Lot 44: Lorenzo Lippi , Florence 1606 - 1665 the sacrifice of isaac oil on canvas

oil on canvas

measurements note 92.5 by 149.6 cm.; 36 1/2 by 58 3/4 in.

Svenska slott och herresaten vid 1900-talets borjan, Ostergotland, Stockholm 1909, p. 161.

Castle Allono, Ostergotland, Sweden;
Anonymous sale, Stockholm, Stockholms Auktionsverk, 1 June 2006, lot 2438, where accquired by the present owner.

PROPERTY FROM THE LONDON RESIDENCE OF LUIGI KOELLIKER
This dramatic painting, which along with the previous lot was unknown until its appearance at auction in Sweden in 2006, is an important addition to Lippi's oeuvre and conforms to his favoured type of composition, namely of horizontal format with a small number of large figures filling the majority of the frontal plane, and with a one or two secondary figures in the middle distance, filling the gaps between the protagonists. Lippi, who clearly favoured Old Testament subjects, depicted this particular subject on at least two further occasions; in a large upright canvas in San Miniato al Tedesco, Museo Diocesano, and in an enormous horizontal canvas (240 by 370 cm) for the sacristry church of the Holy Spirit, Pistoia.υ1 Like the present work, the San Miniato canvas was conceived as a pair with a Hagar and the Angel,υ2 thus providing a pair of subjects both representing sudden heavenly salvation. υ 1. See C. d'Afflito, Lorenzo Lippi, Florence 2002, pp. 210-211, no. 40, reproduced & p. 313, no. 135, reproduced, respectively.
2. Idem, p. 210, no. 39, reproduced.