The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of February 2, 2023

The Continence of Scipio

c. 1710

Giovanni Antonio Pellegrini

(Italian, 1675–1741)

Italy, 18th century

Oil on canvas

Framed: 155.5 x 132 x 12 cm (61 1/4 x 51 15/16 x 4 3/4 in.); Unframed: 127 x 105 cm (50 x 41 5/16 in.)

Mr. and Mrs. William H. Marlatt Fund 1968.207

Location

217 Italian Baroque

Description

In a story of virtuous leadership and wise government, the Roman commander Scipio Africanus the Elder appears after his stunning conquest of New Carthage in Spain in 209 BC. Standing above the crowd, he returns his victor’s reward--a beautiful young woman--to her husband.

Provenance
1968-
The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, Ohio
Probably 1965-1968
(Ernest Joresco, Chicago, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art) 1 1
Probably until 1965
James G. McMillan [d. 1965], Chicago, probably consigned to Ernest Joresco 1 2

Provenance Footnotes

1 1 There is little known about Joresco's art dealing activities, although evidence of a prominent ballroom dancing career from the early 1930s-1950s is prevalent. In the 1970s he sold 14 works of art to the Art Institute of Chicago, and he seems to have had a working relationship with the Art Institute's Curator of Earlier Painting and Sculpture at the time, J. Patrice Marandel, as demonstrated by several pieces of correspondence.
2 1 McMillan was a member of the Art Institute of Chicago and president of the Chicago-based Wander Company, the manufacturer of Ovaltine. The painting was likely consigned by McMillan's family to Ernest Joresco for sale after his death in 1965. The earlier provenance of the Pellegrini remains unknown and is complicated by the fact that there are multiple copies and replicas of the painting.
Citations
Antonio Morassi, “Pellegrini and Guardi,” Emporium CXXVIII (1958): 198-199.
Eugene V. Thaw, letter to Ann Tzeutschler Lurie, March 21, 1969, in CMA curatorial file.
Morassi, Antonio. "Pellegrini and Guardi." Emporium CXXVIII, no. 11 (1958): 195-212. Mentioned and Reproduced: P. 204-205
Young, Eric. "Some Pellegrini Sketches and Their Chronology." Apollo LXXXII, no. 42 (August 1965): 104-111.
The Cleveland Museum of Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art Catalogue of Paintings, Part 3: European Paintings of the 16th, 17th, and 18th Centuries. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1982. Reproduced: p. 386; Mentioned: p. 385-387
"La Chronique des Arts." Supplement a La Gazette des Beaux-Arts 1201 (February 1969).
Olszewski, Edward J. “A Rediscovered Holy Family by Francesco Trevisani.” The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 64, no. 1 (January 1977): 25–36. Mentioned and reproduced: P. 27-28, fig. 4 www.jstor.org
Knox, George. Antonio Pellegrini, 1675-1741. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1995. Mentioned: P. 229
Exhibition history

The Cleveland Museum of Art, January 29 through March 9, 1969: "Year in Review for 1968", catalogue, Bulletin CMA, LVI (January 1969), p. 46, no. 68, repr. p. 17.

Year in Review: 1968. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (January 29-March 9, 1969).

Source URL: https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1968.207