Orpheus playing a Viol
Giovanni Battista Salvi Sassoferrato (Sassoferrato 1609 - Rome 1685)
Category
Art / Oil paintings
Date
circa 1650
Materials
Oil on canvas
Measurements
470 x 343 mm (18 1/2 x 13 1/2 in)
Place of origin
Italy
Order this imageCollection
Attingham Park, Shropshire
NT 609071
Summary
Oil painting on canvas, Orpheus playing a Viol, Giovanni Battista Salvi Sassoferrato (1609-1685). A half-length, head looking upwards to left, crowned with laurel and wearing a red cloak. The picture was recognised as by Sassoferrato by Francois Mace de Lepinay (private correspondence, June 2014). Alastair Laing, former Curator of Pictures & Sculpture at National Trust, recognised that its probable pair was sold at Sotheby's on 9th June 2009 (lot 46), erroneously identified as Saint Cecilia, but actually Sappho, and catalogued as by Sassoferrato. The pairing of Orpheus and Sappho would have been apposite: two musician-poets who loved and lost.
Provenance
Attingham collection; bequeathed to the National Trust with the estate, house and contents of Attingham by Thomas Henry Noel-Hill, 8th Baron Berwick (1877-1947) on 15th May 1953.
Credit line
Attingham Park, The Berwick Collection (National Trust)
Marks and inscriptions
137, F2, pencil Oil painting Fidler (on reverse white chalk)
Makers and roles
Giovanni Battista Salvi Sassoferrato (Sassoferrato 1609 - Rome 1685), artist possibly Italian (Emilian) School, artist Italian School, artist