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Lot 310
Jacopo Amigoni (? c. 1685-1752 Madrid)
The Chimney-Sweeper's Boy
Closed26 January 2012
Price Realised
USD 230,500
More Information
Specialist note
The present painting is recorded in the 1783 inventory of the famous singer Carlo Broschi, who was known as Farinelli (transcribed by F. Boris, op. cit.): number 34, and its pendant (35), reads: 'Due quadri nella loro cornice indorata rappresentano, il primo uno Spazzacamino, l'altro una Venditrice di pomi di mano dell'Amiconi. Figura intiera al naturale, alti P.3: O.4 larghi P.2: O.7 L.200'. The apple vendor was engraved by Wagner with the title Golden Pippins, along with two other genre pictures representing a shoeshiner and a lamplighter around 1739.
Childs' engraving of the present painting includes the following poem:
Some BOYS delight in Birds, some Beasts;
Most Men in Women, and in Feasts;
Just as the Passions move the Mind,
In this-or that-Amusement find;
Not FARINELLI's tuneful Voice,
Could make the Boy so much rejoice.
As griping of the Kitten's Back,
To make those Mew upon the Sack.
The Foible of the Boy here shewn,
Bespeaks a Pleasure of his Own:
And hence may Sages cease Surprize,
From little Trifles Pleasures Rise.
We are grateful to Dr. Annalisa Scarpa for confirming the attribution to Amigoni, on the basis of photographs (private communication, 6 December 2011) and for her assistance in cataloguing this lot. Dr. Scarpa dates the painting to before 1737.
Childs' engraving of the present painting includes the following poem:
Some BOYS delight in Birds, some Beasts;
Most Men in Women, and in Feasts;
Just as the Passions move the Mind,
In this-or that-Amusement find;
Not FARINELLI's tuneful Voice,
Could make the Boy so much rejoice.
As griping of the Kitten's Back,
To make those Mew upon the Sack.
The Foible of the Boy here shewn,
Bespeaks a Pleasure of his Own:
And hence may Sages cease Surprize,
From little Trifles Pleasures Rise.
We are grateful to Dr. Annalisa Scarpa for confirming the attribution to Amigoni, on the basis of photographs (private communication, 6 December 2011) and for her assistance in cataloguing this lot. Dr. Scarpa dates the painting to before 1737.