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Francesco Carlo Spinelli, Prince of Tarsia (1668-1732), described in his Palazzo in Piazza Pontecorvo, Naples, in 1732: ‘Un quadro di tre santi domenicani di palmi 8 e 12, mano del cavaliere Mattia Preti calabrese, cornice negra ed oro intagliata’;
Garden Duff-Dunbar of Hempriggs and Ackergill (1838-1889), by 1872;
and by descent at Ackergill Tower, Caithness;
Until sold at Christie’s, London, 7 December 2023, lot 24;
Where acquired.
Oil on canvas; inscribed ‘TIMETE DEVM’ (lower left, on a scroll held by Saint Vincent Ferrer) and ‘CREDO DEO’ (centre, in an open book held by Saint Peter Martyr)
306 x 207 cm
This imposing canvas - more than three meters tall – is first documented in the important collection of Francesco Carlo Spinelli, Prince of Tarsia, in Naples in 1732, whose family had close ties with the Knights of Malta. Sometime between the 18th and the 19th centuries the painting was sold and moved to Ackergill Tower, Caithness, the Scottish estate of Garden Duff-Dunbar of Hempriggs and Ackergill (1838-1889), where it remained until it was sold in 2023.
Despite its prestigious Neapolitan provenance, on stylistic and technical grounds the painting can be dated from Preti’s Maltese phase, in around 1670s-1680s. The overwhelming Dominican imprint of the work – depicting St Vincent Ferrer, St Peter Martyr and St Raymond of Peñafort - must also anchor it within a Dominican church context, almost surely within the confines of the Regno di Napoli and its extended territory, that is yet to be found.
That an altar painting by Preti of this size and quality, with a unique Dominican iconography and a virtually unbroken provenance connecting Malta, Naples and Scotland, remained in obscurity for three centuries, underlines the extraordinary art historical discoveries that can still be made today.