Antonio BALESTRA (Verona, 1666 - 1740) The Education of Love Canvas The education of Love, canvas, by A. Balestra 39.37 x 32.68 in. 100 x 83 cm Provenance: Collection of M. Barbier de La Bonnetière, Nantes (according to the 1894 sale catalogue, the collection was formed during travels in Europe with the diplomat François Cacault towards the end of the 18th century); By succession to the Baroness de La Tour-du-Pin Chambly, granddaughter of M. Barbier de La Bonnetière, Nantes (according to the 1894 sale catalogue); By succession to Baron Charles Gabriel René Berlion de La Tour-du-Pin Chambly de La Charce (1820-1891), Nantes; His sale; Paris, Hôtel Drouot (Me Duchesne), 26 February 1894, no. 20 (as Sebastiano Conca, sold for 340 francs); Collection of King Carol II of Romania (1893-1953); Collection of Mr Victor Guibert of Château de Cabrières, Aveyron; Its sale; Paris, Palais Galliera, Mes Maurice et Philippe Rheims, 8 December 1964, no. 13 (as attributed to Sebastiano Conca); Acquired at this sale by the current owner's parents; Private collection, Nouvelle-Aquitaine Related works: Another version of this composition belonged to the Giancarlo Gallino collection (112 x 98 cm, dated c. 1710-1715, L. Ghio, E. Baccheschi, Antonio Balestra, in Pittori Bergamaschi, Il Settecento, Bergamo 1989, II, p. 219, no. 121, p. 284, fig. 3). Another replica sold in Vienna. (Anonymous sale; Vienna, Dorotheum, 9 June 2020, no. 92, with its counterpart depicting Zephyrs, Flora and Cupid, oil on canvas, 112 x 98 cm). Born in Verona, Balestra trained in Venice, at the age of twenty, with Antonio Bellucci, whose broad decorative sense he always retained; he then moved to Rome from 1690, where he frequented the studio of Carlo Maratta, whose influence was to be decisive for him and from whom he adopted that Correggio grace that sets him apart. During the first two decades of the 18th century, after settling in Venice, he achieved European success with his religious and mythological subjects: his fluid, graceful paintings were much sought after in Germany, England, Holland and Denmark. He tempered the classicism of his masters with his knowledge of the rococo artists Giovanni Antonio Pellegrini and Jacopo Amigoni. In the 1720s, he returned to Verona, where in 1725 he received the news of his election to the Accademia di San Luca in Rome. Our painting depicts the education of the young Cupid by Venus and Mercury, a theme whose iconography had been fixed by the famous representation by Correggio (National Gallery, London). From the Parma artist, he also borrows the luminism, radiating from the centre, of The Adoration of the Shepherds, known as The Night (Dresden, Gemäldegalerie). This theme, which is not taken from Greek mythology but from Ovid's Ars Amandi (Art of Love), became particularly popular in Baroque painting, as can be seen in works by Nicolas Chaperon (Paris, Musée du Louvre) and François Boucher (Berlin, Charlottenburg). On the Child's study sheet, we often find representations of mathematical or geometrical sketches, two "liberal arts" that are essential for building bows and calculating the angle of arrows, which Love uses. Our painter was probably familiar with one of the five versions of this theme by Benedetto Luti (1666-1724). The best known of these is preserved in Pommersfelden, Schloss Weissenstein (the author of the monograph on Luti describes it as a "Sacra Famiglia Pagana", which would also apply to our composition). Antonio Balestra modernised the subject in the rocaille style of his time, which was more tender and feminine. Antonio BALESTRA (Verona, 1666 - 1740) 100 x 83 cm