Putti with Goats

Part of a series of long, narrow panels by the Lombard artist Polidoro da Caravaggio, Raphael’s most unconventional pupil. Charles I bought it as one of 23 Italian pictures from the dealer William Frizell in 1637.

Despite being hung in a subordinate, decorative fashion beneath other pictures, there is evidence that in the 1630s Charles was hungry to collect Polidoro’s work, having heard rumours of the artist’s brilliance. The series remains in the Royal Collection today, almost intact.

Van der Doort c.1639

Polidoro

4 Children Playing with 4 Goats and Rams, light from the blank, the first long and narrow fresco on panel

Walpole Society reference (1960): 
WS 17, № 2
Measurements (Van der Doort): 
1ft x 4ft 3in (30.5 x 129.5cm)
Medium: 
fresco on panel
Light: 
light from the [left blank]
Frame: 
wooden gilded frame
Provenance: 
one of the 23 Italian pictures the King bought from William Frizell
Gift / Exchange / Bought / Inherited: 
bought
Hang notes: 
under no. 1
Original Manuscript page number: 
MS. Ash. 1514, f. 21
Charles II inventory c1666: 
Whitehall, no 251, 28 x 147
Identification certainty: 
Identified