Villa Speranza: ICONOGRAFIA OPERISTICA ITALIANA: Icaro

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Attributed to Andrea Sacchi (Rome(?) circa 1599 - 1661 Rome), Daedalus and Icarus

oil on canvas. 49 by 41 7/8 in.; 124.5 by 106.5 cm. Estimate 70,000—90,000 USD

NOTE: Amongst the artist's most inventive and certainly amongst his most popular compositions, the Daedalus and Icarus exemplifies the restrained and pure form of classicism promulgated by Andrea Sacchi. It exists in a number of versions, all with slight variations. The most famous of these is probably the canvas in the collection of the Palazzo Rosso, Genoa, although there is another in the Doria collection, Rome as well as one recently on the art market, London. 1

The present example follows most closely the Genoa type, which depicts Daedulus fastening the wings he has created around the neck of his son with a blue ribbon (as opposed to the pink ribbon thrown over the shoulder of Icarus seen in the London example). The Genoa canvas, however, extends further down, showing more fully the drapery worn by the two figures which is wrapped around their waist; the present painting appears to have been originally conceived in this format as the scalloping of the canvas caused by the original tacking edges along the bottom are still largely intact.

Although the facture of the present Daedalus and Icarus is fairly consistent with Sacchi's hand, it has also been suggested that it may in fact be by Carlo Maratti, Sacchi's most celebrated student. Maratti was known to have copied his master's work when in his studio and Bellori relates an amusing story just how sucessful the younger artist was in imitating the older's style.2 Sacchi gave Maratti a drawing of his to copy as an exercise; upon completion, the teacher examined the two drawings and took back the copy as his own original. Maratti, feeling it inappropriate to point out the mistake, kept the original drawing himself.

1. See A. Sutherland Harris, Andrea Sacchi, Oxford and Princeton 1977, pp. 81-2, cat. no. 49, as well as Christie's, London, July 7, 2004, lot 100.
2. See G.P. Bellori, The Lives of the Modern Painters, Sculptors and Architects, trans. A.Sedgwick Wohl, H. Wohl, T Montanari, Cambridge 2005, p. 399.

Sotheby's. Important Old Master Paintings, Including European Works of Art. 29 Jan 09. New York www.sothebys.com photo courtesy Sotheby's