Attributed to Salvatore Castiglione (Italian, 1620-1676) Allegory of Poetry and Music

Attributed to Salvatore Castiglione (Italian, 1620-1676)

Allegory of Poetry and Music
Unsigned.
Oil on canvas, 19 1/4 x 31 1/2 in. (49.0 x 80.0 cm),framed.
Condition: Lined, retouch, fine craquelure, fading, possible skinning, flattened impasto.

Provenance: Hazlett Galleries, London, 1968; M. Knoedler & Co., New York; Anonymous sale, New York, Phillips, November 19, 1980, Lot 14 (as by Giovanni Benedetto Castiglione); to Donald Purdy, Westport, Connecticut; to the current owner.

Literature: A. Percy, Giovanni Benedetto Castiglione, Master Draughtsman of the Italian Baroque, exhibition catalogue, Philadelphia 1971, p. 59, under note 147 (as an unusual variant of an Allegory of Poetry and Music by Giovanni Benedetto Castiglione); M.N. Schleier, in Kunst in der Republik Genua, exhibition catalogue, Frankfurt am Main 1992, p. 133, reproduced fig. 61.2 (as attributed to Salvatore Castiglione).

N.B. Salvatore Castiglione was a painter, printmaker, and writer, and the younger brother of Giovanni Benedetto Castiglione. The central figures in this painting appear to be based on a painting and drawing by the older brother Giovanni Benedetto (see A. Percy, pp. 42 and 113).