Mattia PRETI, known as il Cavaliere Calabrese (Taverna 1613- - Lot 250

Mattia PRETI, known as il Cavaliere Calabrese (Taverna 1613-La Valette 1699) The family of Darius presents the crown and scepter, symbols of royalty in the Persian Empire. Large oil on canvas (circa 1655). H. 170,5 L. 144 cm 19th-century wood and gilded stucco frame with oves and foliate scrolls. We would like to thank Mr. John Spike for confirming the attribution of this work to Mattia Preti on the basis of photographic documents. Reference : Mattia PRETI "The family of Darius offering the crown to Alexander the Great". 168 x240 cm . Bucharest Museum (John T. Spike, Mattia Pretti, no. 331, p. 377. Florence, Centro Di, 1999). Former Moreau Wolsey collection (Paris, Hôtel Drouot, Charles Pillet commissaire-priseur, Febvre expert, March 23 & 24, 1869, no. 21), then Felix Bamberg. Canvas on the same theme, but in a different, longer composition. The lower part of the Bucharest composition features two female figures similar to those on our canvas. It is difficult to know whether the latter has been amputated from its left-hand side, depicting the emperor Alexander the Great, or whether the painter preferred to retain only this major aspect of the story for this project or variant (Cf. Anatole Theodosiu, Musée d'Art de la République socialiste de Roumanie, catalog de la galerie d'Art, tome 1, la peinture italienne, pp. 44 & 45, Bucharest 1974). The episode depicted by Mattia Preti takes place shortly after the defeat of Darius III Codoman, king of the Persians and pharaoh of Egypt, by Alexander the Great at the Battle of Arbèles (331 BC). Mattia Preti has chosen to highlight Darius' mother Sisygambis, his wife Stateita and his two daughters, the younger Drypétis, slightly in the background, and Barsine, the eldest holding the sceptre and crown. Alexander the Great married Barsine shortly afterwards (324 BC), according to Plutarch (Lives of Illustrious Men), at a wedding in Susa, as did his generals, in a bid to unify the peoples of his empire with young women of the Persian and Mede nobility.