Lot 248: Placido Costanzi Rome 1702 - 1759 , Narcissus and Echo

signed with the artist's initials on the dog's collar lower right oil on canvas

measurements note 53 1/2 y 39 in.; 136 by 99 cm.

G. Sestieri, Repertorio della pittura romana della fine del Seicento del Settecento, Rome 1994, vol. I, p. 66.

Anonymous Sale, London, Sotheby's, December 2, 1976, lot 227;
Anonymous Sale, New York, Christie's, January 29, 1999, lot 36, where purchased by the present collector.

PROPERTY OF A PRIVATE COLLECTOR
Costanzi was one of the leading Roman painters of his day, with an international clientele.υ1 In addition to the usual ecclesiastical commissions received by an artist of his stature, he produced a variety of mythological and historical paintings, occasionally of somewhat obscure themes (perhaps the most astonishing example of this was the depiction of the Battle of Bannockburn he painted in 1751 for Lord Keith, although this was clearly chosen in order to glorify the patron?s ancestor). He was among the artists chosen to paint decorations for the throne room of the Palace of San Ildefonso, La Granja, where he contributed a Foundation of the City of Alexandria, and he painted a pair of paintings for Ernst Guido, Count Harrach, one of the most important collectors of Roman paintings of the day. The full scope of Costanzi?s oeuvre is perhaps best understood by the inventory of his collection, taken in the weeks after his death, which includes over a hundered paintings of every genre and format. The present Narcissus and Echo is an excellent example of the type of gallery painting that Costanzi produced for his clientele. It would appear to date to the late 1730?s, at a time when he was shedding most of the rococo elements of his earliest style, and to take inspiration from Raphael and Domenichino. In the Narcissus, the lingering influence of his master Benedetto Luti is still evident if somewhat tempered by more classicizing elements.υ2 It should be nearly contemporary with another treatment of the same subject, which has a pendant of the Death of Adonis.υ3 All three paintings are of the same format and of almost exactly the same dimensions, and both of the Narcissus canvases are signed in the same way, with the artist?s initials on the collar of a dog which? as entranced by the beautiful reflection as his master?looks down into the pool of water. Perhaps more interesting is that the two figures of Narcissus, clearly the same model (or at least the same idealized type from Costanzi?s imagination) are nearly mirror images of each other. 1 In his vita of the artist, Nicola Pio notes that Costanzi worked "per diversi signori romani, inglesi, forastieri" and that he even painted a large Virgin presenting Saint Dominic with a Rosary "per mandare nella città di Líma nel Perù" (see Le Vite di Pittori, Scultori Et Archittetti, 1724, ed. Rome 1977, C. & R. Engass, p. 195). 2 See G. Sestieri, "Aggiunte a Placido Costanzi", Paragone, XLII, 25 (491), January 1991, p. 71. 3 These were sold at Sotheby?s, London, December 12, 1979, lot 210, and are now in a private collection, Rome (see Sestieri, 1994 op. cit., illus., vol. II, figs. 356-357).