Giovanni Antonio Pellegrini (1675-1741) - Santa Dorotea

GIOVANNI ANTONIO PELLEGRINI
(Venice, 1675 – 1741)
Saint Dorothy
Oil on canvas, cm. 65 x 50. 5 - attributed by Dario Succi
Dimension with frame, cm. cm. 86 x 71 x 5 approx.

NOTE: Hampel, Munich, auction of 06/29/2023, lot 302. Publication of the catalog of works from the Intermidiart collection. Certificate of Guarantee and Lawful Origin. Work with gilded frame from the twentieth century (?) (Defects) :

Recognized in Giovanni Antonio Pellegrini's catalog by the Venetian historian Dario Succi, the image is laid out according to a compositional style that enhances the expression of the face, confirming the sentimental participation. Faithful to the iconographic tradition, Pellegrini depicts the young woman with the palm of martyrdom and the gift of roses and apples, with the figure emerging from the dim light outlined in a luminous contrast of reds, blues and whites, while the brushstroke lightens in the face where the touch acquires greater lightness. This work can be related, due to compositional and stylistic affinities, with the Sofonisba with the poison cup with which it shares sensuality and finesse of execution in a rococo key.
The work, in a good state of preservation, illustrates a sacred episode whose protagonist is Saint Dorothy, virgin and martyr of Caesarea in Cappadocia. Who lived between the third and fourth centuries, the saint, coming from a wealthy family dedicated to pagan worship, was condemned to death and set on fire following her refusal to renounce the Christian faith. Following the hagiographic sources we learn that while she was being led to martyrdom, Theophilus, one of her persecutors, provocatively asked her to invoke the Lord to have a basket of roses and apples delivered to him as proof of God. According to the Golden Legend, a fundamental text for the biographical events linked to the saint, we know that Theophilus actually received the requested basket from an angel after Dorothea's death. Thanks to this episode, a wicker basket or a tray with flowers and fruit became the traditional iconographic symbols of the virgin of Cappadocia and as such appear in most of the artistic depictions dedicated to her.
Perfectly conformed to the pictorial images dedicated to the saint in the Baroque age, the canvas depicts Dorothea with her head enraptured by divine ecstasy, appropriately raised towards the Empyrean, while holding a metal tray in her hand, with roses and apples.
Giovanni Antonio Pellegrini was an Italian painter, son of a shoemaker from Padua, born and then died in Venice on 29 April 1675 and 2 November 1741 respectively. He began to become familiar with painting in the workshop of the Lombard painter Paolo Pagani and here he learned the craft but found himself much closer to the structure of Sebastiano Ricci's rococo painting. In Rome he met Luca Giordano, whose influence is evident in particular in the ceiling of the Pontifical Library Antoniana in Padua, from 1702. In 1704 he married the sister of Rosalba Carriera, a representative of Venetian painting. He soon became famous and this fame led him to work outside Italy in 1708. In London he followed the Rococo style and in 1713 in Dusseldorf he painted a series of allegories by Bensberg, for Prince John William, in Antwerp and in 1716 he painted the Four Elements in Paris while in 1720 he frescoed the ceilings of the Banque Royale and in Vienna in 1727 the dome of the Salesian Church. Giovanni Antonio Pellegrini is considered one of the most important Venetian painters of the 18th century and the most important predecessor of Giovanni Battista Tiepolo. He is well known for his work in England, where he has had enormous success. He painted many murals in English country houses and it was said that even when painted directly on the wall they had the spontaneity and lightness of fresco.
Regarding its state of conservation, the canvas is in fair general condition considering the age of the painting, the pictorial surface appears dirty and in patina. We can see - in Wood's light - some scattered restorations and some slight unraveling and oxidation of the pictorial surface, which is almost no longer uniform. There are no serious conservation problems and the original canvas has an old relining, which does not appear to require intervention. In sunlight, a fine crackle related to the era is visible. The frame may have been replaced at the time of the relining.
The measurements of the canvas are cm. 65 x 50. 5. The painting is sold with a gilded and worked frame from the twentieth century (frame size, approx. 86 x 71 x 5 cm, with defects) .

PROVENANCE: Hampel, Coll. private

PUBLICATION:
Unpublished;
MYTHS AND TERRITORY in Sicily with a thousand cultures. INEDITA QUADRERIA general catalogue of the paintings of the collection of the cycle "I Miti e il territorio", Editore Lab_04, Marsala, 2023.

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