Circle of Giovanni Francesco Barbieri, called il Guercino (Cento 1591-1666 Bologna)


The Rest on the Flight into Egypt oil on canvas, tondo71.2 cm. (28 in.) diameterunframed
|ProvenanceCa'n Puig and Castillo Bendinat, MallorcaTheir sale, Christie's, Mallorca, 24-25 May 1999, lot 681Sale, Bonhams, London, 7 December 2005, lot 137The present composition is derived from the prototype by Guercino of 1624, now in the Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, Ohio. There are, however, some small differences and pentimenti in the lot offered here, which may suggest that the picture could have been a modello or bozzetto for the Cleveland picture. It is recorded that a modello of the Cleveland picture was sold in Rome in 1819 to Leon Dufourny and was later purchased by the great collector and founder of the modern Louvre, Baron D. Vivant-Denon in 1826. The picture was then offered twice by Count de Pourtales-Gorgier in Paris, first in 1841, where it failed to sell, and then in March 1865. The date of the second sale marries very closely with the appearance of the picture in the collection offered by Christie's at Palma, Mallorca. At the beginning of the 19th century two sisters from wealthy and aristocratic Catalonian families, Dona Joana de Rocaberti-Boixador i Cotoner (1785-1862) and Dona de Pax-Boixadoe i Cotoner married the Marquis de Bellpuig and the Marquis de Vivot, a member of the Arbol family (owners of the Ca'n Puig and Castillio Bendinat). These marriages brought to the family important titles, land and considerable wealth in the form of chattels. The Marquis de Bellpuig and his wife were appointed as ambassadors to Paris, and their descendants were very closely aligned to the city.