GIUSEPPE DIAMANTINI (Fossombrone, 1621 - Venice, 1705) Actaeon Oil on canvas, 137.5X96 cm Provenance: Cesena, Palazzo Romagnoli Bibliography: M. Pulini, Tre artisti nella Cesena del Seicento, Milan 2022, p. 57, table 60 (as Giuseppe Diamantini) The style characteristics suggest attribution to an artist from the Veneto area but with inflections derived from central Italy and the Emilian school. These clues, together with the exquisitely expressive ones, therefore point to the precise reference to the painter of Marche origins Giuseppe Diamantini (Fossombrone, 1621 ; 1705). In this regard, we know that the artist during his formative years, although he aspired to a study stay in Rome, he turned towards the closer Bologna, where he frequented the Carracci circles. Some sources seem to support an apprenticeship with Guido Cagnacci between 1650 and 1658, while Malvasia attests to his presence in the workshop of Giovanni Andrea Sirani and the young man's fascination with Ludovico, whose frescoes in the Cloister of San Michele in Bosco he studied carefully. This explains the intriguing and skilful blend of Bolognese classicism, Venetian chiaroscuro contrasts and the intonations to the pictorial modes of Pietro Liberi and Federico Cervelli, which can be seen in the work under scrutiny, testifying to the extraordinary success achieved by Diamantini in Venice, where he resided until 1698. In the lagoon city, the painter enjoyed the protection of the Venetian patriciate and in 1663 he was conferred the title of Knight of St. George, probably by Leopold I, to whom some of the artist's works seem to have come (one of these could be the David with the Head of Goliath, which has been in the Gemäldegalerie in Dresden since 1741). Further confirmation of his inclusion in the difficult and competitive Venetian artistic environment is offered by the presence of his name among those listed in the Fraglia, the guild of painters. We thank Massimo Pulini for the attribution. Reference bibliography: C. C. Malvasia, Felsina pittrice, Bologna 1678, III, p. 493 A. Arfelli, Vite di pittori Bolognesi, Bologna 1961, p. 125 R. Pallucchini, La pittura veneziana del Seicento, I, Milan 1981, pp. 231-234, 380 Giuseppe Diamantini 1623-1705. Pittore e incisore dalle Marche a Venezia, exhibition catalogue edited by A. M. Ambrosini Massari, M. Cellini, M. Luzi, Ancona 2021, ad vocem