Lot 84: Cornelis de Wael (Antwerp 1592-1667 Rome)

Troops manoeuvring in an extensive landscape
oil on canvas
50 7/8 x 76 1/4 in. (129.2 x 193.7 cm.)
with the Schulenburg inventory number '77.' (lower left)

Inventario Generale della Galleria di S: Eccellza Felt Marescial Conte di Schulembourgh, Venice, 30 May 1738, '2 Cornelio de Wal - Quadri due compagni con cornici dorate Rapresentano Battaglie di Fiandra, costo 400, stima 800'.
Inventario Generale della Galleria S.E Maresciallo Co: di Schulemburg, Venice, 30 June 1741, 'Cornelio de Vel - Quadri 2 rapresentano Battaglie di Fiandra 3 a sp n e - Taleri 1000'.
Inventaire de la Gallerie de feu S.e. Mgr. Le Feldmarechal Comte de Schulenburg, Berlin, c. 1750, p. 4, no. 76 and 77 (the present picture): 'Cornelio de Wal. 2. Tableaux en toile, représ. des batailles de Flandre, ou pays bas.'
A. Binon, 'From Schulenburg's Galleries and Records', The Burlington Magazine, CXII, no. 806, May 1970, p. 297.
A. Binon, La Galleria Scomparsa del Maresciallo von der Schulenburg, Milan, 1990, pp. 133, 195, 224, 265 and 276.
M. Eidelberg & E.W. Rowlands, The Dispersal of the Last Duke of Mantua's paintings, Gazette des Beaux-Arts, CCXXIII, May/June 1994, pp. 207-94.

The Dukes of Mantua and by descent to
Ferdinando-Carlo Gonzaga, 10th and last Duke of Mantua (d. 1708);
Giovanni Battista Rota, by whom sold in 1724 to
Field Marshal Count Johann Matthias von der Schulenburg (1661-1747) and then by descent at Hehlen (1957, inv. no. 11) until
Property sold by order of a member of the Schulenburg family; Sotheby's, London, 12 December 1984, lot 80, where acquired by the present owner.

Both this picture and its pendant (sold Anoymous sale [The Property of a Noblewoman]; Sotheby's, London, 8 July 1992, lot 85) share the same provenance. They entered Field Marshal Count Johann Matthias von der Schulenburg's collection as part of his first en bloc purchase, a group of 88 paintings, 2 drawings and a bas-relief, all from the collection of the Dukes of Mantua, which he bought from the dealer Giovanni Battista Rota in Venice in 1724 for 7,233 ducats (see Binion op. cit.). They are listed in the inventory of the purchase: '2 Battaglie piene di figure di Cornelio de Wal' (Hanover, Niedersächsisches Staatsarchiv, Dep. 82, Abt III, No. 19).

Schulenburg was the extraordinarly successful German military commander who headed the Saxon armies of Augustus II, King of Poland, before being invited by the Venetian Republic in 1715 to become Marshal and Commander-in-Chief of its armies in the war against the Turks. The present picture, as noted above, was part of his first recorded purchase at the age of sixty-three in 1724 from Giovanni Battista Rota in Venice. He subsequently became one of the most energetic patrons and collectors of his day, keeping his collection in his Venentian residence, Palazzo Loredan. Self-taught in matters of connoisseurship, he increasingly relied upon the advice of contemporary artists, in particular Giambattista Pittoni (who was his favourite restorer) and Giovanni Battista Piazzetta. This singularly well-documented collection comprised some 957 items by 1747, with battle scenes inevitably forming a substantial component. Particularly well-represented was the Venetian Rococo, with works by Piazetta, Pittoni, Sebastiano and Marco Ricci, as well as Bellotto, Canaletto, Marieschi, Carlevaris.

No VAT will be charged on the hammer price, but VAT at 17.5% will be added to the buyer's premium which is invoiced on a VAT inclusive basis