Giovanni Ghisolfi
(Milan, 1623 - 1683)
ALEXANDER PAYING HOMAGE AT THE TOMB OF ACHILLES
oil on canvas, 98x139 cm
ALESSANDRO RENDE OMAGGIO AL SEPOLCRO DI ACHILLE
olio su tela, cm 98x139
Provenance
- New York, Christie's, 21 May 1992, n. 55.
Literature
- D.R. Marshall, Giovanni Ghisolfi and Achilles, Alexander and Augustus, in “Storia dell’Arte” 98, 2000, pp. 47-75 (p. 50 e fig. 3; p. 61);
- G. Sestieri, Il capriccio architettonico in Italia nel XVII e XVIII secolo, Rome 2015, II, p. 145, fig. 37.1.
Unknown to Andrea Busiri Vici, whose monograph on Giovanni Ghisolfi was published posthumously in 1992, the painting offered here was first published by David Riley Marshall, who commented on it in relation to the rare and erudite theme of Alexander’s visit to Achilles’ tomb, as narrated by Plutarch and Arrian in the Anabasis Alexandri.
Reinterpreted several times and in various forms by Giovanni Paolo Panini, Antonio Joli, and Alberto Carlieri, the subject appears here for the first time in a highly significant architectural setting, characterized by a partially ruined Ionic portico that frames and highlights the hero’s sarcophagus.
Very similar architectural elements appear in another large-scale canvas by the Roman artist (see A. Busiri Vici, Giovanni Ghisolfi 1623–1683. A Milanese Painter of Roman Ruins, Rome 1992, p. 94, no. 51), which Marshall also discusses along with a rare preparatory drawing.