(Venice 1675-1741)
The Judgment of Midas,
oil on panel, 52 x 118 cm, framed

We are grateful to Bernard Aikema for confirming the attribution of the present painting and his help in cataloguing this work.

The present painting is an addition to the oeuvre of Giovanni Antonio Pellegrini who was born in Padua, and trained with the Lombard artist Paolo Pagani. His style was further developed by a stay in Rome during the early stages of his career where he absorbed the art of Luca Giordano and other Baroque painters as well as the influence of the rich tradition of Venetian Cinquecento art. Although he belongs to the Venetian school of painting, Pellegrini operated for most of his life outside of the Veneto: in Paris, Great Britain, the Netherlands and Central Europe. As an itinerant artist, Pellegrini introduced a novel, light and airy style of painting to these regions.

Pellegrini artistic output is characterised by decorative pictures and in delightful, quickly painted mythological subjects, such as the present painting. The Judgment of Midas is a well-known theme with a tragic ending, but in Pellegrini’s version it appears as a light-hearted theatrical piece centered around the beautiful figure of Apollo in the middle of the composition. Given its frieze-like size, the present work may have been part of a larger decorative scheme. Pellegrini’s work is not always easy to date, but this painting should be probably be dated to the 1720s.