Live Auction 5688Old Master & Early British Drawings and Watercolours
Salvator Rosa (Arenella, Naples 1615-1673 Rome)
Lot 31

Salvator Rosa (Arenella, Naples 1615-1673 Rome)

A sorceress in conversation with a hag

Closed3 July 2012

Price Realised

GBP 6,000

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Salvator Rosa (Arenella, Naples 1615-1673 Rome)
A sorceress in conversation with a hag
numbered '26' (on the mount)
pen and brown ink
6¼ x 4¼ in. (15.9 x 10.7 cm.)

Probably Queen Christina of Sweden, by whom bequeathed to
Cardinal Decio Azzolini, and by descent to
Marchese Pompeo Azzolini.
Prince Livio Odescalchi, and thence by descent.
with Galerie Gerda Bassenge, Berlin, 1974, no. B26.
Adolphe Stein (his dry-stamp, not in Lugt); his anonymous sale, Christie's, London, 4 July 2000, lot 8, where acquired by the present owner.

Specialist note

Mahoney (op. cit.) dates the present sheet to between 1640 and 1649, at the time Rosa was working in Florence. At this date Florentine society was fascinated with witchcraft and Rosa embraced its popularity not only in his paintings but also in a poem, La Strega, which he wrote with his fellow artist Lorenzo Lippi.