Galeotti - Study for " The Apotheosis of Arianna to Olympia"

SEBASTIANO GALEOTTI

Florence 1676 — 1741 Vicoforte, near Mondovi

Study for " The Apotheosis of Arianna to Olympia"

black chalk, pen & brown ink, brush & grey wash on paper tinted yellow.
111/8 x 143/16".

provenance:

said to be from a French collection years ago.

The present drawing is a newly discovered preparatory study of the assembled gods awaiting Arianna as she ascends to become one of them at Olympus - for the ceiling fresco in the great hall of Palazzo Porto Breganze in Vicenza of 1725. The quadratura work is thought to have been done by Francesco Natali, and the figurative work and invention was Galeotti's. The theme of union of the gods and achieving immortality on the ceiling paralleled the marriage of Ludovico Porto and Lucietta Garzadori in that same year, for which the palace had been reconfigured somewhat.

In the fresco, Venus, at the center of the vault, holds a crown forged by Vulcan as a wedding present for Arianna. Near Venus are Bacchus and Hercules. Lower down, Mercury points out to Arianna the Olympian gods who are seated at a table, a feature of several other frescoes by Galeotti.1 Also replicated by the artist is the theme of Venus in Homage giving Arianna the Crown which he painted on the ceiling of the royal apartment at Rivoli and again in Palazzo Modignani in Lodi.2

There is one other drawing which might be related to the Apotheosis of Arianna ceiling fresco in Palazzo Porto. Venus and Cupid, a pen & ink study now in the Palatine Library in Parma, could be a primo pensiero for the central group.3

Galeotti was a peripatetic artist, working in Florence first, his native city, and then in Pisa, Parma, Vicenza, Genoa, Savona, Pontremoli, Pinerola, Cremona, Lodi, and Mondovi where he died. He was one of the foremost fresco painters working in Northern Italy in the early 18th century.

1
In the Feast for the Marriage of Cupid and Psyche in Palazzo Sanvitale in Parma and in Genoa, in the Spinola di Pelliscceria. Both are illustrated in Rita Dugoni's Sebastiano Galeotti, Torino, 2001, in color on pages 24-25 & 32.
2
Dugoni, op.cit., p. 162, cat.# 34 and pp. 168-169, cat. # 46.
3
This is suggested by Rita Dugoni in Sebastiano Galeotti, Torino, 2001, p. 165 under cat. # 40, illus. (D61). She also mentions a drawing of Polyphemus as preparatory for a monochromatic overdoor (D62).

1	In the Feast for the Marriage of Cupid and Psyche in Palazzo Sanvitale in Parma and in Genoa, in the Spinola di Pelliscceria. Both are illustrated in Rita Dugoni's Sebastiano Galeotti, Torino, 2001, in color on pages 24-25 & 32.
2	Dugoni, op.cit., p. 162, cat.# 34 and pp. 168-169, cat. # 46.
3	This is suggested by Rita Dugoni in Sebastiano Galeotti, Torino, 2001, p. 165 under cat. # 40, illus. (D61). She also mentions a drawing of Polyphemus as preparatory for a monochromatic overdoor (D62).