skilfully organized planes in the background, the two present compositions are central works in Orlandi’s oeuvre.

It has been suggested that the figures and sculptures in these architectural capriccios are by the hand of Giuseppe Gambarini (Bologna 1680-1725), who collaborated with Stefano Orlandi in the decoration of the church of Santi Giovanni e Petronio in Rome.

We are grateful to Elisabetta Landi for her assistance in cataloguing the present lot.