Saint Apollonia

(Carlo Dolci)

Saint Apollonia was a Christian Saint and virgin martyr of Alexandria. For refusing to sacrifice to the pagan gods it was said that she had her teeth drawn before being burnt at the stake. In our painting she is depicted as a young woman with a pair of pincers in her hand holding a tooth. She is also the patron saint of dentists, and is also invoked by their patients, when in need.

Robert Clive (‘Clive of India’), 1st Baron Clive of Plassey (1725-1774);
Thence by descent to his first son Edward Clive, 2nd Lord 1st Earl of Powis (3rd creation 1804) (1754-1839);
Thence by descent to his second son, the Hon. Robert Henry Clive (died 1854) (who married Harriet Windsor, daughter of the 5th Earl of Plymouth and Baroness Windsor (b. 1797) on 19 June 1819);
Robert Clive, later Windsor-Clive (1824-1859);
Robert George Windsor-Clive, 1st Earl of Plymouth (2nd creation) (1857-1923);
Thence by descent.

F. Leach (ed.), The Country Seats of Shropshire, Shewsbury 1891, p. 212, “St. Appollonia, by Carlo Dolce”, hanging in the Drawing Rom at Oakly Park;
G. Cantelli, Repertorio della pittura fiorentina del Seicento, Fiesole 1983, p. 72;
M. Chiarini, in Bellezze di Firenze. Disegni fiorentini del Seicento e del Settecento dal Museo di Belle Arti di lille, exhibition catalogue, Florence.
Palazzo Pitti, 17 October-1 December 1991, p. 68, under cat. No. 29;
F. Baldassari, Carlo Dolci, Turin 1995, pp. 115-116, cat. No. 85, reproduced p. 116, fig. 85.