Old Grotesque Dwarf Gobbo Oil on Gesso Panel in the Manner of Callot, Framed
PRODUCT DETAILS
• Material: Oil over a white gesso ground on a wood board, the grain running vertically, set in a later, deep, three-tier stepped wood surround: an ochre-painted liner, a stained stepped moulding and an outer board frame
• Dimensions: Framed approx. 19 1/2 x 16 1/4 in and about 4 in deep; painted panel approx. 10 x 6 1/2 in (estimated, not taped)
• Color/Finish: Brown hood and red jacket against a pale sky with green shrubs; green sword hilt, white ruff collar
• Condition: Unrestored as found. A full-height vertical split about 1 in from the left edge, with the white gesso exposed along it and paint lifted at its edges. A round old fill at the lower left, probably over a knot or plug in the board, inpainted in a grey-green that has since discoloured and cracked. Several darkened patches of old retouching in the sky and at right. Fine scratches and abrasion. Frame has chipped liner paint, open joints and scuffs
• Era/Period: Probably 18th to early 19th century, judged from the surface: lean paint on a gesso ground, age-related splitting, and an earlier campaign of repairs that has itself aged. The back of the panel has not been examined, so no date is guaranteed
• Subject: A short hunchbacked figure, a "gobbo", in ragged costume with a caricatured red-nosed face, sword raised, a hat on the ground beside him. The type was popularised by Jacques Callot's Varie Figure Gobbi etchings (c.1616-22) and painted for generations after. This is in that manner by an unidentified hand; it is not by Callot and has not been matched to a specific plate. The board, with its grain running across the short side, may have been cut from decorative woodwork such as a cabinet door; Callot-type figures were widely painted on furniture
A small, fluently painted grotesque in a tradition collectors of commedia and gobbi subjects know well, with the face, ruff and foliage drawn wet into wet by a practised hand. It carries two generations of history on its surface, original damage and an old repair that has aged in turn, and it is offered exactly as found. Well suited to a collector of early decorative painting, or to a buyer happy to have it conserved.