Pietro Della Vecchia (Venice 1603 - 1678) - Pair Of Paintings

1) The drunkenness of her daughters
2) Bathsheba in the bath
Oil on panels diameter approximately 22cm - frame approximately 32cm
Written expertise prof. Emilio Negro
The first represents the biblical episode where Lot, after the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, went to live in a cave with his two daughters who, finding no other man to join them, decided to give their relative drink and to take turns sleeping with him to perpetuate his lineage. The second represents the young and attractive Bathsheba, half-naked in the foreground on the right, as her maid receives a one-page note from King David. David had noticed it while walking on the terrace of his palace at dusk: the silhouette that can be seen between the two towers in the background represents the king in love with the beautiful wife of Uriah, an officer who served in his army. The following story goes that David, taking advantage of his power, arranged for Uriah to be sent to fight on the front lines, so that he was quickly killed, thus allowing the king of Israel to take the young widow for spouse. In 1984, Bernard Aikema demonstrated that the painter's real surname was Della Vecchia, while Pietro Muttoni, by whom he was known from the 19th century, is the result of a misinterpretation made by Luigi Lanzi of a work by F. Bartoli (Le pitture, sculture ed architetture della città di Rovigo, 1793), in which is mentioned a painting by the artist in the Casa Muttoni in Rovigo. The peculiarity of the original surname led some to interpret it throughout the 19th and 20th centuries as a nickname derived from Della Vecchia's activity as a restorer, as well as his predisposition to reproduce and copy paintings by artists of previous generations such as Giorgione. He probably studied under the direction of Alessandro Varotari, known as Padovanino, from whom he derived his interest in the Venetian painting of the previous century, in particular that of Titian and Giorgione. Known for the skill with which he reproduced the style of the 16th century Venetian masters (Marco Boschini, his contemporary, called him "simia di Zorzon", imitator of Giorgione), he is also known for his paintings of grotesque genre, as well as for his work as a portrait painter. He also restored the Pala di Castelfranco. As official painter of the Republic of Venice, he was in charge of making cartoons for the mosaics of Saint Mark's Basilica, an activity that occupied him from 1640 to 1673. Around 1670, he painted the canvas Moses and Aaron with the pharaoh, today in La Spezia at the Museo civico Amedeo Lia, which reveals the influence of Caravaggio. Still in Venice, he painted Saint Anthony of Padua, his basilica and two conventual minor friars: Fathers Maurizio Cavalletti and Maurizio Graziani, religious of the Frari, who donated it in 1674 for the basilica of Santa Maria Gloriosa dei Frari. Near the Rialto, in the Church of San Lio, on the left side of the high altar, you can admire a magnificent crucifixion. He married Clorinda Renieri, also a painter, daughter of the Flemish Nicolas Régnier, painter and art dealer, with whom della Vecchia did business in this last branch.