A Trial at Law Among Animals and Pygmies

Artist Faustino Bocchi (Italian, 1659–1742)

MediumOil on canvas

Dimensions39 x 58 1/2 in. (99.1 x 148.6 cm)
Frame: 46 1/4 x 65 1/2 x 2 3/4 in. (117.5 x 166.4 x 7 cm)

ClassificationsPaintings

Credit LinePurchased with funds from the State of North Carolina

Object number52.9.147

On View

Not on view

Collections

ProvenanceProf. Henry Van Dyke (1852–1933), Princeton, NJ [1]; unidentified sale, Philadelphia, Samuel T. Freeman & Co., November 14, 1945 [2]; sold to Julius H. Weitzner (d. 1986), New York, as Sillefurt [?] (inv. nos. 3186 and 4032) [3]; sold to NCMA, 1952.

[1] According to his New York Times obituary (11 April 1933), the Rev. Dr. Henry van Dyke, was an author, clergyman, educator, poet, essayist and diplomat; he was also an ordained Presbyterian minister and professor of English at Princeton University. Woodrow Wilson appointed him American Minister to the Netherlands in 1913, a post he held until 1917.

[2] Weitzner’s records [with Alex Wengraf, London] indicate that he acquired the painting on 11/14/45 from “Freeman’s sale.” The records also indicate that the painting came from the Van Dyke Collection. No record of an auction at Freeman Galleries for this date has been found.

[3] Julius Weitzner was born in Boston and was a chemist and violinist. He was established as a dealer in New York before opening an office in London by the early 1960s. Weitzner owned a number of paintings by Bocchi, photographs of which are at the Getty Research Institute. There is no indication, however, that the NCMA painting was related to any others. According to the entry for inventory number 4032: “Bocchi [no subject], old 3186. Cost 325. Raleigh 2/52.