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Artist or Maker: Leandro da Ponte, called Leandro Bassano (Bassano 1557-1622 Venice)
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Provenance: [Possibly] The Duke of Buckingham, Stowe House, Buckinghamshire; Sale on the premises, Christie's, 13 September 1848, lot 154 'Bassano - Orpheus charming the brutes. A curious picture, in which the artist seems to have included nearly the whole of the animal creation, all listening in the most ingenious variety of attitudes' (16 gns, to Goslett).
Anonymous sale; Christie's, London, 13 December 1991, lot 248.
Anonymous sale; Sotheby's, London, 9 July 1998, lot 175.
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Notes: Property of a Virginia Lady (Lots 109 and 225)
The present compostion is closely related to that previously in the collection of Archduke Leopold Wilhelm, Governor of the Netherlands 1626-56, at the Palais de Coudenbourg in Brussels, where it was copied by David Teniers the Younger and engraved (in reverse) by Nikolaus van Hoy for the Theatrum Pictorium Davidis Teniers, published in 1658.
Leandro da Ponte entered his father's workshop at a young age, soon becoming his principal assistant. In 1588 he moved to Venice, where he joined his brother Francesco. It was here that he became a successful portrait painter, and in 1595 he was named knight of St. Mark for the Portrait of Doge Marino Grimani. Subsequently he added the title 'eques' to his signature, as can be seen in the present picture, which one can therefore assume must have been painted after 1595. This terminus post quem is also compatible with the futher developments of his style, which towards the end of the century becomes fresh, clear and more naturalistic.
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