OLD MASTERS PAINTINGS & DRAWINGS OCTOBER 28, 2020
Saint Catherine and the
Wheel
Catherine of Alexandria was one of the most beloved of Christian saints from the early Middle Ages well into the present day. According to her legend, she was a beautiful and learned Christian noblewoman who lived in Roman Egypt in the early 4th century CE. She was such a brilliant speaker that she handily defeated a group of pagan philosophers in a public debate, which so incensed the local magistrates that they condemned her to death. The means chosen for her execution was a monstrous machine incorporating a huge spiked wheel. However, rather than killing her, the device broke apart and released her. The outraged authorities subsequently had her beheaded. During the late Middle Ages and early Renaissance, Catherine was portrayed as a Mediaeval princess, lavishly dressed, wearing a coronet, and holding a fragment of a spiked wheel, usually in quiet conversation with other saints. Starting in the mid-16th century, however, artists began to focus on the episode of her botched execution. The potential drama of this scene was almost irresistible. Some painters showed the wheel spinning wildly and exploding in all directions, from which the firework known as a “Catherine wheel� takes its name. Another moment from that same episode can be seen in a painting by a Venetian artist of the late 16th or early 17th century (lot 65). Here Catherine is portrayed after the machine has broken apart, kneeling alone in prayer on a wooded hilltop, with the city of Alexandria in the distance. Her would-be executioners are nowhere to be seen; all that remains of their attempt to destroy her are the broken spokes of the wheel and a large timber detached from the engine standing upright behind her. This is an unusual treatment of Catherine’s story: an instant taken out of time, reminiscent of Gothic depictions of Christ meditating before his crucifixion.
The means chosen for her execution was a
monstrous machine
The same moment in the story was presented very differently by the 17th-century Venetian artist Giulio Carpioni, in a graceful ink drawing, Saint Catherine Rescued from the Wheel (lot 39). Here Catherine is again shown kneeling in prayer among the fragments of the machine—which, in its explosive breakup, has taken no fewer than seven of her executioners with it. Their bodies are strewn about in the rubble, as one lone survivor runs away in terror. Hovering above the scene are several angels, one brandishing a club, which he has presumably just used to smash the horrific engine.
that desire to be close to profound and transcendent
holiness
St. Catherine is often shown in the company of other saints, and especially with the Holy Family. An example of this subject is The Holy Family with Saint Catherine and Two Angels, attributed to the 16th-century Italian artist Orazio Samacchini (lot 56). The setting is a landscape at evening, probably during the family’s flight to Egypt to escape the soldiers of King Herod. The family seems to have made a shelter for the night by throwing a blanket over the lower branches of a tree. In attendance are two small angels, who have brought some exotic fruit for their supper. Catherine, in her most elegant princely dress and coronet, kneels devoutly among them, leaning on a fragment of the spiked wheel. Why is she here? Her legend tells us that Catherine had a vision in which she was mystically married to the Christ child, but there is no sign of that event here. She was herself an Egyptian, so perhaps she has come to guide the family—from four centuries in the future—to their refuge in her homeland. Most likely, however, she represents the donor who commissioned this painting, whose patron saint Catherine may well have been. Her presence here would thus be an expression of that donor’s desire to be close to profound and transcendent holiness. – By Elaine Stainton
Lot No. 65 Venetian School 16th/17th Century Saint Catherine in Prayer Oil on canvas 30 3/4 x 25 1/8 inches Estimate: $6,000-10,000 From the Collection of Donald and Leona Kuba
Lot No. 39 Giulio Carpioni Italian, 1613-1679 Saint Catherine Delivered from the Wheel Brown ink and wash on paper 13 3/4 x 9 3/8 inches Provenance: Lord Halford collection Beverly Mass collection Estimate: $1,000-2,000 From the Collection of Donald and Leona Kuba
Lot No. 56 Attributed to Orazio Samacchini The Holy Family with Saint Catherine and Two Angels Oil on canvas 37 3/4 x 31 inches Estimate: $8,000-12,000 From the Collection of Donald and Leona Kuba
Two views of Venus In the Greco-Roman world one of the most revered of the Olympian gods was Aphrodite –Venus, to the Romans – the goddess of love. To the Greeks especially, the emotion that she represented was not in any sense abstract – love of country or family or humanity. Rather, she ruled, personified and commanded the powerful forces of erotic passion.
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...for even the gods suffer, as do mortals, the almost unbearable pain of grief. The myth of Venus’s tragic love for the young hunter Adonis, who was killed by a wild boar, resonated deeply with ancient writers, from the Greek lyric poet Sappho, who was born in Asia Minor in the late 7th century BCE, to the Roman mythographer Ovid, who lived 600 years later at the dawn of the Christian Era. According to one version of the story, Venus had dreamt that Adonis would be killed and implored him not to go hunting that next day. The young man insisted, went fearlessly on his way, and met his death. All the powers of divinity, of love itself, could not save him, nor could they relieve the goddess’s sorrow; for even the gods suffer, as do mortals, the almost unbearable pain of grief. Despite the considerable literary attention to Venus and Adonis in the ancient world, we rarely see these lovers depicted in Greek or Roman art. It was not until the mid-16th century CE, when the Venetian master Titian created an archetypal image of their story, that the subject became a popular subject for painting. Titian’s composition, which he and his workshop produced in a number of versions, created such a sensation that within a few years it was being imitated by artists all over Europe. One surviving example is a small
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version painted on copper in Central Europe later in the late 16th or perhaps early 17th century. Here Venus, as in Titian’s painting, is shown nude, seated with her back to the viewer, her body facing to the left. As Adonis is about to take his leave, she turns around toward him and reaches up to touch his shoulder, begging him to stay with her. He, with the insouciance of youth, stops only long enough to reassure her before he rushes off. It is all here: the goddess’s terrible foreknowledge, the youth’s recklessness, the hopelessness of Venus’s attempt to save him.
Lot 53 Central European School 16th/17th century Venus and Adonis Oil on copper 4 3/8 x 6 3/4 inches (11.11 x 17.15 cm) C Property from the Collection of Donald and Leona Kuba Estimate: $1,000 - $3,000
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In the Roman world, however,Venus was not only the goddess of love; she was also the mother of the Trojan prince Aeneas, ancestor of the Roman people, and thus the mother of all Romans. In the Aeneid, the Latin poet Virgil’s epic poem that recounts the hero’s flight from Troy and his destiny as the founder of Rome, Venus plays an important role as his helper and guide. In Book VIII, just before the battle that will establish his homeland in Italy, Venus presents him with new armor forged at her request by her husband, the smith god Vulcan. One lyrical evocation of this scene is a charming drawing en grisaille by a French artist of the 18th century, possibly, as inscribed, by Charles-Nicolas Cochin. Here we see the goddess, accompanied by a retinue of nymphs and minor love-gods, stepping out of her swan-drawn chariot to embrace her son. She gestures toward the newly made arms: helmet, and corselet on the ground, and hanging from a tree above them, a second helmet, sword, and shield. Seated among them is their maker, Vulcan himself, accompanied by his own retinue of Cyclopian workmen. At the left the artist has interjected a humorous incident: a small winged love-spirit has been teasing one of the swans that draw the goddess’s chariot. And so the bird, thoroughly exasperated, turns to give him an aggrieved bite on the arm.
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These two images of Venus, one embodying deeply-felt passion and tragic loss, the other motherly love, generosity and humor, say a great deal about the cultures that produced them. 16th-century Europe, with its attitudes of high seriousness and its tendency to moralize, was a perfect intellectual setting for tragedy; while the good-natured urbanity of 18th-century Paris found a gracious expression in a mother’s loving generosity. – By Elaine Stainton
Lot 46 Attributed to Charles-Nicolas Cochin Venus Presenting Arms to Aeneas Inscribed N. Cochin (lr) Black ink with gray wash on paper 20 x 14 1/2 inches (50.8 x 36.83 cm) C Property from the Collection of Donald and Leona Kuba Estimate: $1,000 - $3,000
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Baroque Visions of Ancient Heroes: Hercules and Atalanta
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umanist scholars of the Renaissance were enthralled with Greek and Roman Antiquity, a fascination that continued among well-educated people through the Baroque, Rococo and Neoclassic eras well into the 20th century. This devotion to the Classical past naturally influenced the visual arts of all of these periods. Starting in the 15th century, we begin to see paintings of incidents from Greek and Roman history and mythology, usually offered to exemplify moral principles. The mythological hero Hercules, for example, appeared in paintings of the Renaissance as a personification of virtue, shown either performing his famous feats of strength or as a young man at a crossroads choosing a life of difficult moral struggle over one of ease and self-indulgence. 20
By the Baroque period, however, images of Hercules more often illustrated other moments in his life. For example, a drawing attributed to the 17th-century Italian artist Luigi Scaramuccia shows Jupiter welcoming Hercules to Olympus, after the hero had been granted immortality as a reward for his valorous life (Lot 43). It is interesting to see how Christian religious subject matter has influenced this composition. If Jupiter were not accompanied by his eagle we could easily take him to be God the Father; and if Hercules were not shown with his distinctive olive-wood club he could be a Christian saint welcomed to heaven for unshakable faith.
Lot 43 Attributed to Luigi Pellegrini Scaramuccia Hercules Welcomed to Olympus by Jupiter Inscribed Luigi Scaramuccia (ll); inscribed indistinctly (lr) Red chalk on paper 9 3/8 x 6 3/4 inches (23.81 x 17.15 cm) C Property from the Collection of Donald and Leona Kuba $700-1,000
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One of The most popular incidents from the life of Hercules in the 17th and 18th centuries was the tale of Hercules and Omphale. According to numerous Greek and Roman sources, in order to expiate the inadvertent murder of a friend, Hercules was commanded by an oracle to serve Queen Omphale of Lydia, a kingdom in Asia Minor, for one year. Once at her court, the invincible hero was required to dress as a woman and to do various household chores. Later, however, Hercules and Omphale became lovers, married, and had a son. In the ancient world this extraordinary account was accepted as historic fact; until the destruction of the Lydian kingdom by Cyrus of Persia in 546 B.C., the kings of Lydia claimed Hercules as their ancestor.
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Depending on the point of view of the patron, the gender-bending possibilities of this story could be moralizing, humorous or erotic.
One version of the subject, by a Flemish artist of the mid-17th century (Lot 60) shows Hercules meekly spinning thread with a distaff and drop spindle while the beautiful Omphale has put on his lion skin cloak and leans on his club. He is wearing one of her bejeweled sandals and little else. Here is the first part of the story: Hercules gamely taking his punishment as he agreed to in order to redeem himself. But as this handsome, cross-dressing couple gaze at one another, we can see Cupid with his bow hovering on the right, while a wingless love-spirit tugs at Omphale’s borrowed headgear and another unlatches Hercules’s remaining sandal. The massive four-poster bed in the background clearly shows us where this delicious narrative is headed.
Lot 60 Circle of Pieter van Lint Hercules and Omphale Oil on copper 27 3/8 x 34 1/2 inches (69.53 x 87.63 cm) Provenance: Said to have belonged to the collection of the Earl of Carlisle, Castle Howard C Property from the Collection of Donald and Leona Kuba $7,000-12,000
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The incongruity of beautiful ladies in men’s attire or following men’s pursuits was clearly an attraction to writers and artists in both the ancient world and Baroque Europe. We read of the goddess Athena as a warrior and her sister Artemis as a huntress, not to mention various Amazons fighting at Troy and in the wars of Theseus. The most commonly depicted of these heroic beauties was Atalanta, a Greek princess abandoned as a baby and raised by a she-bear. Later she was befriended by a group of hunters, who taught her to use a spear, bow and arrows. She became famous for her skill, and even took part in the Calydonian Boar Hunt, one of the great pan-Hellenic expeditions of the Bronze Age. An image from the Baroque period by an unidentified 17th-century Italian artist shows her on another legendary hunt (Lot 64). Here Atalanta, who was renowned for her swiftness of foot, runs easily alongside a galloping horseman in pursuit of a stag, leaving the rest of their party behind. She seems to be the one in 24
charge, directing the thrust of her companion’s spear. Strangely, he is dressed as a Roman soldier, an anachronism of which the artist was perhaps unaware. One charming detail emerges from a sac created by the tying of Atalanta’s cloak, just above her left hip: the bell of a small hunting horn. In these Baroque pictures the high-minded Renaissance world of moralizing allegory and emblems of virtue has been left far behind. Feats of strength and skill, children raised by wild animals, oracles sending heroes on quests, passionate love affairs, the founding of royal dynasties—these are simply wonderful stories, full of strangeness, excitement and drama, to be enjoyed just as we enjoy a good novel today. – By Elaine Stainton
Lot 64 Circle of Giovanni Francesco Romanelli Atalanta and other Hunters Chasing a Stag Inscribed Romanelli (lr) Black ink on blue paper 12 x 15 3/4 inches (30.48 x 40 cm) C Property from the Collection of Donald and Leona Kuba $1,000-2,000
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Meet the Specialists Our team of Specialists welcome the opportunity to share their vast expertise and experience with you. They are available by telephone, email and even videochat to provide free auction estimates in all categories. Discover the value of your collection!
Elaine Banks Stainton Senior Specialist, Paintings & Drawings 212-427-4141, ext 249 Paintings@Doyle.com
Bill Fiddler Director, American Art 212-427-4141, ext 249 Paintings@Doyle.com
(Front Cover) Lot 60, Circle of Pieter van Lint, Hercules and Omphale, Property from the Collection of Donald and Leona Kuba. Estimate: $7,00012,000
Milan Tessler Cataloguer, Paintings Department 212-427-4141, ext 266 Paintings@Doyle.com
(Right) Lot 26, Attributed to Jacob Woutersz Vosmaer, Floral Still Life with Insects, Property from the Collection of Gustav and Mira Berger. Estimate: $4,000 - $6,000 (Back Cover) Lot 43, Attributed to Luigi Pellegrini Scaramuccia,Hercules Welcomed to Olympus by Jupiter, Property from the Collection of Donald and Leona Kuba. Estimate: $700-1,000
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