Neptune and Theophane
attributed to Giovanni Maria Bottalla (Savona 1613 - Milan 1644)
Category
Art / Oil paintings
Date
1630 - 1669
Materials
Distemper on canvas
Measurements
3658 x 724 mm (144 x 28 1/2 in)
Place of origin
Bologna
Order this imageCollection
Kingston Lacy Estate, Dorset
NT 1257080.4
Caption
Theophane, whose beauty was renowned, had many suitors but was loved by Neptune, who took her away to the island Crumissa. The suitors followed so he transformed her into a ewe. Here her head has already taken on sheep-like features as she sits in the foreground of a landscape whilst the suitors flee in dismay. Bottalla studied painting in Rome and one of his patrons there gave him the flattering nickname of il Raffaellino (little Raphael). He moved to Genoa in the early 1640s and began work on monochrome frescoes in the Palazzo Ayrolo Negrone but died before finishing them. According to records, this series, painted in oil and distemper, known in Genoa as succhi d’erbe (juices of plants) in order to look like a tapestry, was bought for Kingston Lacy from a Palazzo Cambiaso in Genoa by William Bankes (1786–1855) as by Annibale Carracci, and he regarded them as his finest acquisitions.
Summary
Distemper painting on herringbone canvas, Neptune and Theophane, attributed Giovanni Maria Bottalla (il Raffaellino) (Savona 1613 - Milan 1644), mid -17th century. Theophane, her head already turned into that of a sheep, sits side-on in the foreground of a landscape, as her suitors flee in dismay.
Provenance
acquired by William John Bankes (1786-1855), before 1844, from a palazzo Cambiaso, Genoa; bequeathed by (Henry John) Ralph Bankes (1902 – 1981) to the National Trust, together with the estates of Corfe Castle and Kingston Lacy and its entire contents in 1981
Credit line
Kingston Lacy, The Bankes Collection (National Trust)
Marks and inscriptions
NEPTUNE AND THEOPHANE / ANNIBALE CARRACCI (painted in black on fixed gilt label, on wall below the hanging)
Makers and roles
attributed to Giovanni Maria Bottalla (Savona 1613 - Milan 1644), artist previously catalogued as attributed to Italian (Bolognese) School, artist previously catalogued as attributed to Annibale Carracci (Bologna 1560 - Rome 1609), artist