Cesare Dandini Lot n° 138

Cesare Dandini Allegory of Magnificence Oil on panel Panel cm. 75x65. Framed Cesare Dandini It is thanks to the timely definition of Cesare Ripa's Iconology (1603) that we can recognize in our beautiful painting an Allegory of Magnificence rather than a more generic Allegory of Architecture, as the detailed plan of a Greek cross building exhibited by the female figure might lead one to think. "Woman, clothed and crowned with gold (...) will hold her left hand over d'un ovato, in the middle of which will be painted a plan of sumptuous fabrica (...)": the description leaves no room for doubt, corresponding almost to the letter to the composition of this fascinating painting, a definite work of Cesare Dandini as Mina Gregoria first recognized in 1965 and Sandro Bellesi unhesitatingly confirmed in his seminal monograph dedicated to the painter, emphasizing "the icastic effect of the face, enhanced by an almost petrified beauty in marble." The close formal, morphological and pictorial ductus affinities with Cesare Dandini's masterpieces such as the Allegory of Painting in a private Bolognese collection (Bellesi 1996, no. 38, pp. 89-90), the Allegory of Comedy in the deposits of the Florentine Galleries (Id., no. 53, pp. 108-9) and the Allegory of Comedy and Painting, now of unknown location (Id., no. 58, p. 114), are evident.