Placido Costanzi

Annunciation

Provenance: Santambrogio Antichità, Milan; sold, 2007 to: Filippo Pernisa, Milan; by whom sold, 2010, to: Private Collection, Melide, Switzerland De Primi Fine Art, Lugano, Switzerland; from whom acquired, 2011 by: Private Collection, Connecticut (2011-present) Literature: Ferdinando Arisi, “Ancora sui dipinti giovanili del Panini,” Strenna Piacentina (Piacenza, 2009): pp. 48, 57, 65, fig. 31, as by Panini Ferdinando Arisi, “Panini o Ghisolfi o Carlieri? A proposito dei dipinti giovanili,” Strenna Piacentina, (Piacenza, 2010), pp. 100, 105, 116, fig. 101, as an early work by Panini, a variant of Panini’s painting in the Museo Cristiano, Esztergom, Hungary. This architectural capriccio is one of the earliest paintings by Giovanni Paolo Panini, the preeminent painter of vedute and capricci in 18th-century Rome. The attribution to Panini has been endorsed by Ferdinando Arisi, and a recent cleaning of the painting revealed the artist’s signature in the lower right. Like many of his fellow painters working in Rome during his day, Panini was not a native of the Eternal City. He first trained as a painter and stage designer in his hometown of Piacenza and moved to Rome at the age of 20 in November 1711 to study figure painting. Panini joined the workshop of Benedetto Luti (1666-1724) and from 1712 was living on the Piazza Farnese. Panini, like many before and after him, was spellbound by Rome and its classical past. He remained in the city for the rest of his career, specializing in depicting Rome’s most important monuments, as well as creating picturesque scenes like this one that evoked the city’s ancient splendor. The 18th century art historian Lione Pascoli, who likely knew Panini personally, records in his 1730 biography of the artist that when Panini came to Rome, he was already “an excellent master and a distinguished painter of perspective, landscape, and architecture.” Panini’s earliest works from this period still show the evidence of his artistic formation in Piacenza, especially the influence of the view painter Giovanni Ghisolfi (1623-1683). However, they were also clearly shaped by his contact in Rome with the architectural capricci of Alberto Carlieri...

Provenance: Palazzo Pisani at San Stefano, Venice Mrs. F. Craighead (possibly Mrs. Fay Stinson Craighead, Evansville, Indiana) Sale, Sotheby Parke Bernet, New York, 7 June 1978, lot 310, as Bonifazio Veronese Daniel M. Friedenberg, New York, until 2011; and by descent to: Russell Friedenberg, until 2014 Literature: Giuseppe Pavanello, Gli Inventari di Pietro Edwards nella Biblioteca del Seminario Patriarcale di Venezia, Venice 2006, pp. 132, 140, as no. 10 in Pietro Edwards’ inventory of the Palazzo Pisani: “Giuseppe che fugge dalla moglie di Pitifarre” by Bonifacio Veronese. Philip Cottrell and Peter Humfrey, Bonifacio de’ Pitati, (forthcoming), cat. no. 166h. Antonio Palma is the least well-known member of the illustrious Palma family of Venetian painters of the 16th century. He was the nephew of Jacopo Palma—Palma il Vecchio—and upon his uncle’s death in 1528, he began to work with Palma Vecchio’s principal student and the inheritor of the elder artist’s studio, Bonifazio de’ Pitati (Bonifazio Veronese). Antonio worked with Bonifazio as his principal assistant and right-hand man until Bonifazio’s death in 1553, after which he continued his independent career. He married a niece of his master, and their second son, Jacopo, born in 1648, would achieve fame as Palma il Giovane...

“Moving 5” is 60”x 48”. The vibrant yellow surface tones of this piece are broken in several places allowing random glimpses of Arnold’s dreamlike underpainting for a multi-dimension...

"Ruler 58" Oil on Canvas depicts a bold commanding visage in a mixed palette with dominant blues. is a bold visage Frank Arnold is thought by many to be one of the foremost abstract ...