PIER DANDINI

(Florence, 1646 - 1712) Venus and Adonis Oil on canvas, 172X211.5 cm. Provenance: Florence, Pandolfini, November 26, 2019, lot 12 (as Pier Dandini) Traced back to the catalog of Pier Dandini by Sandro Bellesi, the canvas is a felicitous pictorial and compositional example of the artist, who was a masterful interpreter of the stylistic development of the late Tuscan Baroque and as attentive as ever to the influences of Pietro da Cortona, active at Palazzo Pitti between 1637 and 1647, and Luca Giordano, who during the early 1680s was engaged at Palazzo Medici Riccardi. Influences that ours also learned during his stay in Rome and Venice, where he stayed until about 1670, eager to put forward his vision as a universal artist, exhibiting a learned and conscious eclecticism. Therefore, the earlier attributions to the Flemish school and Charles Dauphin, symptomatic of his heterogeneous culture, are not surprising. In fact, Sandro Bellesi points out that the work shows only in part the typical characteristics of the artist, observing clear influences of lagoon painting and in particular to Pietro Negri, Pietro della Vecchia and Antonio Zanchi, indicative also of an execution to the youth period, shortly after 1670, the year of his return to Tuscany after a long stay in the lagoon. Probable comparisons with the altarpiece in Siena cathedral depicting the Mystical Marriage of Saint Catherine of Siena and with Saint Mary Magdalene de' Pazzi receiving the veil of Purity from the Virgin and Child Jesus kept in the church of San Bartolomeo in Prato. The work is accompanied by a critical file by Sandro Bellesi. Reference bibliography: S. Bellesi, Pier Dandini and his school, Florence 2014, ad vocem