52 - Marco Liberi (Venice (?) approximately 1644 – after 1691)

Marco Liberi (Venice (?) approximately 1644 – after 1691) Adonis with a Dog Oil on canvas 103 x 82 cm The work is published by U. Ruggeri, *Pietro and Marco Liberi: Painters in Seventeenth-Century Venice*, entry M9 on p. 285 and photo on p. 286 The work is accompanied by a study by Professor Ugo Ruggeri, available upon request via email Provenance: Valnea Mayer Luciani Collection, Trieste Recent scholarship—and Ugo Ruggeri in particular—has reevaluated the position of Marco Liberi, a worthy heir to the artistic legacy of Pietro Liberi. He demonstrated his artistic merit when he sought an independent path, distancing himself, at least in part, from his father. This likely occurred thanks to his contacts with the German art market and his desire to gain access to it. In fact, recent studies agree that the paintings preserved in Pommersfelden (Schönborn-Wiesentheid Collection) represent the artist’s finest works; in these works, his painterly style becomes more precise and descriptive in a naturalistic sense, and Baroque exuberance gives way to balanced and subtly classical inventions. Marco Liberi (Venice (?) approximately 1644 – after 1691) Adonis with a Dog Oil on canvas 103 × 82 cm The work is published in U. Ruggeri, *Pietro e Marco Liberi Pittori nella Venezia del Seicento*, cat. no. M9, p. 285, illustrated on p. 286 The work is accompanied by a study by Professor Ugo Ruggeri, available upon request by email Provenance: Valnea Mayer Luciani collection, Trieste