Picart after Spada The Concert {1879} NGV [PR]

Picart, Étienne (1632-1721; French), after Spada, Leonello (1576-1622; Italian)
Concert de Musique [The Concert] (1677)
Engraving
Gift of George Collins Levey 1879
National Gallery of Victoria (p.183.8-1)

= Levey gift, cat.38

Picart’s engraving, one of the original group of 22 Tableaux du roi published in 1677, includes an inscription identifying the source as a painting by Domenichino. However the canvas, bought by Louis XIV in 1662, is now known to have been painted by Spada, a Caravaggio follower, in about 1615 (for further details, see linked artist entry).

Like Domenichino’s St Cecilia, also acquired by Louis XIV in 1662, the original painting, in the Louvre, was probably painted for Pope Gregory XV’s nephew Cardinal Ludovisi: see now Picart after Domenichino St Cecilia singing the praises of God {1879} NGV [PR].

Refs.

NGV 1894, p.109 (V.Buvelot Gallery, 2^nd bay, no.41); NGV 1905, p.122 (V.Buvelot Gallery, 2^nd bay, no.30) 

The NGV catalogue, illustrating this print, lists it as by an unknown artist after Domenichino. Cf. Suite et Arrangement (1727), p.2; and Duplessis Cabinet du roi (1860), p.6.

For the painting, see Louvre cat.II (1981), p.299; and Rosella Vodret & Claudio Strinati, “Painted Music: ‘A New and affecting Manner’,” in Beverley Brown, ed., The Genius of Rome 1592-1623, London: Royal Academy, 2001, pp.92-115, esp.fig.36