Giustino Menescardi (Milan 1720-1776 Venice)


Alexander paying homage to Jupiter at the Temple of Jupiter oil on canvas66.1 x 82.8cm (26 x 32 5/8in).
|ExhibitedThessalonika, Alexander the Great in European Art: Thessalonika '97, Cultural Capital of Europe, 22 September 1997- 11 January 1998, no. 11LiteratureN. Hadjinicolaou (ed.), Alexander the Great in European Art, Thessalonika, 1997, no. 11, pp. 183-184, ill. (catalogue entry written by George Knox)The present painting was first recognised as the work of Menescardi by Filippo Pedrocco, while Egidio Martini then pointed out that it belongs to the painter's early period when his compositions were strongly influenced by those of Sebastiano Ricci. Professor George Knox dated the present painting to the 1740s. Although Knox proposed that this painting may have been intended as an overdoor, it may also conceivably have been one of a group of modelli for a decorative scheme based on the Life of Alexander the Great. Another work from the same series is The Family of Darius before Alexander (Trafalgar Galleries - Anniversary Exhibition, 1996, no. 13). Also very possibly from the same series, according to Knox, are Menescardi's Alexander and Diogenes (57 x 82 cm.) reproduced in Helbing, Kunsthaus Zürich, 25/6.2. 1924, fig. 469 (which bore an attribution to Domenico Tiepolo at that time), and two drawings, respectively at the Boijmans van Beuningen Museum, Rotterdam, and the Pinacoteca Ambrosiana in Milan, which portray Alexander and Diogenes and The Meeting of Alexander with Thalestris, Queen of the Amazons.When Alexander determined to visit the Temple of Jupiter Ammon in the Libyan desert, a trip of some 400 miles, he was guided by Jupiter and a flock of crows. On arriving at the temple he learnt from an oracle that his father was immortal, which allowed him henceforth to claim semi-divine status. According to Knox this subject is extremely rare and there is apparently no other example of it in 18th century Venetian art.