NEWPORT HOUSE October 20th & 21st 2026

91 Fonsie Mealy’s Est. 1934 625. Giovanni Battista Bellucci (1684–1760) (Venice) “Portrait of a Gentleman,” an important Portrait by an enigmatic Italian artist that worked in Ireland in the 18th century. A well executed, half-length portrait of an unknown gentleman, in a blue robe, Signed bottom right ‘Bellucci PINXT’ and inscribed on the reverse ‘Malahide Castle, Dublin’. O.O.C., 76cms x 61cms (30”x24”). (1) The artist travelled to England with his uncle, Antonio Bellucci (1654-1726) a prominent Venetian master of the late Baroque and early Rococo periods. Antonio Bellucci achieved pan-European acclaim for his grand, theatrical allegorical and mythological compositions. Following illustrious appointments at the imperial court in Vienna and Düsseldorf, he spent a lucrative tenure in England (1716–1722) executing monumental ceiling cycles for elite patrons, most notably the Duke of Chandos and the royal court at Buckingham House. Highly regarded by Horace Walpole for his sophisticated manipulation of architectural perspective and dramatic light. According to Horace Walpole’s landmark historical work, Anecdotes of Painting in England, his nephew, Giovanni Battista Bellucci, “went to Ireland and made a fortune by painting portraits there”. He is officially listed in Walter Strickland’s definitive reference text, A Dictionary of Irish Artists (1913), under the simple heading “Bellucci, Portrait Painter”. According to Strickland, writing in 1913, ‘no other mention of him [apart from that by Walpole] has been found, and nothing is known of his works’. Since that, a known portrait by Giovanni Battista Bellucci of Robert Whytt (c.1715–1766) has been identified, and it is now part of the Wellcome Collection in London. Other than the known portrait of Whytt, no further portraits are currently known to exist in the public domain. €2,000 - €3,000