Lot 79: LORENZO DE' FERRARI

PROPERTY FROM A PRIVATE COLLECTION GENOA 1680 - 1744 ADAM AND EVE WITH THE INFANTS CAIN AND ABEL oil on canvas 36 by 37 1/4 in.; 91.5 by 94.5 cm.

Frankfurt, Schirn Kunsthalle Frankfurt, Kunst in der Republik Genua, 5 September-8 November 1992, no. 120.

M.N. Schleier, Kunst in der Republik Genua, exhibition catalogue, Frankfurt 1992, p. 218, cat. no. 120, reproduced in color, plate 122; M.N. Schleier, Gregorio De Ferrari, Turin 1998, p. 127, under cat. no. 105d, reproduced, fig. 105e.

Anonymous sale, New York, Sotheby's, 12 January 1989, lot 97; There purchased by the present owner.

The son of Genoese artist Gregorio de' Ferrari, Lorenzo was also the grandson of Domenico Piola. His work was initially dependent on that of his family members, though he developed a personal, more Rococo-influenced style later in his career. He is said to have worked with his father, for whom he acted as primary studio assistant, on the restoration of Andrea Ansaldo's dome in San Annunziata, Genoa. A reduced oil sketch of this composition (Palazzo Rosso, Genoa, inv. 1644) may be by Gregorio, though Mary Newcome Schleier has suggested that the rounded face of Eve indicates that Lorenzo was the likely author. The design for the composition was probably an invention of Gregorio, as are three other scenes devoted to the Creation of Man, from which the present example is the fourth in the series.1 1. See Schleier 1998, op.cit.