Joseph and Potiphar’s wife

Details

Literatur:
Nicholas Turner, European master drawings from Portuguese collections II: Italy and Portugal, Porto 2021, S. 124, Kat.-Nr. 49, mit farb. Abb.

Ausstellung:
Desenhos de mestres italianos em coleções portuguesas (II), Museu Nacional Soares Dos Reis, Porto (Oktober–Dezember 2001), Kat.-Nr. 49.

Provenienz:
Ingeborg Tremmel (1925-2002), Fürstenfeldbruck;
deren Nachlassversteigerung, Ketterer, München, Auktion, 5.5.2003, Los 392 (als “Italienisch”);
Europäische Privatsammlung, auf Unterlage mit dem Sammlerstempel “FB mit Ginkgoblatt im Oval” (noch nicht von Lugt/Fondation Custodia veröffentlicht).

Description

Sacchi, to whom the present drawing can be attributed, is considered one of the greats of classicist Baroque painting. He had adopted the style established by Annibale Carracci in Rome at the beginning of the 17th century. Here he depicts the episode from the biblical story of Joseph (Gen 39:1-20), in which Joseph makes a desperate attempt to escape the seductive courtship of Potiphar’s wife, who will later accuse him of attempted rape in front of her husband and present a piece of his dress as evidence. Sacchi captures the tense moment in which the spurned woman reaches for Joseph as he leaps out of bed and grasps his surging cloak, which is soon stretched to breaking point. – Upper left and lower right corners added. Single brown ink speckles (traces of workshop?). Some time-staining along the left edge of the sheet. A tiny pinhead-sized hole in the centre. In good condition.