Filippo Lauri (1623–1694), Αποδίδεται σε - Salmacis and Hermaphroditus

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Auction opens: 16 October 2026
Auction closes: 26 October 202

Description:


Filippo Lauri (1623–1694) (Attributed)

Title.:Salmacis and
Hermaphroditus

Provenance from a private French collection and Leading UK fine art dealership ( COA available)

Sold Salle Drouot, Paris, 3 July 1926, lot 48 (as École Italienne, XVIIe siècle, "Daphnis et Chloé"). But the attribution to the subject has since been reappraised as per the title and the painting attributed to Lauri. COA available and will be sent with the painting)

Overall dimensions with the frame are 72cm x 57cm and the painting measured at 59cm x 41cm into the rebate.

Medium : Oil on canvas

Period : Circa 1650


Born in Rome in 1623, Filippo Lauri was the son of the painter Balthasar Lauri, who had immigrated to Italy from Antwerp. Filippo undertook his early training with his elder brother, Francesco, who died at an early age. He then became the pupil of his cousin, Angelo Caroselli, though his own art did not follow in Caroselli's direction. From the mid-1640s onward he was independently active and, through the influence of his teacher, he soon attracted the patronage of the Roman nobility and of many foreign connoisseurs. His style appears to have been primarily influenced by Pier Francesco Mola and other masters of history painting involving small figures.

His father, Balthasar Lauwers, who had emigrated from Antwerp and adopted the Italianised surname Lauri, was a landscape painter and had been a pupil of Paul Bril. Filippo first trained with his father and subsequently with his elder brother Francesco Lauri, himself a pupil of Andrea Sacchi, before working under his brother-in-law Angelo Caroselli. Lauri developed into a highly accomplished painter and draughtsman whose work encompassed both large-scale decorative schemes and the elegant cabinet pictures for which he became particularly well known. These smaller compositions, frequently painted on panel or copper, often combined landscape with mythological or biblical subjects and are today dispersed among collections in Europe and North America. His handling of minute detail with a finely pointed brush has been associated with his Flemish artistic inheritance, while his style was also shaped by artists including Andrea Sacchi, Domenichino, Francesco Albani and Pier Francesco Mola.

His standing within the Roman artistic establishment was considerable. In 1654 he became a member of the Accademia di San Luca, later serving as its Principe. He worked alongside leading painters of his generation and participated in important decorative commissions in Rome, including projects at the Quirinal Palace, Palazzo Chigi at Ariccia and Palazzo Borghese. He also collaborated with other landscape painters, notably Gaspard Dughet, and was frequently called upon to supply small-scale figures or staffage within larger landscape compositions. Lauri was especially associated with Claude Lorrain, for whose landscapes he is recorded as having painted figures.

A prolific and versatile artist, Lauri occupied an important position within seventeenth-century Roman painting, combining the refinement of Roman classicism with the detailed pictorial sensibility inherited from his Flemish background.


"Lauri's delight in minute detail, applied with a finely pointed brush, clearly reveals his Flemish heritage. Because of his pliant and pleasing ability he was frequently called upon by other painters for the decoration of landscape or architectural paintings with mythological or biblical staffage; this was especially the case with Claude Lorrain, in whose landscapes the foreground is often enlivened by the charming inventions of Lauri."

– Hermann Voss, from Baroque Painting in Rome (1925), revised and translated by Thomas Pelzel (San Francisco: Alan Wofsy, 1997)

The painting offered depicts the mythological tale from Ovid's Metamorphoses, featuring the water nymph Salmacis embracing the youth Hermaphroditus by a woodland pool. The lush landscape includes classical architectural elements in the background and airborne putti, highlighting themes of transformation, love, and classical mythology.


Historical Significance:

Filippo Lauri was celebrated in 17th-century Rome for his small-scale cabinet paintings featuring mythological and pastoral subjects, heavily influenced by Claude Lorrain and Nicolas Poussin.
This work exemplifies the academic yet lyrical approach to classical narrative prevalent in the Roman Baroque period.

Beautifully composed the oil on canvas painting is executed with refined glazing, delicate brushwork, and classical compositional structuring typical of the late Baroque period and 17th century and with the work associated with Lauri. It has wonderful deep tonality and retails excellent colours.

Condition report: Relined circa 1850-1900 the painting has been recently cleaned and revarnished with a conservation grade anti - uv and fully reversible varnish and is in excellent stable condition with age- related fine craquelure throughout (see photos).

Please note :

The frame that is included in the pictures above has been added to the artwork by a third party/the seller, as such it’s not an integral part of the object. The frame is being provided to you at no additional costs so that when your artwork arrives at your house you can immediately display it on your wall. As such any damages to the frame itself, that do not affect the integrity of the artwork, cannot be accepted as a valid reason to open a claim or request a cancellation. We would also point out that whilst we insure all paintings before shipping that we have no control over shipping once we have sent the painting .

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