A Gallant with a Flute ( later romanticised as Il Rè pastore: Richard Coeur-de-Lion listening to the troubedour Blondel)
Niccolò Frangipane (1555 - 1600)
Category
Art / Oil paintings
Date
1575 - 1600
Materials
Oil on canvas
Measurements
514 x 470 mm (20 1/4 x 18 1/2 in)
Order this imageCollection
Charlecote Park, Warwickshire
NT 533891
Caption
Frangipani painted various versions of this picture, one of which shows a shepherd (now in the Musée Lebanc-Duvernoy, Auxerre), rather than the nobleman, depicted here. The composition is a derivation after Giorgione’s Man with a Flute. The back of the canvas is inscribed in a much later script, suggesting that the sitter is ‘Coeur de Lion’ (Richard the Lionheart), listening to his minstrel, Blondel. It is an unlikely explanation, but is a charming fabricated narrative, concocted many years later.
Summary
Oil painting on canvas, A Gallant with a Flute, by Niccolò Frangipani (1555– 1600), inscribed mid-left: NICOLAVS FRANGI/PANI (?added or strengthened but more probably a later addition) [NB. German form of Christian name] and on lining canvas, in ink: in oldest script [imitation from that on the original canvas?]: Il Rè pastore; in two different and later scripts: Coeur de Lion listening to Blondel / by Francescani, and: O Richarde! O mon Roy! A half length, bending to left over his flute, head facing, wearing broad brimmed hat, crimson and ermine cloak, yellow sleeves; architectural background with window, left, and landscape view. Bought at (Hester Thrale) Mrs Piozzi's posthumous sale 1836 by George Lucy for £31.10s.0d.;bought Christie's, 1st June, 1945, lot 26: £65; on loan from Sir Edmund Fairfax-Lucy (b. 1949)
Provenance
On loan from Sir Edmund Fairfax-Lucy, 6th Bt (b. 1945).
Marks and inscriptions
Verso: on lining canvas, in ink: in oldest script [imitation from that on the original canvas?]: Il Rè pastore; in two different and later scripts: Coeur de Lion listening to Blondel / by Francescani, and: O Richarde! O mon Roy!; Verso: on back of the stretcher, Christie’s stencil: 413 HN, and in chalk: 26; NB. also remains of two black seals on stretcher [probably those of Rev. John Lucy].
Makers and roles
Niccolò Frangipane (1555 - 1600), publisher