Annibale Carracci
( 1560 - 1609 )
Portrait of an African Woman holding a clock
circa 1583-1585
Oil on canvas
60 x 39.5 cm (23 ⁵/₈ x 15 ¹/₂ inches)
Louvre Abu Dhabi
Cesare Locatelli (d. 1658), Bologna, mentioned in his 1658 inventory of assets as “no. 110. Meza figura d’una mora […] et un horologgio in Mano” (half-figure of a black woman […] and a clock in her hand)
Carlo Maratti (1625-1713), Rome, mentioned in his 1712 inventory of assets as “ritratto d’una mora che tiene in mano un orologio” (portrait of a black woman holding in her hand a clock)
By descent to Faustina Maratti until acquired by the Spanish Crown through Maratti’s former pupil Andrea Procaccini, 1722
King Philip V of Spain (1683-1746), San Ildefonso Palace, Segovia, 1723
Recorded in the Queen’s Bedchamber, San Ildefonso Palace, Segovia, 1747, and by descent until
Given by the Quartermaster General for the province of Segovia, Ramón Luis de Escobedo, to Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington (1769-1852), August 1812
Private collection, England, until 2005
Carlo Maratti (1625-1713), Rome, mentioned in his 1712 inventory of assets as “ritratto d’una mora che tiene in mano un orologio” (portrait of a black woman holding in her hand a clock)
By descent to Faustina Maratti until acquired by the Spanish Crown through Maratti’s former pupil Andrea Procaccini, 1722
King Philip V of Spain (1683-1746), San Ildefonso Palace, Segovia, 1723
Recorded in the Queen’s Bedchamber, San Ildefonso Palace, Segovia, 1747, and by descent until
Given by the Quartermaster General for the province of Segovia, Ramón Luis de Escobedo, to Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington (1769-1852), August 1812
Private collection, England, until 2005
The National Association of Watch and Clock Collectors, Inc., NAWCC Bulletin, February 2006, vol. XLVIII, no. 360, cover illustration
J. Spicer ed., Revealing the African presence in Renaissance Europe, Baltimore, 2012, p. 43 and p. 130, no. 49
J. Spicer ed., Revealing the African presence in Renaissance Europe, Baltimore, 2012, p. 43 and p. 130, no. 49