(1641-1710)
The Adoration of the Magi, brush and brown in, over black chalk, watercolour and gouache, on laid paper, inscribed "Francesco Castilgione Genovese." in pen and brown ink at lower margin by another hand, 23 x 41 cm, mounted, unframed, (Sch)

Provenance:
anonymous collector, Venice 18th century, known as "The Reliable Venetian Hand". Comp. Terence Mullaly, "The Reliable Venetian Hand - an exhibition in Venice and some additions", in: The Burlington Magazine, January 1967, pp. 48-51.

Literature:
Comp. Ann Percy, Giovanni Benedetto Castiglione. Master draughtsman of the Italian Baroque, Philadelphia Museum of Art, 17th September – 28th November 1971, Cats. 120, 121; T. Pignatti, Veronese, Alfieri, Venice 1976, p. 159.

The inscription with an attribution to Francesco Castiglione on the present drawing is owed to a Venetian collector of drawings of the 18th century who was called the "The Reliable Venetian Hand" for the first time by Arthur E. Popham in his 1935 catalogue of the Fenwick Collection. The collection comprised mainly works by Venetian and other Italian artists from the prevailing 18th century. The Metropolitan Museum, New York preserves two comparable drawings with the inscription "Francesco Castiglione Genovese" by the same unknown collector (Inv. 08.227.24, 08.227.25; Percy 1971, Cats. 120, 121). The two sheets in New York "A congress of animals" and "A young hunter with dogs in a landscape" are among the earliest works which are attributed to Francesco Castiglione and were long considered as the only authentic works by the artist. They made it possible to attribute technically comparable works to him. Due to the identical collector’s inscription and the comparable style and technique (brush and brown ink, black chalk, watercolour and gouache) the present drawing can also be attributed Francesco Castiglione. The composition goes presumably back to a painting from the circle of Paolo Veronese and may have been executed after a variant after Veronese’s „Adorazione“ in the Chiesa di San Zanipolo in Venice (1558) as it shares many of the rustic and architectural details found in Veronese’s versions of the theme. Another composition close to the present drawing is the “Adorazione dei Magi” (1576), now attributed to the school of Paolo Veronese, which was executed as part of a cycle of eight paintings with scenes from the New Testament in the sacristy of the Scuola Grande dei San Fantin until it was closed in 1808 and transferred to the Ateneo Veneto (see Pignatti 1976, p. 159).

We are grateful to Dr. Timothy Standring and Prof. Camillo Manzitti for the scientific support.

Provenance:
anonymous collector, Venice 18th century, known as "The Reliable Venetian Hand". Comp. Terence Mullaly, "The Reliable Venetian Hand - an exhibition in Venice and some additions", in: The Burlington Magazine, January 1967, pp. 48-51.

Literature:
Comp. Ann Percy, Giovanni Benedetto Castiglione. Master draughtsman of the Italian Baroque, Philadelphia Museum of Art, 17th September – 28th November 1971, Cats. 120, 121.

The inscription with an attribution to Francesco Castiglione on the present drawing is owed to a Venetian collector of drawings of the 18th century who was called the "The Reliable Venetian Hand" for the first time by Arthur E. Popham in his 1935 catalogue of the Fenwick Collection. The collection comprised mainly works by Venetian and other Italian artists from the prevailing 18th century. The Metropolitan Museum, New York preserves two comparable drawings with the inscription "Francesco Castiglione Genovese" by the same unknown collector (Inv. 08.227.24, 08.227.25; Percy 1971, Cats. 120, 121). The two sheets in New York "A congress of animals" and "A young hunter with dogs in a landscape" are among the earliest works which are attributed to Francesco Castiglione and were long considered as the only authentic works by the artist. They made it possible to attribute technically comparable works to him. Due to the identical collector’s inscription and the comparable style and technique (brush and brown ink, black chalk, watercolour and gouache) the present drawing can also be attributed Francesco Castiglione. The composition goes presumably back to a Venetian original in the circle of Paolo Veronese and may have been executed after a variant after Veronese’s „Adoration of the Shepherds“ in the Chiesa di San Zanipolo in Venice (1558).

We are grateful to Dr. Timothy Standring and Prof. Camillo Manzitti for the scientific support.