Lot 46
Francesco Fontebasso
Venice 1707 - 1769
Bacchus and Ariadne
Pen and brown ink within partial ink framing lines, the corners scalloped
288 by 445 mm; 11⅜ by 17½ in.
Condition Report
Provenance
With Thomas Agnew & Sons, Ltd., London, July 1971;
sale, London, Sotheby’s, The Collection of David Daniels, 25 April 1978, lot 35
Literature
The Burlington Magazine, 1978, p. XX;
M. Magrini, Francesco Fontebasso (1707-1769), Vicenza 1988, p. 137, under no. 45;
M. Magrini, 'Francesco Fontebasso: i disegni', Saggi e memorie di storia dell'arte, vol. 17, 1990, p. 179, no. 68, p. 364, fig. 88, reproduced and p. 172, under no. 13
Catalogue note
Though this large and beautifully preserved sheet cannot yet be securely connected to a surviving painting or decorative project, Magrini noted its evident stylistic similarities with Fontebasso's series of engravings, the Varii Baccanali, thus providing a probable dating to the mid-1740s.1 The subject of Bacchus and Ariadne was one that the artist approached on a number of occasions, most notably in a painting in a private collection, Florence, published by Magrini in 1988, where she observed the similarities between it and the present work.2
1. Magrini, loc. cit., 1990
2. Magrini, loc. cit., 1988