Live Auction 8008Old Master & British Paintings (Day Sale)
Circle of Pier Francesco Mola (Coldrerio, near Lugano 1612-1666)
Lot 164

Circle of Pier Francesco Mola (Coldrerio, near Lugano 1612-1666)

A musician, full-length, in a green coat, a red cloak, white stockings and a plumed hat, playing a viola da gamba, in an extensive mountainous landscape

Closed7 December 2011

Price Realised

GBP 18,750

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Circle of Pier Francesco Mola (Coldrerio, near Lugano 1612-1666)
A musician, full-length, in a green coat, a red cloak, white stockings and a plumed hat, playing a viola da gamba, in an extensive mountainous landscape
oil on canvas
73½ x 49 1/8 in. (186.7 x 124.8 cm.)

Giulia Invrea Imperiali Lercari, Genoa, as 'Morillo' [sic.], and by descent in 1823 to her nephew,
Marquise Luigi Coccapani, Modena (according to an old label on the reverse).

Specialist note

This painting relates to a work of slightly larger dimensions (225 x 142 cm.) by Pier Francesco Mola in a private collection, for which there is a preparatory drawing in the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam. Whereas the original has a figure chasing a monkey escaping from a vase on the left hand side, this picture displays a more simplified landscape. Another version of the composition, of inferior quality, is in the Palazzo Governativo in Bellinzona. Laura Laureati suggested that the original painting may have been a portrait of Bonaventura Argenti, the famous musician of the Cappella Pontificia, who owned a considerable collection of works by Mola (Pier Francesco Mola, 1612-1666, exhibition catalogue, Lucerne, 1998, p. 157, no. 1.10).
This painting is sold with a copy of a letter of expertise from Dr. Sonja Bink, confirming the attribution to Mola in full.