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Simone Pignoni(Florence 1611-1698)Proserpina
Sold for £8,960 inc. premium
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Poppy Harvey-Jones
Head of Sale

Lisa Greaves
Head of Department
Simone Pignoni (Florence 1611-1698)
oil on canvas
97.7 x 87.2cm (38 7/16 x 34 5/16in).
Footnotes
Provenance
The Collection of the Scrimgeour family, Steadham Hall, Midhurst, since the early 20th century and thence by descent to the present owner
The abduction of Proserpina to the underworld is recounted in Ovid's Metamorphoses (5: 385-424). Whilst the goddess, daughter of Ceres, was picking flowers with her companions she was abducted by Pluto, who has been struck by one of Cupid's arrows, and taken to the underworld.
The figure of Proserpina appears in several other works by Pignoni, including one in Schloss Ambras, Innsbruck, and a work offered at Christie's, New York, 23 January 2004, lot 127.
We are grateful to Prof. Sandro Bellesi who, based on photographs, has endorsed the attribution to Pignoni and suggests that the flowers are by Andrea Scacciati (1642-1710).
