GIOVAN BATTISTA FERRARIO (ACTIF À MILAN DANS LA PREMIÈRE MOITIÉ DU XVIIe SIÈCLE) - photo 1
GIOVAN BATTISTA FERRARIO (ACTIF À MILAN DANS LA PREMIÈRE MOITIÉ DU XVIIe SIÈCLE) - photo 2
GIOVAN BATTISTA FERRARIO (ACTIF À MILAN DANS LA PREMIÈRE MOITIÉ DU XVIIe SIÈCLE) - photo 3

GIOVAN BATTISTA FERRARIO (ACTIF À MILAN DANS LA PREMIÈRE MOITIÉ DU XVIIe SIÈCLE)

Lot 17
12.06.2024 15:00UTC +01:00
Classic
Starting price
€ 20 000
AuctioneerCHRISTIE'S
Event locationFrance, Paris
Archive
The auction is completed. No bids can be placed anymore.
Archive
ID 1230062
Lot 17 | GIOVAN BATTISTA FERRARIO (ACTIF À MILAN DANS LA PREMIÈRE MOITIÉ DU XVIIe SIÈCLE)
Estimate value
€ 20 000 – 30 000
GIOVAN BATTISTA FERRARIO (ACTIF À MILAN DANS LA PREMIÈRE MOITIÉ DU XVIIe SIÈCLE)
Portrait d'un homme, en buste, possiblement un autoportrait
porte une inscription 'G.B. FERRARI / .P.' (en haut, dans les coins supérieurs, le 'P' surplombé d'une barre horizontale)
huile sur panneau
49 x 38,8 cm (19 5/16 x 15 ¼ in.)




Provenance

Peut-être collection Archinto, Milan, vers 1775.
Vente anonyme, Subarna, Barcelone, 12 mai 2022, lot 664 (comme 'école italienne, XIXe siècle').



Further details

GIOVAN BATTISTA FERRARIO (FIRST HALF 17th CENTURY), PORTRAIT OF A MAN, BUST-LENGTH, POSSIBLY AN AUTOPORTRAIT, OIL ON PANEL, BEARS AN INSCRIPTION

This portrait is a rare work by the painter Giovan Battista Ferrario, who was active in Milan in the first half of the 17th century. Trained at the Accademia Ambrosiana in Milan in the early 1720s, to date we know of only one work signed by the painter, The Beheading of Saint Paul, in the Priory of San Giacomo de Pontida, Bergamo.

The secret of the portrait’s history is revealed by the inscription 'G.B. FERRARI P.'. At first glance, it would be tempting to identify this as the signature of the artist. However, the presence of an inscription executed in the same hand on two other portraits is more suggestive of an identifying inscription added later to indicate the author of the portrait. These two other paintings, both typical of the Milanese school of the early seventeenth century, are respectively a portrait painted by Ortensio Crespi (1578-1631), bearing the inscription 'ORTENSIVS CERANVS .P.', now in the Nivaagaard Museum in Denmark (inv. no. 0013NMK), and a portrait by Giovanni Mauro della Rovere (1575-1640), known as Il Fiamminghino, sold at Christie's in London on 13 December 1996 (lot 376), inscribed 'GIOVAN MAVR FIAME NGIN .P.'.

The repetition of a similar typographical inscription on these three portraits of the Lombard school suggests that they were probably in the same collection at some time. One possibility is the Archinto collection in Milan, based on the mention of the painting by della Rovere in a list of paintings from this collection that was being restored around 1775 (see F. A. Albuzzi, 'Memorie per servire alla storia de' pittori, scultori e architetti milanesi', L'Arte, June-August 1956, 55th year, 19, p. 112, no. 16).

The identity of the sitter of this portrait remains more enigmatic. The note in the 1996 sale catalogue suggests that the model for the portrait painted by Il Fiamminghino was an artist. This same suggestion was made by the Danish museum for the portrait painted by Crespi, on the basis of the grinding stone the model holds. However, Prof. Francesco Frangi suggests that this is a ball rather than a grinding stone, and refers to the printer's trade not that of the painter (see F. Frangi, Il ritratto in Lombardia da Moroni a Ceruti, [cat. exp.], Masnago, 2002, p. 112). On the basis of these various hypotheses, it is possible that the portrait painted by Giovan Battista Ferrario is a self-portrait, but this cannot be confirmed given the current state of research.

We would like to thank Prof. Francesco Frangi for attributing the painting to Giovan Battista Ferrario and for comparing the inscription on the present painting with those on the abovementioned portraits by Ortensio Crespi and Giovanni Mauro della Rovere, and Dr. Alberto Crispo for suggesting a possible attribution of our painting to Giovan Battista Ferrario on the basis of a photographic examination of the work.
Applied technique:Oil on panel
Art style:Old Masters
Genre:Portrait
Place of origin:Italy, Europe
Auction house category:Paintings, Watercolors, Drawings, Paintings
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