Domenico Maria Canuti

With Thos. Agnew and Son Ltd., London, Old Master Paintings and Drawings, Autumn Exhibition, 1980, p. 55, no. 20 (not reproduced);

Private Collection

This complete composition representing Hercules hunting the Calydonian boar is executed with Canuti's characteristically dynamic pen style enriched by a fluid use of wash. Although the drawing does not relate to any of the scenes from the life of Hercules that Canuti painted as part the extensive decoration of the ceiling of the Salone of Palazzo Pepoli, in Bologna, it was suggested at the time of the 1980 Agnew's exhibition (see Provenance) that this could none the less be a discarded compositional sketch, made at an early stage in the planning of the elaborate ceiling.

From 1669, Canuti was already working on the Palazzo Pepoli decorations, commissioned by Odoardo Pepoli, which represent in the centre of the ceiling the Apotheosis of Hercules on Olympus. The work continued for some time, as is documented by a letter that the painter wrote to his client in December 1670, and was probably completed by August 1671.¹

^1.Simonetta Stagni, Domenico Maria Canuti, Pittore (1626-1684), Rimini 1988, p. 165