Page of The Embarkation of a Queen by TASSI, Agostino in the Web Gallery of Art, a searchable image collection and database of European paintings and sculptures (1100-1850)

Pixel Size(1081,770)

The Embarkation of a Queen

c. 1615
Oil on canvas, 94 x 136 cm
Private collection

Agostino Tassi derived some of his images of the sea coast from Bril, but others of real or imagined buildings near the water were based on Jan Brueghel the Elder. Tassi's work was a fundamental source for many of Claude's most famous port scenes as well as for the whole tradition of capricci. His coastal views of palaces and loggias had subjects taken from varied sources, but his favourite theme was the embarkation of a queen. In certain cases, but not in this painting, she can be clearly identified as the Queen of Sheba. The Barberini later owned two much larger paintings (2,5 x 1,8 m) by Tassi representing palaces set near water, one depicting the contemporary event of the departure of the Queen of Hungary from Ancona and the other simply showing fishermen on the bank of a river.

The similar dimensions of The Embarkation of a Queen and The Coral Fishers might suggest that the two were intended as pendants, but since they were executed almost a decade apart, this was clearly not the case. However, architectural paintings were often paired with landscapes. A number of seventeenth-century sources indicate that collectors liked to hang prospettive (paintings focused on architecture) between two paesi (landscapes). The Embarkation of a Queen has been dated to c. 1622, but its cold, sharp light suggests that it was executed no later than 1615-16. The large loggia in the middle ground is reminiscent of Tuscan architecture, while the precision employed to render the plates and vases on the steps is derived from Tassi's life-long interest in Flemish art. The small figures are typical of Tassi and recur throughout his career.