Giacomo Liege (Liege 1605 - Milan 1640-1645), The Pantry, oil on canvas, 58 5/8 x 74 in (149 x 188 cm) © Galerie Canesso

Provenance: Sale, Vitelli Gallery, Genoa, JDB Collection of Ancient Art, 20 april 1933, lot 132, pl. i (as "Benedict Castiglione"); Genoa, collection of Piero Pagano (1929-2007), by descent, to the present day.

Literature: Ezia Gavazza, "Protagonists and supporting actors. acquisitions and cultural interference "in Painting in Liguria. The second seventeenth century, Genoa, 1990, p. 44, Fig. 42; Anna Orlando, "James Liege", in Genoa Baroque Age, exh. cat. and. by Ezia Gavazza and Giovanna Rotondi Terminiello, Genoa, Palazzo Spinola National Gallery - Gallery of Palazzo Reale, 2 May - 26 July 1992, pp. 208-209, no. 111; Anna Orlando, "A Flemish in Genoa: figurative documents for James Liege", Comparison, no. 549, November 1995, pp. 69-70, 72-73, 76, Fig. 56; Anna Orlando, Splendour and rigor. The still life in northern Italy from the sixteenth to the eighteenth century, exh. cat. by Giovanni Godi, Colorno, 20 april - 25 June 2000, p. 108, no. 14; Anna Orlando, Genoa and Antwerp. A sommet dans la peinture baroque, exh. cat. and. by Marzia Cataldi Gallo, Antwerp, Musée des Beaux-arts, 4 october 2003 to 1 January 2004, pp. 106-107, no. 30; Anna Orlando, The flowers of the Baroque. By genre scene to the rococo taste in painting in Genoa from '500 to' 700, exh. cat. and. by Anna Orlando, Genoa, the Strada Nuova museums, 24 march - 25 June 2006, pp. 52-53, no. 9; Anna Orlando, Flemish-Genoese painting. Still lifes, portraits and landscapes of the seventeenth and early eighteenth century. Finds from private collections, Turin, 2012, p. 94.

Exhibition: Baroque Age Genova, Genoa, National Gallery of Palazzo Spinola - the Royal Palace Gallery, 2 may - 26 July 1992, no. 111; Pomp and rigor. The still life in northern Italy from the sixteenth to the eighteenth century, Colorno, 20 april - 25 June 2000, p. 108, no. 14; Genoa and Antwerp. A sommet dans la peinture baroque, Antwerp, Royal Museum of Fine Arts, 4 october 2003 to 1 January 2004, no. 30; The flowers of the Baroque. By genre scene to the rococo taste in painting in Genoa from '500 to' 700, Genoa, museums of Strada Nuova, 24 march - 25 June 2006, no. 9.

Wallerant Vaillant (Rijsel 1623-1677 Amsterdam), Self-Portrait with a Turban. Oil on canvas, 74 x 59.5 cm © Galerie Canesso

Provenance: Cambridge, Mrs Campbell; London, Christie’s, 18 July 1910, lot 123 (as “Unknown”, sold for 80 guineas to Clark); London, Christie’s, 7 August 1942, lot 102 (as “J. E. Liotard – A Moroccan soldier”, offered for sale by Knoedler, unsold); London, Christie’s, 14 December 1990, lot 121 (as Wallerant Vaillant); London, with Colnaghi, The Grosvenor House Antiques Fair, 12-22 June 1991, purchased by its last owner

Literature: H.W. Grohn, 'Ein neuerworbenes Bildnis der Niedersächsischer Landesgalerie Hannover und die Selbstporträts des Wallerant Vaillant', in Niederdeutsche Beitrage zur Kunstgeschichte, 19, 1980, pp. 141-142 and 144, plate 5; Nadine Rogeaux, Wallerant Vaillant (1623-1677), Graveur à la manière noire, dessinateur à la pierre noire et peintre de portraits, 4 vols., Doctoral thesis in the History of Art, supervised by Alain Mérot, Paris IV-Sorbonne, 1999, I, p. 436, no. p. 13, IV, ill. p. 13

Pompeo Girolamo Batoni (Lucca 1708-1787 Rome), Ceres (or Allegory of Summer) and Bacchus (or Allegory of Autumn). Two ovals, oil on canvas, 47.5 × 37.5 cm © Galerie Canesso

The Bacchus bears a later inscription at upper left 'BATTONI'

These paintings are marked by beautifully refined handling, the tip of the brush creating a true description of texture, as in the hairs of the animal skin covering Bacchus’ shoulders, or the ears of wheat and vine tendrils crowning the heads of Ceres and Bacchus, respectively. Our two allegorical images bring out a relatively unknown side of the art of Batoni, who enjoyed enormous success as portrait painter, becoming the most sought-after artist in that genre in mid-eighteenth century Europe. It is no doubt for this reason that E. P. Bowron gives these two ovals a matrimonial interpretation, suggesting they could be marriage portraits, the groom personified as Bacchus, God of wine, and the bride as Ceres, Goddess of vegetation and harvests. Bowron dates our compositions to around 1763 by comparison with the particularly painstaking handling and expression of the marvellous history painting of Cleopatra and the Dying Mark Antony executed by the artist for Nicolas de La Pinte de Livry (1715-1795), now housed in the Musée des Beaux-Arts de Brest. Batoni’s art reflects the evolution of traditional Roman Classicism towards the nascent Neo-Classical age.

Provenance: Private collection, Philadelphia; Sotheby’s, New York, 6 March 1975, lot 73; Rome, Galleria W. Apolloni, 1975; private collection, Milan

Literature: Anthony M. Clark, Pompeo Batoni: A complete Catalogue of His Works, ed. by Edgar Peters Bowron, London 1985, p. 291, nos. 264-265, figs. 243-244; Edgar Peters Bowron, Pompeo Batoni. A complete catalogue of his paintings, 2 vols., New Haven and London 2016, I, p. 329, nos. 271-272

Galerie Canesso. Tefaf Maastricht 2017, Stand 382