Carlo Lodi (Bologna, 1701-1765) Antonio Rossi (Bologna, 1700-1753) TELEMACHUS SEES MENTOR TRANSFORMED INTO MINERVA TELEMACHUS AND MENTOR SACRIFICE TO JUPITER pair of temperas on shaped canvas, 190x205 cm TELEMACHUS SEES MENTOR TRANSFORMING INTO MINERVA TELEMACHUS AND MENTOR SACRIFICING TO JUPITER tempera on shaped canvas, cm 190x205, a pair Provenance San Lazzaro di Savena, Villa Boncompagni "alla Cicogna"; Christie's, Bologna, 27-28 September 1986, lots 554, 555; Private collection Bibliography L. Crespi, Felsina pittrice. Vite dei pittori bolognesi III, Rome 1769, p. 197. G. Courgette, Paesaggi e rovine, Bologna 1947, pp. 26-27. G. Cuppini-A.M. Matteucci, Ville del Bolognese, Bologna 1967, pp. 122, 236. R. Roli, Pittura bolognese 1650-1800. Dal Cignani ai Gandolfi, Bologna 1977, pp. 199-200; 273; 291; fig. 367b. R. Grandi, in L'arte del Settecento Emiliano. Architecture. Scenography. Landscape painting. Exhibition catalogue, Bologna 1979, p. 334. G. C. Cavalli, Dalla "prospettiva" al paesaggio: evoluzione del temperismo bolognese nel 700, ibidem, p. 312-13. A. Cera, La pittura bolognese del 700, Milan 1994, Carlo Lodi, pp. 12-13. This work was declared of particularly important interest by the Ministry with a decree of the Regional Director for the Cultural and Landscape Heritage of Lombardy on 21 July 1987 and subsequent notification in 2012. The Italian Soprintendenza considers this lot to be a work of national importance and requires it to remain in Italy; it cannot therefore be exported from Italy. Part of a cycle of six scenes inspired by Fénelon's Aventures de Télémaque (1699), the beautiful tempera paintings presented here adorned the rooms of the former Boncompagni villa, which, following his marriage to Eleonora Colonna in 1743, belonged to Count Sicinio Pepoli. The decoration of the villa by Carlo Lodi and Antonio Rossi, who painted at least twenty-two landscape scenes with different subjects for it, must be dated between that date and 1751, when they are all recorded in Sicinio Pepoli's inventory. The entire cycle, part of which was exhibited at the historical exhibition on the 18th century in Emilia in 1979, remained in situ until 1986 when the villa, then owned by Barbieri, was sold. Some, but not all, of the canvases were sold at auction by Christie's and tied up on that occasion. Two of them are presented on this occasion, together with a third unbound.