CHATSWORTH SUMMER FINE ART SALE 18th & 19th June 2025

92 IMPERFECTIONS NOT STATED Fonsie Mealy’s Est. 1934 786. 18th Century English School Half length “Portrait of Young girl wearing a pink Dress with blue Ribbons,”O.O.C., approx. 34cms x 28cms (13½” x 11”) in gilt frame. (1) €600 - €700 787. A 19th Century mahogany tray top Bedside Locker, with shaped sides above two door cupboard on chamfered legs, 78cms high (31”). (1) €180 - €220 791. A carved giltwood and tole Neo- classical Cresting or Overdoor, centered by a pineapple filled urn with conjoined leafy branches, 110cms wide. (1) €700 - €900 786 791 790. 18th Century School “The Massacre of the Innocents”, (copy of original by Nicolas Poussin), O.O.C., c.1850, approx. 64cms x 76cms (25” x 30”). (1) Dating probably from the mid-nineteenth century, this copy of Nicholas Poussin’s The Massacre of the Innocents is an almost exact replica of the original, conveying all of the barbarism and tragedy of the scene, taken from the Gospel of St. Matthew. The original was commissioned in the 1620’s by the Roman banker Vincenzo Giustiniani. A leading patron of the arts, Giustiniani had assembled one of the finest collections in Italy and was also a patron of Caravaggio. The commission was a prestigious one, particularly for such a young artist. Poussin rose to the challenge, seeking to outdo Guido Reni’s famous painting of the same subject, painted in 1611 for the Basilica San Domenico in Bologna. He devised a dramatic composition resembling a theatre stage, with the main protagonists in the foreground, and subsidiary characters in the background. The architectural setting of a Greek temple adds to the intensity of the work. The action is concentrated on three main figures, the soldier who places his foot on the infant, the distraught mother, and the dying child. As well as Guido Reni, the influence of Caravaggio is evident, particularly in the use of stark lighting to emphasis the tragedy of the scene. The Massacre of the Innocents was displayed at the Palazzo Giustiniani and quickly became one of the most celebrated works of art in Rome. Over the centuries, it has continued to inspire artists, notably Picasso, who in the 1920’s and 30’s based several paintings on Poussin’s work, while Francis Bacon described the mother’s cry of anguish as ‘one of the best ever painted’. The original is now in the Musée Condé de Chantilly, in France. Dr. Peter Murray 2025 €700 - €1000