Orpheus playing a Viol

Giovanni Battista Salvi Sassoferrato (Sassoferrato 1609 - Rome 1685). Oil painting on canvas, Orpheus playing a Viol, Giovanni Battista Salvi Sassoferrato (1609-1685) . Half length, head looking upwards to left, crowned with laurel and wearing a red cloak. The picture was recognised as by Sassoferrato by Francois Mace de Lepinay (private correspondence, June 2014). Alastair Laing recognised that its probable pair was sold at Sotheby's on 9th June 2009 (lot 46), erroneously identified as St. Cecilia, but actually Sappho, and catalogued as by Sassoferrato. The pairing of Orpheus and Sappho would have been apposite: two musician-poets who loved and lost. Attingham Park, Shropshire (Accredited Museum)