Emerging from the Shadows: a curious history of a forgotten painting by Nicolas Poussin
Emerging from the Shadows: a curious history of a forgotten painting by Nicolas Poussin

Summary/Abstract: When Nicolas Poussin created the sensual image inspired by the myth of Venus and Adonis in 1627/28, he produced it in several identical replicas, of which three have been recognised by European scholarship. The most researched, presumably confirmed as the autograph version, is located in the Kimbel Art Museum, Fort Worth, Texas. However, an equally interesting and rather accomplished image has become a part of the State Art Collection of the Kingdom, later Republic, of Yugoslavia (acc. no. 48/01) since the 1930s. And it has fallen into oblivion ever since. The aim of this paper is to shed more light on the history of this painting by Nicolas Poussin, delve deeper into the forms of artistic production in Baroque Rome, and trace its journey through Roman collections of the late Seicento and early Settecento. Through archival documents and sales records of the 19th and 20th centuries, the paper strives to reconstruct its exciting journey from early seventeenth-century Rome to Belgrade in the 1930s. Along this journey, there is a gallery of unique characters who all left a significant mark on its history— from the prosperous dealer of Baroque Rome, Giovanni Stefano Roccatagliata and Poussin’s first patron Cassiano Dal Pozzo (1588–1657) to renowned collectors in late 18th- and early 19th-century London. The travel of this painting from Rome to London and through the collections of William Ponsonby, 2nd Earl of Bessborough (1704−1793), a great collector of antiquities and a notable member of the Society of Dilettanti, as well as that of Admiral William Waldegrave, 1st Baron Radstock (1753−1825), who had the Waldegrave islands named after him and possessed one of the finest collections in the London of his time, is discussed. Ultimately, this brings us to Delamere house in Cheshire and the Wilbraham family of the 1830s, in whose collections it remained for almost a century. In the twentieth century, the painting made its final voyage to Belgrade. This introduces another notable figure, a refined connoisseur and collector, Prince Pavle Krađorđević of Yugoslavia (1893–1976), who acquired it for the royal residences. Remaining in the state residences, the painting became a silent witness to the calamitous twentieth century that left it miraculously unscathed but forgotten for almost a century.

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