Paolo Emilio Besenzi

With Ephron Galleries, New York, 1953 (as Francesco Gessi, Susanna);

Anonymous sale, New York, Sotheby’s, 27 May 2004, lot 60;

Where acquired by the present collector.

This refined mythological figure exemplifies the elegant classicism of the Emilian painter Giovanni Battista Besenzi. Details of his career remain fragmentary; his earliest dated painting, the Martyrdom of Saints Placido and Flavio of 1641 in the church of Santi Pietro e Prospero, Reggio Emilia, provides a firm point of reference for his activity, much of which appears to have been centered in Reggio, despite indications that he may have traveled to France and worked at the court of King Louis XII.