Discoveries

Trevisani reworked

Bubb Kuyper, Auction 75/2021 Lot 5120 Anonymous (17th/ early 18th cent.). (Allegorical scene with a robed woman playing the lute). Drawing, pen and brown ink, grey wash, pencil underdrawing, 24,2×19,2 cm.
Sm. closed tear near left edge in upper part; somewhat fingersoiled.
= With contemporary annotation in centre “vos” and “lik (?)”

The above drawing is for sale at Bubb Kuyper’s 75 upcoming auction as lot 5120. It is presented as Anonymous from the late 17th to- beginning of the 18th century. As the images below show, it is a sketch inspired by the frontispiece to the Opus VI by Arcangelo Corelli. Francesco Trevisani, an artist and long time friend of Corelli, shipped the preparatory drawing to the Netherlands, where Gilliam van der Gouwen turned it into a print for the edition of Corelli’s Concerti Grossi published in 1714 by the famous music publisher Estienne Roger.

See the publications by Rudolph Rasch concerning the contract between Corelli and Roger:
– ‘Amsterdam: 21 april 1712: De muziekuitgever Estienne Roger sluit een contract met Arcangelo Corelli over de uitgave van diens «Concerti grossi» opus 6 — De verspreiding van Italiaanse muziek door Nederlandse uitgevers,’ ibidem, pp. 322-327
– ‘Corelli’s Contract: Notes on the Publication History of the «Concerti grossi … Opera sesta» [1714],’ Tijdschrift van de Koninklijke Vereniging voor Nederlandse Muziekgeschiedenis 46 (1996), pp. 83-136.

  • Francesco Trevisani, Allegory of Music, ca. 1671. Pen and feather on paper, KunstMuseum The Hague, inv 1028577
  • Gilliam van der Gouwen, after Francesco Trevisani, Concerti Grossi, Op. VI Arcangelo Corelli, published 1715, Engraving on paper, private collection