Footnotes

Provenance:
Sotheby's New York, 11 November 2000, lot 40;
Christie's New York, 24 October 2012, lot 156;
Private European Collection;
Property from the Collection of Dr. Johannes Ralph Lafrenz

The writing on the letter on the ewer, 'Pastor Fido' likely refers to popular pastoral tragicomedy Pastor Fido by Giovanni Battista Guarini, first published in 1590. The play was to have its first performance in 1584 at the court of Vincenzo Gonzaga, who had intended to mount a production of the play as part of the festivities around his marriage to Leonora de'Medici, but remained unfinished until 1585, when it was performed in its completed version in honour of the marriage of the Duke of Savoy and Catharine of Austria. After its initial publication, Guarini revised the play many times, and it appeared in over a hundred editions following its first publication. It became one of the most famous plays of the 17th century, and inspired numerous composers including Monteverdi, Alessandro Grandi and Heinrich Schütz. Sonatas playing on themes from Il Pastor Fido for the instrument musette de coeur, depicted on the ewer, were long published as Vivaldi's opus 13. They were however secretly composed by a man called Nicholas Chédeville. The music was published in 1737 by Jean-Noël Marchand through a secret agreement with Chédeville to publish a collection of Chédeville's compositions under Vivaldi's name. Chédeville supplied the funding and received the profits, all of which was documented in a notarial act by Marchand in 1749. The work includes six sonatas for musette, Vielle à roue, recorder, flute, oboe or violin, and basso continuo (documented by Federico Maria Sardelli, Vivaldi's music for flute and recorder (2007), pp.76 ff. ) According to some, Chédeville was the most famous musette player France ever had. He was born in 1705 into a family of musicians and took up a post in the prestigious royal oboe consortium Les Grands Hautbois, where he stayed until a few years before his death in 1782. Notwithstanding his self-pronounced title as 'musette layer to the King', Chédeville was plagued by financial difficulties eventually leading to his bankruptcy shortly before his death in 1782. He however seems to have been successful in keeping up appearances at the French Court and taught the musette to Princess Victoire from about 1750. He became a popular teacher among the aristocracy, eventually attaining the title of maître de musette de Mesdames de France.