DOMENICO MARIA CANUTI or GIUSEPPE ROLLI - The Apotheosis of Hercules

price: U.S. $14,000

DOMENICO MARIA CANUTI or GIUSEPPE ROLLI

1626 - Bologna - 1684 1645 - Bologna - 1725

The Apotheosis of Hercules

black chalk underdrawing, pen & brown ink. 75/8 x 53/4" (195 x 145mm).

provenance:

private collection, USA.

The subject of the present drawing, The Apotheosis of Hercules, is often paired with Hercules Being Received in Olympus. A well-known version of the latter is on the vault of the main salon of Palazzo Pepoli-Campogrande, Bologna, finished in 1669;1 it is Canuti's masterpiece. Preparatory drawings2 and oil sketches,3 all with different compositions but still clearly preliminary to the fresco, exist.

Giuseppe Rolli provides a wholly different solution for a ceiling design of Hercules Received into Olympus in a compositional drawing4 which seems quite close in style to the present drawing. It is preserved at the Institut Neerlandais in Paris.

Though Rolli is very much the disciple and Canuti the innovator, their graphic styles are sometimes not easily distinguishable, despite the very excellent articles published by Ebria Feinblatt. As Feinblatt had noted, Rolli “possessed a vigor and dramatic force and undoubtedly had a certain bravura.”5 Yet the similarly energetic drawing style of these decorators is not the only reason for difficulties. Rolli is known to have referred to the work of Canuti for some of his figures and motifs, and Canuti often reissued his own figures adapting poses developed for one mythological ceiling project for use in another. A preliminary drawing, now in the Uffizi, for the fresco in Palazzo Altieri6 by Canuti is not unlike the present drawing in the disposition of its subject figures. Venus (or Hebes) sits on a cloud in profile, her drapery flying arc-like about her - only in reverse of her image in our sheet. The figure of Jupiter in the Uffizi drawing is posed much like our Hercules, only again in reverse. And the flying, horizontal Mercury has its parallel in the figure of Envy (?) flying downwards at the bottom of the present drawing.

Whomever the author of the present sheet, it is a lively and appealing drawing. Ubaldo Gandolfi clearly found the composition pleasing; he produced a drawn version, presently in the Fondazione Cini, a painting, formerly with Colnaghi,7 and a ceiling fresco in Palazzo Malavezzi (la Ca' Grande),8 all based on the present composition. Not surprisingly, Ubaldo also produced a drawing of Hercules Received at Olympus, a pendant painting.9 and another ceiling fresco in the same palace.10

1
Simonetta Stagni, Domenico Maria Canuti, Rimini, 1988, col. pl. VII.
2
Stagni, op. cit. pp. 164 - 165, figs. 27a and 27b or col. pls. VIII and IX.
3
Adriano Cera, La pittura emiliana del '600, Milano, 1982, fig. 7.
4
Ebria Feinblatt, Some Drawings by Giuseppe Rolli Identified, in Master Drawings, Vol. 20, no. 1, 1982, pl. 32.
5
Ebria Feinblatt, op. cit. 1982, p. 27.
6
Ebria Feinblatt, The Roman Work of Domenico Maria Canuti, in the Art Quarterly, Vol. XV. 1952, pp. 45 - 65, fig. 7.
7
J. Bentini and A. Mazza, Disegni Emiliani del Sei-Settecento, I Grandi cicli di Affreschi, Milano, 1990, p. 272, fig. 38.1 & p. 273, fig.38.2.
8
today part of the University of Bologna.
9
Bentini and Mazza, op.cit. p.278, fig. 38.7.
10
Mary Cazort, I Gandolfi, Ubaldo, Gaetano, Mauro, Disegni e Dipinti, Venice, 1984, p.41, cat. #8 and 9, illustrated.

1	Simonetta Stagni, Domenico Maria Canuti, Rimini, 1988, col. pl. VII.
2	Stagni, op. cit. pp. 164 - 165, figs. 27a and 27b or col. pls. VIII and IX.
3	Adriano Cera, La pittura emiliana del '600, Milano, 1982, fig. 7.
4	Ebria Feinblatt, Some Drawings by Giuseppe Rolli Identified, in Master Drawings, Vol. 20, no. 1, 1982, pl. 32.
5	Ebria Feinblatt, op. cit. 1982, p. 27.
6	Ebria Feinblatt, The Roman Work of Domenico Maria Canuti, in the Art Quarterly, Vol. XV. 1952, pp. 45 - 65, fig. 7.
7	J. Bentini and A. Mazza, Disegni Emiliani del Sei-Settecento, I Grandi cicli di Affreschi, Milano, 1990, p. 272, fig. 38.1 & p. 273, fig.38.2.
8	today part of the University of Bologna.
9	Bentini and Mazza, op.cit. p.278, fig. 38.7.
10	Mary Cazort, I Gandolfi, Ubaldo, Gaetano, Mauro, Disegni e Dipinti, Venice, 1984, p.41, cat. #8 and 9, illustrated.