Lot 806
Giovanni Battista Cipriani (1727-1785)
Lot 806 Details
Giovanni Battista Cipriani (1727-1785), Italian
AMPHITRITE BEING CARRIED TO HER MARRIAGE WITH POSEIDON
Watercolour, pen and brown ink with traces of pencil, heightened with watercolor wash on wove paper
4.1 x 12.8 in — 10.4 x 32.5 cm
Estimate $600-$800
Additional Images
Provenance:
Christopher Powney, Dealer in Drawings, London, UK as “The Birth of Venus”;
From whom purchased by the Private Collection, Hamilton, Ontario in 1978
Note:
It seems likely the picture represents Amphitrite being carried to her marriage with Poseidon. The picture could have been derived from several “Triumph” paintings such as “The Triumph of Neptune” (1638-40) by Nicolas Poussin; the “Galatea” by Raphaello Sanzio and Giulio Romano; and “The Marriage of Poseidon and Amphitrite”, the frieze from an altar in the Temple of Neptune at Rome.
Cipriani was a pupil of Italian-English artist Ignazio Hugford in Florence. He travelled to Rome in 1750 and to England in 1755 at the suggestion of Sir William Chambers and Joseph Wilton. In 1758, he taught drawing in Duke of Richmond’s private gallery in Whitehall. Cipriani was founding member of the Royal Academy (1768).
He created many drawings in pencil, chalk and wash. He influenced British painter John Hamilton Mortimer (1740-1779) and the Swiss artist Angelica Kauffmann (1741-1807).