Alexander the Great Threatened by His Father
Donato Creti·probably 1700/1705
Historical Context
Donato Creti's Alexander the Great Threatened by His Father, probably painted between 1700 and 1705, depicts a dramatic moment from ancient history. Creti was the leading painter in early eighteenth-century Bologna, known for his refined, classicizing style and his ability to combine intellectual rigor with poetic sensitivity. He was a favorite of Prince Eugene of Savoy and the Bolognese aristocracy.
Technical Analysis
The oil on canvas shows Creti's distinctive silvery palette and elegant figure style, with smooth modeling and graceful poses. The clear, luminous light and restrained emotional expression reflect his classicist approach to historical narrative painting.
Provenance
Possibly Count Alessandro Fava; his son, Count Pietro Ercole Fava [1667 or 1669-1744], Bologna, by 1739;[1] his son, Carlo Fava [d. 1790], Bologna, until at least c. 1770.[2] (Julius H. Weitzner [1896-1986], New York), by 1938;[3] purchased 1952 by the Samuel H. Kress Foundation, New York;[4] gift 1961 to NGA. [1] Giampietro Zanotti, _Storia dell'Accademia Clementina di Bologna_, 2 vols., Bologna, 1739 (reprinted 1977): 2:106, places the painting in Palazzo Fava; it is listed in Pietro Ercole's posthumous inventory of 1745, published in Giovanni Campori, _Raccolta di cataloghi ed inventari inediti_, Modena, 1870 (reprinted Bologna 1975): 602. Alessandro Fava was Creti's first patron and collected many of the artist's drawings. [2] It appears in the list of paintings in Bolognese houses compiled in the 1760s and 1770s by Marcello Oretti, "Le pitture...della Città di Bologna", 3 vols., Biblioteca Comunale, Bologna, MS B104, in _Marcello Oretti e il patrimonio artistico privato bolognese. (Documenti 22)_, edited by Emilia Calbi and Daniela Scaglietti Kelescian, Bologna, 1984: 90. According to Giuseppe Guidicini, _Cose notabili della città di Bologna_, 5 vols., 1868-1873: 2:186-188, Carlo Fava had no heirs and the palace passed to another branch of the family. [3] According to Fern Rusk Shapley, _Paintings from the Samuel H. Kress Collection: Italian Schools XVI-XVIII Century_, London, 1973: 101; and Fern Rusk Shapley, _Catalogue of Italian Paintings_, 2 vols., Washington, D.C., 1979: 1:148. [4] _Paintings and Sculpture from the Kress Collection, Acquired by the Samuel H. Kress Foundation 1951-1956_, Washington, D.C., 1956: 62. See also The Kress Collection Digital Archive, https://kress.nga.gov/Detail/objects/162.
.png&width=600)
