LOT DETAILS

Materials:

oil on canvas

Measurements:

101.97 in. (259.00 cm.) (height) by 78.50 in. (199.40 cm.) (width)

Exhibited:

London, Royal Academy, Exhibition of Works by Holbein & Other Masters of the 16th and 17th Centuries, 9 December 1950-7 March 1951, no. 328. Rome, Palazzo delle Esposizioni, Il Seicento Europeo: Realismo, Classicismo, Barocco, December 1956-January 1957, no. 90. London, Thomas Agnew and Sons, England and the Seicento: a loan exhibition of Bolognese paintings from British Collections, 6 November-7 December 1973, no. 28. Washington, National Gallery of Art, The Treasure Houses of Britain: Five Hundred Years of Private Patronage and Art Collecting, 3 November 1985-16 March 1986, no. 499 (entry by F. Russell). London, National Gallery, on loan, July 1992-April 1994).

Literature:

G.P. Bellori, Le vite de' pittori, scultori et architetti moderni, Rome, 1672, p. 206; reissued, Pisa, 1821, p. 212. [J.J. de La Lande,] Voyage d'un François en Italie, fait dans les années 1765 & 1766, Venice, 1769, IV, p. 181. F.W.B. von Ramdohr, Über Mahlerei und Bildhauerarbeit in Rom, Leipzig, 1787, III, pp. 42-3. G. Vasi, Indice storico del Gran Prospetto di Roma, Rome, 1804, p. 345. J. Young, A Catalogue of the Pictures at Leigh Court near Bristol, the Seat of Philip John Miles, Esq. M.P., London, 1822, no. 5 ('the finest single figure painted by [Domenichino]'). W. Buchanan, Memoirs of Painting, London, 1824, II, pp. 154 and 193, no. 16. G.F. Waagen, Works of Art and Artists in England, London, 1838, II, pp. 140-1. Lady Jervis White Jervis, Painting and Celebrated Painters, Ancient and Modern, London, 1854, II, pp. 316 and 330. G.F. Waagen, Treasures of Art in Great Britain, London, 1852, III, p. 182. J. Pope-Hennessy, The Drawings of Domenichino in the Collection of His Majesty the King at Windsor Castle, London, 1948, pp. 25 and 104, under nos. 1246-7. L. Salerno, 'The Picture Gallery of Vincenzo Giustiniani, II: The Inventory, Part I', The Burlington Magazine, CII, March l960, p. 102. G.R. Reitlinger, The Economics of Taste, London, I, 1962, pp. 261-4. E. Borea, Domenichino, Milan, 1965, pp. 86 and 188, no. 94 (dated circa 1630). D.S. Pepper, review, The Burlington Magazine, CXV, December 1973, p. 824. E. Borea, ed., G.P. Bellori, op. cit., 1672, Turin, 1976, p. 222, note 2 (dated 1625-8). H. Brigstocke, William Buchanan and the 19th century Art Trade, London, 1982, p. 52. R. Spear, Domenichino, New Haven and London, 1982, text volume, pp. 64, 250 and 270-1, no. 100; plate volume, pl. 325. P. Rosenberg and B. Brejon de Lavergnée, Panopticon italiano, Un diario di viaggio ritrovato, Rome, 1986, under no. 106. G.M. Merz, 'Reynolds's borrowings', The Burlington Magazine, CXXXVII, 1995, pp. 516-7, fig.49. G. Perini, 'Paura di volare', in the exhibition catalogue, Domenichino, 1581-1641, Rome, Palazzo Venezia, 1996-7, pp. 84-5 and 114, note 405. S. Danesi Squarzina, 'The collections of Cardinal Benedetto Giustiniani. Part I', The Burlington Magazine, CXXXIX, November 1997, pp. 777 and 786. S. Danesi Squarzina, catalogue of the exhibition, Caravaggio e i Giustiniani, Toccar con mano una collezione del seicento, Rome and Berlin, 2001, pp. 26 and 44, note 56, fig. 22. S. Danesi Squarzina, La collezione Giustiniani, Milan, 2003, Inventari I, pp. 136-7, no. 86, pl. 49 and pp. 343-5, no. 170; Inventari II, p. 289, no. 73 and p. 374, no. 101.

Provenance:

Possibly painted for Cardinal Benedetto Giustiniani (1554-1621), Palazzo Giustiniani, S. Luigi dei Francesi, Rome, by whom placed 'nella 2a camera contegua alla sopradetta', cf. his posthumous inventory, 1621, no. 86, 'Un quadro di San Giovanni Evangelista, senza cornice' (see Danesi Squarzina, 1997, see infra). His brother, Marchese Vincenzo Giustiniani (1564-1637), Palazzo Giustiniani, by whom placed 'Nella 7a Stanza seguitta alla suddetta all'entrare mano manca che ha le finestre, che rispondono al cortile', his posthumous inventory, 1638, I, nos. 170-2, 'Tre altri quadri della medesima grandezza uno con S. Gio. Evangelista di mano di Domenichino, senza cornice' (see Salerno, l960), and by descent through his heir, Andrea Giustiniani, at the Palazzo Giustiniani, Rome (postumous inventory of Prince Benedetto Giustiniani, 1793, no. 73 and inventory of 1802, no. 101), until 1804 (when an offer of 6,500 scudi was declined, see infra). Taken to Paris for Prince Giustiniani, probably before 1806, and sold there to Alexis Delahante, by whom taken to London. With W. Harris, Bond Street, by whom sold to. Richard Hart Davis, M.P. (1766-1842), Grosvenor Square and Mortimer House, Clifton, Gloucestershire. Sold en bloc with his collection in about 1813 to Phillip John Miles, M.P. (d. 1845), of Leigh Court, Somerset, where the picture was placed in the Saloon, and by descent to his grandson,. Sir Philip Miles, 2nd Bt. (1825-1888); Christie's, London, 28 June 1884, lot 22 (bought in at 700 guineas). His son, Sir Cecil Miles, 3rd Bt. (1873-1898); his posthumous sale, Christie's, London, 13 May 1899, lot 19 (bought in at 100 guineas and subsequently sold for 70 guineas to M. Colnaghi). A.L. Christie, Tapeley Park, Devonshire and Glyndebourne, East Sussex, and by descent.