Andrea Vaccaro

(Naples 1604–1670)
Lot and his daughters,
signed with monogram lower left: AV (ligated),
oil on canvas, 202 x 257 cm, unframed

Provenance:
Collection Dr. Arthur Walter, Naples;
his sale, Hugo Helbing, Munich, 8 June 1896, lot 122, pl. 26;
acquired by the painter Josef Rösl (1853–1930) for his residence on Lake Starnberg, Bavaria;
by descent to the present owner;
Private collection, Germany

We are grateful to Riccardo Lattuada for confirming the attribution on the basis of a high resolution digital photograph and for his help in cataloguing this lot.

According to Lattuada, the present painting is one of the finest examples of the artist’s highly individualised mature style. The colour palette is bright and influenced by the stylistic tendencies of Roman Classicism during the 1660s.

The standing daughter’s facial type can be seen in a number of Vaccaro’s works such as the Triumph of David (Geneva, Musée d’Art et d’Histoire), and in the standing figure on the right of the Death of Dido (private collection); see A. Della Ragione, Andrea Vaccaro. Opera completa, Naples, 2015, figs. 156 and 159. This figure derives from the famous classical example of the Apollo del Belvedere, quoted in the angel’s figure in Adam and Eve thrown out of heaven (private collection; see R. Lattuada, I percorsi di Andrea Vaccaro, in: M. Izzo, Nicola Vaccaro (1640-1709), un artista a Napoli tra Barocco e Arcadia, Todi 2009, p. 82; p. 84, fig. 78) and in other important works from Vaccaro’s mature period.

The present painting may also be compared to a similar composition by Andrea Vaccaro of Lot and his daughters (195 x 270cm.), with the figure of Lot in the reverse, in the Prado, Madrid, inv. No. P005136.

The present Lot and his daughters can be dated to the late 1650s, when Vaccaro started to adopt a loaded brushwork in order to compete with Luca Giordano, the new young genius of the artistic milieu in Naples, who was influenced by the Venetian Cinquecento tradition. Andrea Vaccaro produced other versions of Lot and his Daughters (for two earlier versions of the present painting see Sotheby’s, London, 5 December 2012, lot 22, 179.5 x 277.5 cm datable to circa 1630, and the one in a private collection together with Moses drawing water from the Rock, 148 x 199 cm, probably datable to 1635-40 (see R. Lattuada, op. cit., p. 60, footnote 25; p. 61; p. 63, figs. 43-44).

The rediscovery of the present work is a significant addition to Andrea Vaccaro’s oeuvre.