Andrea De Lione, Venus and Adonis, Oil on Cavas, 17th Century, Framed, 1800s, Oil on Canvas

Andrea De Lione (Naples, Italy, 1610-1685)
Title: Venus and Adonis
Medium: Oil on canvas
Dimensions: without frame 78 x 102 – with frame 103 x 129 x 6.5 cm
Signed on the ruined architectural element “Andrea D Lyon F.”

Provenance: Rome (Italy), Lanfranchi-Moffo collection; New York (USA), Lanfranchi collection; Milan (Italy), Leonardo Mondadori collection; Finarte, Milan (Italy), 21st April 1988, lot 83.

Exhibitions: London, Royal Academy of Arts, “Painting in Naples from Caravaggio to Luca Giordano”, London, October-December 1982, n.2.

Literature: Neapolitan painting from naturalism to baroque. Still Life in Naples in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries, in Storia di Napoli, by R. Causa, Naples-Cava dei Tirreni 1972, vol. II, pp. 915-994, fig. 355; Landscape Painters of the Seventeenth Century in Rome, II, 3 vols., Rome 1977, pp. 516-517, fig. 85.2; Italian Baroque Painting from New York Private Collections, by R.E. Spear, in “The Burlington Magazine,” 122, 1980, pp. 719-720; Painting in Naples from Caravaggio to Giordan, curated by C. Whitfield, J. Martineau, with essays by R. Causa, P. Leone de Castris, E. Schleier, N. Spinosa, exhibition catalogue (London, The Royal Academy of Art; Washington, The National Gallery of Art, Autumn-Winter 1982-1983), London 1982, p. 107, no. 2; New toiles by Andrea di Lione, by A. Brejon de Lavergnée, in Various Essays 1984, pp. 670-672 and 680 note 41; Andrea de Lione and Still Life, in Writings on the History of Art 1988, by F. Zeri, p. 206; Seventeenth-Century Painting in Naples. from Caravaggio to Massimo Stanzione, by N. Spinosa, Naples 2010, pp. 217-218, no. 102; Andrea de Lione (1610-1685). Painter and Draftsman between Rome and Naples, PhD dissertation (Rome, University of “La Sapienza”), by M. Di Penta, Rome 2011, no. 48; Andrea de Leone (1610-1685), by M. Di Penta, Rome 2016, pp. 128-129, n. Q.68; Aniello Falcone and the painters of his circle (1625-1656), by Nicola Spinosa, Milan 2023, p. 145, fig. 75.

Andrea De Lione (1610-1685) was an Italian painter of the Baroque period who was active in his native city, Naples, Italy. He was a pupil of Belisario Corenzio (1558-1646?), a Greek-Italian painter active both in Venice and Naples. Andrea de Lione left Naples in 1647 to move to Rome, where between 1648 and 1660 he produced some of his masterpieces. During his stay in Rome, the painter came into contact with artists such as Nicola Poussin (1594-1665), Sébastien Bourdon (1616-1671) and Giovanni Benedetto Castiglione (1609-1664).
In a landscape, populated by classical ruins, are depicted Venus, the goddess of love, and Adonis, an extremely handsome young man. Venus is attempting to seduce the young man, who is not interested in love but would rather go hunting. “Venus and Adonis” is a narrative poem by William Shakespeare written in 1593 which tells the story depicted in the painting. It's the story of Venus' unrequited love.