166 - PAOLO PAGANI (1655–1716), attributed

PAOLO PAGANI (1655–1716), attributed Loth and His Daughters Very large oil on canvas. Restorations, slight lifting, tiny hole. Dimensions: 114 x 135 cm—with frame 129 x 159 cm - Trained in Venice from the age of 12 or 13, Pagani was drawn to the Tenebrosi movement, particularly Langetti and Johann Carl Loth, and also studied under the painter Pietro Liberi, whose style had a lasting influence on his own work. He painted *The Martyrdom of Saint Erasmus* (c. 1675), now in the National Gallery of the Palazzo Spinola in Genoa—his first documented work. He then spent time in Austria and Moravia in the service of Emperor Leopold I, before returning permanently to Lombardy in 1696. Pagani trained under the specific influence of Johann Carl Loth (known as “Carlotto”), a German painter active in Venice, known for his dramatic compositions on the theme of “Loth and His Daughters”—the very name of the painter who served as Pagani’s model.