In thirty years and more of activity, Maurizio Nobile Gallery has established a solid reputation as a leading art dealer in Italian Old Master Paintings, Drawings and Sculpture from the end of the 15th to the beginning of the 20th century. Founded in Bologna in 1987, the interest shown in his pursuits by international private collectors and public institutions led Maurizio Nobile to expand in 2010, choosing Paris as the place to locate his second branch. Over time, the gallery has become a point of reference for refined private collectors as well as prestigious international museums such as the National Gallery of Art in Washington, the Szépművészeti Múzeum in Budapest, the Morgan Library and the Metropolitan Museum in New York and many others. The gallery also participates in the most important international art fairs and events, including BIAF - the Florence International Biennial Antiques Art Fair, the Salon du Dessin (Paris), MIART (Milan) and TEFAF - Maastricht (Pictura section).
Signed and dated, lower right: G.V. Musitelli / 1922
The artwork is the subject of a critical study by Tommaso Borgogelli
The drawing illustrates an episode from the seventh book of Les aventures de Télémaque, fils d'Ulysse by François de Salignac de la Mothe Fénelon, a text much loved by neoclassical figurative culture, whose episodes were often depicted in the late 1700s and early 1800s. Sangiorgi's drawing shows Venus, Telemachus seated with staff in hand, crowned by Venus herself, and Cupid playing on her lap. Venus, intending to take revenge for the contempt shown by Mentor and Telemachus for her worship in Cyprus, takes Cupid to the island of Ogygia and delivers him to Calypso, intending to wound the insensitive hearts of Mentor and Telemachus. However, Cupid, as a mischievous child, causes Calypso herself to be overwhelmed by love for Telemachus, while he falls in love with the nymph Eucharis.
Born in Milan in 1898, Werther Sevèr was an eclectic sculptor. After completing his studies in law, he moved to New York in 1921, and then travelled to Paris to attend the Sorbonne. In 1926, he returned to Milan to devote himself completely to sculpture. Sevèr distinguished himself for challenging public works, including the Monumental Fountain to Giuseppe Grandi in Milan. The sculptor imagines a waterfall in the centre, in front of which the statue of the young Siegfried kneels in admiration, symbolising - according to Wagnerian interpretation - the wonderment felt by man in the presence of nature. The face was reshaped several times until he arrived at the final version, characterised by an intense and evocative expression. The sculptor decided to exhibit the castings of Siegfried's torso and head at the 1936 Venice Biennale, to great public acclaim.
It was since 1936, when the work was sold at a Doroteum auction, that the traces of this extraordinary painting by the young Fetti had been lost. As already suggested by Eduard Safarik (1990 and 2009) and confirmed by MIchele Danieli on the basis of the most recent studies, the work dates back to the end of his stay in Rome. An important recovery that shows the great painter's talent. PROVENANCE: Vienna, Alfred Scharf Collection (until at least 1933); Vienna, Dorotheum, 27-29 February 1936, lot 9 (as The adolescent Esau); Vienna, collection of Eng. Herbert R. Spatschek (2009) to his heirs and descendats (?); Vienna, Kinsky Auctions, 19 June 2024, lot 3030; Rome, private collection.
CATALOGHI E SCHEDE
