Beskrivning: Se beskrivning i den engelska versionen.

Catalogue raisonné: Description in Italian Paintings: Three Centuries of Collecting, Nationalmuseum, Stockholm, 2015, cat.no. 94:

FORMER INV. NOS.: 199 (M. 1804); KM 758.

TECHNICAL NOTES: The support is a single piece of medium-
coarse, plain-weave linen fabric. It has been lined with glue
and mounted on a non-original stretcher. The tacking edges are
partially cropped. Impastos in the paint layer are flattened, and
there are many retouches all over the surface, especially in the sky.
Documented restoration: 1961: Retouching.

PROVENANCE: Martelli 1804.

BIBLIOGRAPHY: NM Cat. 1867, p. 13 (as Agostino Tassi); Sander
1872–76, III, p. 110, no. 199 (as Agostino Tassi); NM Cat. 1990, p. 402
(as anonymous Flemish master, 17th century); Cavalli-Björkman,
Fryklund and Sidén 2010, p. 482 (as anonymous Italian master, 17th
century).

In a landscape with an open portico, in which
there stands a bronze sculpture of the goddess
Minerva, some figures are depicted bearing gifts
to the goddess and an old man seems to be making
an offering to her. To the right of the portico
Mercury, the messenger god, is seen flying in the
sky. He wears winged shoes, talaria, and a winged
helmet, petasus, and carries his herald’s staff, or
caduceus, with two intertwined snakes.

Owing to early lining of the canvas, the landscape
and some of the figures are in very poor
condition. The painted architecture, however, is
relatively well preserved, and the Corinthian capitals
and the crowning entablature are decorated
with detailed acanthus ornament.

The Corinthian portico has much in common
with the painted architecture in some of Agostino
Tassi’s paintings from the beginning of the
17th century, such as The Embarkation of the
Queen of Sheba and Harbour with a Classic Colonnade,
¹ both in private collections, as well as with
some of the painted architecture in the frieze of
the Salone da Ballo in the Palazzo Lancelotti,
Rome.² The flying Mercury, too, has some similarities
to the flying figures in a number of Tassi’s
paintings. As the earlier attributions often tend
to be accurate or at least contain an element of
truth, it is very likely that this painting, together
with NM 185 (cat. no. 93), is from the famous
atelier of Agostino Tassi.
je

1 Cavazzini 2008b, pp. 178–179, 182–183.
2 Cavazzini 1998, pp. 109–140. [End]

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Landskap med öppen portik och flygande Merkurius | Nationalmuseum

Landscape with Open Portico and Flying Mercury | Nationalmuseum

Foto: Erik Cornelius / Nationalmuseum 2010