CARLO MARATTA (1625-1713) AND STUDIO & GASPARD DUGHET (1615-1675)

With several figures attributed to Giuseppe Passeri (1654-1714)
DIANA & HER NYMPHS SURPRISED BY ACTAEON WHILST BATHING
Oil on canvas
71 x 96 cm
 
PROVENANCE:
Palazzo Santini, Lucca (by repute);
[Possibly] Anonymous sale ['B'], Christie's, London, 6.04.1772, Lot 72 (As 'HORISANI [Orrizonte], A landscape in which is introduced the story of Diana and Acteon, the scene transparent and the attitudes elegant, the figures Carlo Morratt, the landscape Horisa...[?]', measuring 2'4" x 3'3");
Where acquired by Collet for £15-4;
Anonymous sale, Langford's, London, 08.03.1776, Lot 63 ('FRANCESCO ALBANO, Nymphs bathing. The place the painter has fixed on for this scene, is well imaged [sic.] for the purpose. Large masses of lofty trees embower the cool retreat, and secrete it from the inquisitive eye: a small stream, or lake of water, presents itself for the bath, in which many figures are regaling themselves') [bears inscription in pen & ink to stretcher ALBANE 63] (sold for 13 guineas);
Ramsay Richard Reinagle, R.A. (1775-1862), London;
His sale, Christie's, London, 14.06.1825, Lot 76 ('FRANCESCO ALBANO & GASPAR POUSSIN, The Bath of Diana, Calisto escaping: a capital production of these renowned artists. From the Palace Santona [sic] at Lucca') [bought in, n.b. numbered Lot 72 in the first edition of the catalogue];
His sale, Christie's, 22.05.1826, Lot 98 ('FRANCESCO ALBANO & GASPAR POUSSIN, The Bath of Diana; the Nymphs are finely drawn, painted, and coloured') [bought in];
His sale, Christie's, 17.06.1830, Lot 204 ('FRANCESCO ALBANO & GASPAR POUSSIN, The Bath of Diana; a rich and beautiful composition, of chaste yet brilliant effect') [seemingly sold to 'Chapman', for £52-10];
Ramsay Richard Reinagle, Edward Foster, London, 06.05.1831, Lot 73 ('FRANCESCO ALBANO, The Bath of Diana. This master often resembles his fellow pupil Domenichino, so closely, that it is a difficult matter to decide the authorship of some of their pictures -- this landscape would seem to be by Domenichino -- a lively, bright, and delightful composition') [1]
Where acquired for £29-8 by Joseph Robins, London;
His sale, Christie's, London, 22.02.1834, Lot 75 (FRANCESCO ALBANO, Diana and nymphs at the bath, disturbed by Actaeon, in a romantic cavern) [bought in];
His sale, William Henry Hoard, London, 08.05.1835, Lot 16 [label in pen & ink on stretcher reads Albano / 16] ('FRANCESCO ALBANO, A grand Landscape, in which are introduced Diana and Nymphs and the Punishment of Acteon, a masterly production');
Private collection, Southwest England (until 2023, when sold as 'Circle of Andrea Locatelli' at auction)
 
BIBLIOGRAPHY:
G. Pietro Bellori, Nota della musei . . . , Rome (1664), ed. 1976, p. 51-52;
G. Pietro Bellori, Le vite de pittori scultori e architetti moderni, Rome (1672-1695), ed. a cura di E Borea, Torino 2009, p. 643-644;
F. Saverio Baldunucci, Notizie dei professori del disegno, Firenze 1725-1730, ed. a cura di F. Ranalli, 7 vols., Florence (1974-1975), vol. IV, p. 303;
G. de Marchi, Mostre di quadri a San Salvatore in Lauro (1682- 1725), Rome (1987), p. 344;
S. Rudolph, Niccolò Maria Pallavicini: l'ascesa al tempio della virtù attraverso il mecenatismo, Rome (1995), pp.112-137;
E. A. Safarik, Collezione dei dipinti Colonna: inventari 1611 - 1675, Monaco (1996), p. 100. n. 32;
A. Agresti, Carlo Maratti, eredità ed evoluzioni del classicismo romano, Rome (2022), pp. 79-95; 164-165;
A forthcoming monograph on Maratta by Dr Alessandro Agresti, to be published late 2024
 
 
 
The present work is due to be published by Dr Alessandro Agresti later this year as a rediscovered collaborative painting by Carlo Maratta and Gaspard Dughet, two of the leading Roman painters of the Baroque period, whose work together is well-documented, but by the both of whom only one painting is known today. Dr Dario Beccarini and Dr Francesco Petrucci have both, separately, endorsed the attribution to the studio of Maratta on the basis of digital images. 
 
A full analysis of the work within the broader context of Maratta's oeuvre by Dr Agresti is available upon request, wherein he explains his attribution to both Maratta and Passeri, as well as Dughet. 
 
 
 
Several variants on the composition of this subject by Maratta exist today: the 'prime' version is thought to be that in the Devonshire Collections at Chatsworth House, Derbyshire; with an identical version in the State Pushkin Museum in Moscow, and a version attributed to Maratta's studio at Christchurch College, Oxford. Dr Agresti has also recently published a fourth example in Eredità ed evoluzioni del classicismo romano, (De Luca Editori d'Arte, 2022).
 
The present painting is however of an altogether different nature to those: only one further collaborative work by Maratta and Dughet exists today, Landscape with the Union of Dido and Aeneas, in the National Gallery, London (acc. no. NG95), making this rediscovery all the more thrilling as an extremely rare testament to the pair's relationship.