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17th Century Rosa di Tivoli Painting on Slate

$12,000

£9,105.32

€10,411.12

CA$16,760.75

A$18,635.67

CHF 9,730.52

MX$226,841.47

NOK 124,157.17

SEK 116,329.34

DKK 77,700.13

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About the Item

A ram lowers its horns in a face off with a barking dog that rises on its haunches. An ox turns its head to watch the row. An annoyed ewe glances over its shoulder, but the two behind her don't deign to look. A pair of oblivious sheep graze at a distance to the right. Nothing could be more ordinary than a dog corralling a herd before heading home for the night. But what's extraordinary is the painter’s ability to portray an animal-kingdom drama. You might say the scene is the barnyard equivalent of a modern-day subway altercation, more posturing than fight, suggesting, intentionally or not, that the restive behavior of animals has much in common with that of humans. The painter of this scene was Philipp Peter Roos, better known as Rosa di Tivoli. He was born in Germany to a family of painters who specialized in landscapes and animals. Early on, he worked in Frankfurt am Main under the protection of Charles I, Landgrave of Hesse-Kassel. Knowing talent when he saw it, that beneficent ruler sent the young Roos to Rome to perfect his art in 1677. There, his skill was honed in the studio of Giacinto Brandi. And in Rome he remained, after falling in love with his master’s daughter, Maria Isabella. In 1681, Roos, a Lutheran, converted to Catholicism to marry her. Three years later, they purchased a house in nearby Tivoli where they raised seven children. During those years his surname was Latinized to Rosa, and, following the change of address, he became known to the locals, and to posterity, as Rosa di Tivoli. Tivoli is celebrated for a landscape of rolling hills garnished with ancient Roman ruins. Among them are the surviving arches of the famous aqueduct, which can be discerned, if just barely, through the evening gloom to the left in our painting. Rosa’s acreage in Tivoli allowed him to keep a menagerie of animals to serve as models, which is why his home was known as Noah’s Ark. Not that Rosa cut a figure of biblical propriety. He was one of many Northern painters then living in Rome who were notorious for carousing. He joined the Bentvueghels (Dutch for “birds of a feather”), a confraternity of German and Dutch painters who met in the Pantheon. That 2nd century temple, originally dedicated to all the pagan gods as its name would suggest, had since been rededicated to St. Mary and the Martyrs. The painters’ meetings there invariably turned into drinking binges, sending members hopscotching from tavern to tavern for weeks at a time. If many contemporary Romans looked down on the antics of these barbaric foreigners, aristocratic connoisseurs bestowed on them their patronage. This is why most of Rosa’s paintings are still to be found in the palazzi of the Colonna, Borghese, Ludovisi, and Doria Pamphilj families. Connoisseurs were then partial to small jewel-like paintings on hardstones, which were selected for their suitability to the scene being depicted. For example, blue lapis lazuli was matched to scenes unfolding against a daytime sky, and black slate was matched to scenes unfolding against a nighttime sky. Our rustic scene, painted on slate, probably dates to the 1680s. In 1691, by which time dark Caravaggesque scenes like Rosa’s were no longer in vogue, so he had to sell Noah’s Ark, and return to Rome. He died there in poverty at the age of fifty-one. We know this from Arnold Houbraken, his contemporary, who included Rosa in the book he wrote on German and Dutch painters. There, he records: “In the year 1698-1699, the Landgrave of Hessen-Kassel, his first patron, came to Rome, and inquired after our Roos, whether he still lived, and after his conduct in life, and said, when he heard that he had changed his Religion, that I am still able to forgive him, but that he has never sent me a piece of his Art as proof of his gratitude I can never forget.”

Creator:
Philipp Peter Roos (Rosa di Tivoli) (Artist)
Dimensions:
Height: 8.25 in (20.96 cm)Width: 13.5 in (34.29 cm)Depth: 2 in (5.08 cm)
Style:
Baroque (Of the Period)
Materials and Techniques:
Slate,Painted
Place of Origin:
Italy
Period:
1680-1689
Date of Manufacture:
circa 1685
Condition:
Replacements made: The upper right corner of the slate has been filled in and painted later. Wear consistent with age and use. The black-lacquered frame is later.
Seller Location:
New York, NY
Reference Number:
1stDibs: LU1061422880542

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