A selection of master drawings 2016
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Mattia & Maria Novella Romano<br />
A Selection <strong>of</strong> Master Drawings
Cover: Vincenzo Dandini, Reason refrains Will to embrace Sense and Pleasure
Mattia & Maria Novella<br />
Romano<br />
A Selection <strong>of</strong><br />
Master Drawings<br />
<strong>2016</strong> - 2017<br />
36, Borgo Ognissanti<br />
Florence - Italy
Acknowledgements<br />
We would like to thank Andrea Baldinotti,<br />
Luisa Berretti, Marco Simone Bolzoni,<br />
Vittorio Chierici, Maria Cecilia Fabbri,<br />
Carlo Falciani, Donatella Innocenti, the<br />
Levi d’Ancona family, John Marciari, Ellida<br />
Minelli, Cristiana Romalli, Annalisa Scarpa,<br />
Julien Stock and Sarah Vowles for their help<br />
in the preparation <strong>of</strong> this catalogue.<br />
Where not specified, the images are property<br />
<strong>of</strong> the authors. Please contact the editor for any<br />
iconographic sources.
Index <strong>of</strong> Artists<br />
3<br />
Cherubino<br />
Alberti<br />
15<br />
Giuseppe<br />
Bernardino Bison<br />
16<br />
Umberto<br />
Brunelleschi<br />
5<br />
Giuseppe Cesari called<br />
Cavalier d’Arpino<br />
9<br />
Vincenzo<br />
Dandini<br />
7<br />
G. M. della Rovere<br />
called Il Fiamminghino<br />
6<br />
G. A. Donducci<br />
called Il Mastelletta<br />
13<br />
Fedele<br />
Fischetti<br />
10<br />
Giacinto<br />
Gimignani<br />
2<br />
Lombard Artist<br />
16 th century<br />
11<br />
Carlo<br />
Maratta<br />
8<br />
Pietro Novelli<br />
known as Il Monrealese<br />
4<br />
Francesco<br />
Vanni<br />
12<br />
Luigi<br />
Vanvitelli<br />
14<br />
Venetian Artist<br />
19 th century<br />
1<br />
Taddeo<br />
Zuccari
1 Taddeo Zuccari<br />
Sant’Angelo in Vado 1529 - 1566 Rome<br />
Study <strong>of</strong> a nude seated on an architectural stand for a figure <strong>of</strong> a prophet or evangelist<br />
Red chalk on ivory laid paper<br />
396 x 265 mm (15 ⅝ x 10 ⅜ in.)<br />
Provenance: private collection.<br />
This study <strong>of</strong> a nude marked out in sanguine with great<br />
confidence and freedom by the artist’s hand, which has<br />
built up the anatomical forms with strength and steady<br />
precision, immediately recalls the nudes on the arched<br />
ceiling <strong>of</strong> the Sistine Chapel painted by Michelangelo<br />
at the start <strong>of</strong> the 16 th century. These became the model<br />
<strong>of</strong> beauty and strength for the whole century, until the<br />
1. Taddeo Zuccari, Standing nude man, red chalk highlighted with traces<br />
<strong>of</strong> white gouache on laid paper, 420 x 287 mm (16 ½ x 11 ¼ in.),<br />
Metropolitan Museum, New York.<br />
creation <strong>of</strong> the frescoes on the arched ceiling <strong>of</strong> the<br />
Palazzo Farnese by Annibale Carracci. In the context <strong>of</strong><br />
Rome, a comparison with these nudes was inevitable for<br />
anyone who wanted to display a figure seen from below<br />
within an architectural setting. In this case too, the<br />
powerful musculature <strong>of</strong> the chest and the build <strong>of</strong> the<br />
right leg, with the contracted thigh, almost deformed<br />
from the strain <strong>of</strong> supporting the whole figure, are a<br />
clear meditation on the style <strong>of</strong> Michelangelo. The<br />
sudden interruption <strong>of</strong> the line also derives from his<br />
style, becoming faint where it suggests the volumes <strong>of</strong><br />
the head and <strong>of</strong> the architectural stand, almost as if to<br />
indicate that the purpose <strong>of</strong> this drawing is solely an<br />
anatomical study <strong>of</strong> the figure. However, other stylistic<br />
characteristics are also evident in the piece: a sweeter<br />
and more harmonious tone to the stroke, a rounded<br />
construction <strong>of</strong> the shapes, which are classically formed,<br />
and a clear light defining the skin on the athletic body<br />
in a more naturalistic way, almost caressing the layers<br />
<strong>of</strong> the musculature. These elements recall the methods<br />
<strong>of</strong> Raphael, the other great and essential role model for<br />
every artist who was trained during the first two decades<br />
<strong>of</strong> the 16 th century and therefore seeing the respective<br />
artistic climates <strong>of</strong> Florence and Rome. A similar<br />
synthesis between the two routes, together with the<br />
more natural tone <strong>of</strong> the drawing, reminds us therefore<br />
<strong>of</strong> the midpoint <strong>of</strong> the 16 th century, when, especially<br />
in Rome, attempts were made to marry these two<br />
expressive visions which were quite distant from each<br />
other. An example <strong>of</strong> an artist taking this route - both<br />
mindful <strong>of</strong> the <strong>master</strong>ful strength <strong>of</strong> Michelangelo and<br />
also <strong>of</strong> the harmonious balance <strong>of</strong> Raphael, was Taddeo<br />
Zuccari, and this beautiful piece is attributed precisely<br />
to his hand. It is datable to the time when he was most<br />
strongly bonded to the “Michelangiolism” <strong>of</strong> Rome,<br />
when he created the frescoes in the Cappella Mattei at<br />
Santa Maria della Consolazione 1 . A direct comparison<br />
can be made with a piece in the Metropolitan Museum
2-3. Taddeo Zuccari, A man seen from behind (verso), red chalk,<br />
pen and brown ink on laid paper; A man seen from behind (recto),<br />
red chalk heightened with white on laid paper, 344 x 183 mm<br />
(13 ½ x 7 ¼ in.), Ailsa Mellon Bruce Fund, National Gallery <strong>of</strong><br />
Art, Washington.<br />
in New York (inv. no. 68.113) (fig. 1) wherein the use<br />
<strong>of</strong> sanguine in defining a nude with “polydoresque”<br />
origins has many points which connect it to the sheet<br />
we are presenting here.<br />
Despite the figure in the American drawing being at<br />
a later stage <strong>of</strong> completeness, there are several similar<br />
aspects such as the persistent outline marked out in<br />
definition <strong>of</strong> the edges <strong>of</strong> the figure, and above all the<br />
double parallel hatching with which Taddeo observes<br />
the light and shade <strong>of</strong> the musculature. In particular on<br />
the legs <strong>of</strong> both figures the outline has the same style, as<br />
well as the lighter, more rounded and freer stroke, which<br />
suggests only the edge <strong>of</strong> the head.<br />
Another comparison can be made with a drawing held<br />
at the National Gallery in Washington (inv. 1972.4.2.b)<br />
(fig. 2), a preparatory piece for a dressed figure seen from<br />
behind at the centre <strong>of</strong> the fresco showing the Last supper<br />
in the cappella Mattei. On the recto <strong>of</strong> the sheet (inv.<br />
1972.4.2.a) (fig. 3) the same figure has been carefully<br />
completed in sanguine, whilst on the verso the freer<br />
stroke <strong>of</strong> the edges builds up volumes similar to those<br />
in the drawing that we are presenting here. The line<br />
forming the edge <strong>of</strong> the figure has also been drawn over<br />
several times as if in an attempt to find the line which is<br />
most functional to the movement <strong>of</strong> the figure, whilst<br />
the shadows are defined with the characteristic parallel<br />
hatching also appearing on this sheet. In addition one<br />
can observe how the same Michelangiolesque character<br />
penetrated the anatomical forms in both pieces, providing<br />
a clear basis for the dating <strong>of</strong> the sheet in question to<br />
within the almost four years in which Taddeo worked on<br />
the cappella commissioned by Jacopo Mattei, between<br />
1553 and 1556. The reaching pose <strong>of</strong> the figure lightly<br />
sketched in sanguine, with the arm raised to hold a tablet<br />
which could be the outline <strong>of</strong> a large open book invites<br />
one to consider the hypothesis that the sheet is a first<br />
idea for an Evangelist figure. If in the frescoed arched<br />
ceiling the Evangelists overlook as half-busts within<br />
small polygonal spaces, one can easily observe how in an<br />
idea which was more advanced in terms <strong>of</strong> its progress,<br />
Taddeo still continued to study whole figures. In this case<br />
two sheets in particular can be pointed out; the first in<br />
a private collection published by Cristina Acidini 2 , the<br />
second held in the Archdiocesan Museum in Kroměříž,<br />
(inv. KE 4504) (figs. 4, 5). On the verso <strong>of</strong> this latter<br />
sheet there are two partial studies <strong>of</strong> a figure, marked<br />
out in black chalk, where a Michelangelo-inspired torso<br />
presents considerable analogies with the figure in the<br />
drawing examined, so much so that it supports the theory<br />
that in a first idea for the cappella Mattei, Taddeo Zuccari<br />
had allocated a larger and more ascending space to the<br />
Evangelists than in the definitive frescoed composition.<br />
4-5. Taddeo Zuccari, Luke the Evangelist, pen and brown washes,<br />
black chalk, heightened with white on laid paper (recto); Two sketches<br />
<strong>of</strong> sleeping male nudes (verso), black chalk on laid paper, 364 x 257 mm<br />
(14 ⅜ x 10 ⅛ in.), Archdiocesan Museum in Kroměříž.
7-8. Federico Zuccari, Evangelists Luke and Mark, The Cappella<br />
Ruiz in Santa Caterina dei Funari, Rome.<br />
figures <strong>of</strong> the Evangelists Luke and Mark in the Cappella<br />
Ruiz, in Santa Caterina dei Funari in Rome (figs. 7-8).<br />
This partial revival is evidence <strong>of</strong> the long-standing use<br />
by the youngest <strong>of</strong> the Zuccaris <strong>of</strong> Taddeo’s sheets, which<br />
remained in the workshop after his death in Rome on 1st<br />
<strong>of</strong> September 1566.<br />
6. Taddeo Zuccari, Nude youth, pen and brown wash, black chalk<br />
and red chalk on laid paper, Fogg Art Museum, Harvard University,<br />
Cambridge, Mass.<br />
Carlo Falciani<br />
At a more advanced stage the figures, now clothed, were<br />
then compressed into polygonal spaces which were<br />
already defined in the two pieces cited, whilst they were<br />
reduced to only the bust to give them a greater scale in<br />
proportion to the figures on the scene. Finally, the pose <strong>of</strong><br />
the reaching figure on this sheet is compared with that <strong>of</strong><br />
a nude marked out in pen in a sheet held at the Fogg Art<br />
Museum, Harvard University, Cambridge, Mass. (inv.<br />
1932.299) (fig. 6), usually referred to by critics as being<br />
from the time <strong>of</strong> the Cappella Mattei, or <strong>of</strong> the Cappella<br />
Frangipani di San Marcello al Corso, which followed<br />
soon after 3 .<br />
Finally, one could point out that a pose similar to the one<br />
studied by Taddeo around 1554 - 1555 in this sheet was<br />
to be chosen by Federico Zuccari in 1571 for the clothed<br />
1 See C. Acidini Luchinat, Taddeo e Federico Zuccari, fratelli pittori<br />
del Cinquecento, Milan-Rome, 1998, I, pp. 44-58, regarding this<br />
important episode in the youth <strong>of</strong> Taddeo Zuccari.<br />
2 Cf. C. Acidini Luchinat, op.cit., 1998, I, p. 50, fig. 14.<br />
3 See Renaissance into Baroque. Italian Master Drawing by the<br />
Zuccari 1550-1600, exhibition catalogue, by E. James Mundy,<br />
(Milwaukee Art Museum November 1989 – January 1990)<br />
Cambridge University Press, 1989, pp. 83-84.
2<br />
Lombard Artist -16 th century<br />
Eucharistic Adoration with St. Francis, St. Clare and worshippers<br />
Pen and brown ink, with brown wash, heightened with white and traces <strong>of</strong> squaring in chalk on laid blue paper<br />
340 x 233 mm (13 ⅜ x 9 ⅛ in.)<br />
Inscriptions: on the old mount, bottom right corner in ink Collez. Durazzo.<br />
According to the inscription on the old mount, the<br />
drawing, which we are presenting to the public for the<br />
first time here, was part <strong>of</strong> the collection <strong>of</strong> one <strong>of</strong> the<br />
most renowned noble families <strong>of</strong> Genoa, the Durazzo<br />
family.<br />
A precise attribution has yet to be found. The sheet<br />
has great executional quality and iconographic interest<br />
and due to its technical and stylistic features, it can<br />
be recognised as the work <strong>of</strong> a northern Italian artist,<br />
probably from Lombardy, active during the last thirty<br />
years <strong>of</strong> the 16 th century. The creator <strong>of</strong> our drawing<br />
entrusts the definition <strong>of</strong> the volumes to the action <strong>of</strong><br />
the light; they are built up in white lead which is applied<br />
in delicate stripes, bringing out the blue colour <strong>of</strong> the<br />
paper. This is an effect which tends towards painting, and<br />
is typical <strong>of</strong> northern Italian artists, in particular <strong>of</strong> those<br />
from Lombardy, who share a fancy for tinted paper and<br />
strong tonal contrasts.<br />
The drawing was executed in preparation for a devotional<br />
image. The composition, simple in its structure, regular in<br />
size, and essential in exposure, is scrupulously aligned with<br />
the iconographic decrees imposed by the post-tridentine<br />
catholic reforms. It was in the years that followed the<br />
closure <strong>of</strong> the Council <strong>of</strong> Trent (1563) that St. Francis<br />
and St. Clare, founders respectively <strong>of</strong> the Franciscan<br />
order and the Poor Clare nuns, and protagonists <strong>of</strong> our<br />
drawing, acquired even more fortune in the field <strong>of</strong><br />
catholic devotional painting 1 .<br />
The sheet portrays a choral scene at the centre with the<br />
two saints who raise to the heavens, as a sign <strong>of</strong> devotion,<br />
a Gothicised shaped precious monstrance. It has the<br />
architecture <strong>of</strong> a shrine with an ornate circular base with<br />
pinnacles and gablets, and the top is decorated with three<br />
spheres and a cross and inside with a Christ crucifix.<br />
The northern features <strong>of</strong> this elegant piece <strong>of</strong> goldwork,<br />
perhaps inspired by an object from reality, would seem to<br />
serve as further guidance in identifying the area where the<br />
piece originates from.<br />
Arranged in a semicircle around the two saints, with<br />
the women on one side, the men on the other, are the<br />
worshippers. They are kneeling before the sacrament <strong>of</strong><br />
the Eucharist, symbolised by the precious monstrance<br />
whose sacredness is emphasised by the presence <strong>of</strong> the<br />
piece <strong>of</strong> cloth used by the two saints to raise the object<br />
to the heavens, thus avoiding the direct contact <strong>of</strong> their<br />
hands with the symbol Jesus’s sacrifice. The theatrical<br />
effect <strong>of</strong> the ceremony, performed in the foreground, is<br />
accentuated by the presence <strong>of</strong> two little angels standing<br />
on the two columns in the background, which support a<br />
pair <strong>of</strong> curtains, thus introducing the worshippers to the<br />
mystery <strong>of</strong> the Eucharist. It is the view <strong>of</strong> the monstrance<br />
which arouses in the worshippers a certain feeling <strong>of</strong><br />
wonder revealed by the expansive arm gestures which<br />
we see in the two devotees kneeling in the foreground.<br />
The privileged positions <strong>of</strong> the man and woman, and the<br />
clothing corresponding to sixteenth century fashions,<br />
could suggest that they are the patrons.<br />
The drawing presents the finished character <strong>of</strong> a scale<br />
version and the squaring, which has partially disappeared<br />
but is still quite visible, suggests that the piece was<br />
translated into a painting. It remains to be discovered<br />
whether or not the drawing was used as the model for an<br />
altarpiece or for a mobile painting. The vertical format,<br />
and the total lack <strong>of</strong> spatial indications could, perhaps,<br />
lead one to think that it was intended for the creation <strong>of</strong><br />
a processional banner, for which it was necessary to create<br />
a simple image, without excessive frills, which guaranteed<br />
that the public could read it clearly, even from a distance.<br />
1 On this subject see L’immagine di San Francesco nella Controriforma,<br />
exhibition catalogue by S. Prosperi Valenti Rodinò, C. Strinati,<br />
Rome, Calcografia, 9 December 1982 - 13 February 1983.
3<br />
Cherubino Alberti<br />
Borgo San Sepolcro 1553 - 1615 Rome<br />
Beheading <strong>of</strong> St. John the Baptist<br />
Pen, brown ink, brown washes and traces <strong>of</strong> black chalk on laid paper<br />
250 x 285 mm (9 ¾ x 11 ¼ in.)<br />
Inscriptions: on the verso in brown ink Al Illustr.mo Sig. et Pa.<br />
Provenance: private collection.<br />
Born in San Sepolcro into a family <strong>of</strong> artists (his father,<br />
Alberto di Giovanni, was an architect, sculptor, carver,<br />
and his two brothers, Alessandro and Giovanni, painters<br />
and engravers), Cherubino mainly worked in Rome<br />
where he was active, particularly as a printmaker and<br />
draughtsman, until the end <strong>of</strong> the 1570s. “Principe”<br />
(Director) <strong>of</strong> the Accademia di San Luca for four years<br />
(from 1611 to 1614), Cherubino is primarily remembered<br />
for his extremely fine engravings. He also worked in<br />
the field <strong>of</strong> painting and amongst his most memorable<br />
works are the frescoes <strong>of</strong> the Clementine Hall in the<br />
Vatican (1597-1598) created with the collaboration <strong>of</strong><br />
his brother Giovanni for Pope Clement VIII, the arched<br />
ceiling <strong>of</strong> the Aldobrandini chapel in Santa Maria sopra<br />
Minerva (1606), and finally, the frescoes <strong>of</strong> the sacristy <strong>of</strong><br />
San Giovanni in Laterano.<br />
As well as hundreds <strong>of</strong> engravings by Cherubino, there<br />
are numerous <strong>drawings</strong> attributed to him. A great<br />
number <strong>of</strong> these are held in Florence, at the Gabinetto<br />
Disegni e Stampe in the Uffizi, and in Rome, at the<br />
Istituto Centrale per la Grafica which holds a volume <strong>of</strong><br />
<strong>drawings</strong>, purchased by the Italian State in 1913, which<br />
originates directly from Alberti’s heirs 1 .<br />
Amongst the many works on paper which make up the<br />
volume, the largest part is, precisely like the work that<br />
we present here, a body <strong>of</strong> studies. Indeed, our drawing<br />
appears to be the first conception for a Beheading <strong>of</strong> St.<br />
John the Baptist: outlined only in pen, without the use<br />
<strong>of</strong> any watercolour (reserved for the second stage <strong>of</strong> a<br />
work), this lively sketch in brown ink manifests the first<br />
projection <strong>of</strong> an idea on paper for the narration <strong>of</strong> the<br />
epilogue <strong>of</strong> the story <strong>of</strong> St. John the Baptist. As in Group<br />
<strong>of</strong> figures with vases in the Istituto Centrale per la Grafica 2 ,<br />
which is similar to our drawing in its technique, style<br />
and level <strong>of</strong> finishing, in the sheet that we present here<br />
the artist is captured at work: after having traced the<br />
silhouettes <strong>of</strong> the figures with black chalk, he goes over<br />
them in pen, finding different solutions for the poses<br />
<strong>of</strong> the figures (see the hand <strong>of</strong> the executioner drawn<br />
twice), and finally erasing the parts which he is not sure<br />
<strong>of</strong>, such as the two eagle heads drafted in the centre <strong>of</strong><br />
the piece and redrawn more definitely at the centre <strong>of</strong><br />
the frame. The outer border, typical <strong>of</strong> the decorative<br />
exuberance <strong>of</strong> Cherubino, similarly expressed in other<br />
well-known <strong>drawings</strong> by the artist such as in the Portrait<br />
<strong>of</strong> Henry IV King <strong>of</strong> France 3 , Alberti tries different<br />
solutions: on the left, the body <strong>of</strong> the eagle is finished<br />
with an acanthus curl within which appears a little male<br />
head, instead on the right this is transformed into the<br />
foot <strong>of</strong> the bird <strong>of</strong> prey clawing at the edge <strong>of</strong> the frame.<br />
The imaginative zoomorphic invention expressed in the<br />
frame, as well as the restless line that outlines it, show a<br />
clear dialogue with the Roman works <strong>of</strong> Perin del Vaga,<br />
a painter who Cherubino Alberti always regarded with<br />
pr<strong>of</strong>ound admiration. The same Beheading reminds<br />
one <strong>of</strong> the painted and graphic work by Perino whose<br />
influence is captured, for example, in the gracious poses<br />
<strong>of</strong> the figures, who move almost as if in a dance, in the<br />
long and flexible physiques <strong>of</strong> the figures, and in the<br />
quick fluid lines that depict them.<br />
The scene is skilfully built up in groups, in a diagonal<br />
direction which leads from the foot <strong>of</strong> the soldier facing<br />
away from us at the front on the right, and extends<br />
along the sword <strong>of</strong> the executioner, the sloping line <strong>of</strong><br />
Salome’s sword and finally disappears, in the group<br />
<strong>of</strong> onlookers who close the image at the top left. This<br />
is a composition which is not found in any painting or<br />
print by Cherubino but which is closely reminiscent <strong>of</strong><br />
a drawing in the British Museum (this one is slightly<br />
more finished), Gnaeus Pompeius before his consuls, a
preparatory work for a fresco in the lodge <strong>of</strong> Palazzo<br />
Ruggeri, in Rome (ca. 1591) to which the Beheading can<br />
be close to chronologically 4 . Thus, the figure <strong>of</strong> Salome,<br />
who “leaps” on tiptoe towards the front <strong>of</strong> the picture,<br />
is reminiscent <strong>of</strong> Judith with the head <strong>of</strong> Hol<strong>of</strong>ernes, the<br />
protagonist <strong>of</strong> an early print by Cherubino 5 .<br />
Our Beheading, whose charm lies in the clear<br />
incompleteness <strong>of</strong> the work, allows us to follow Alberti<br />
in the creative process <strong>of</strong> designing the image, which was<br />
perhaps intended to be translated into print form or into<br />
a painting for a decorative section <strong>of</strong> a larger cycle.<br />
1 In the volume <strong>of</strong> <strong>drawings</strong> by the Alberti family held at the<br />
Istituto Centrale per la Grafica and more generally, with regards<br />
to the <strong>drawings</strong> by Cherubino, Giovanni and Alessandro see:<br />
Disegni degli Alberti, exhibition catalogue by K. Hermann Fiore,<br />
Rome, Gabinetto Nazionale delle Stampe, 25th November 1983<br />
– 2nd January 1984.<br />
2 Rome, Istituto Centrale per la Grafica, Inv. FN 2934; pen,<br />
brown ink, 241 x 171 mm. Cf. Disegni degli Alberti, exhibition<br />
catalogue by K. Hermann Fiore, Rome, Gabinetto Nazionale<br />
delle Stampe, 25 th November 1983 – 2 nd January 1984, pp. 146-<br />
147, cat. 87.<br />
3 Rome, Istituto Centrale per la Grafica, Inv. FN 2882.<br />
4 London, British Museum, Inv. 1965,1203.1, pen, brown ink,<br />
light blue washes, 161 x 206 mm; the drawing is published<br />
and discussed in relation to the fresco (probably the work <strong>of</strong> a<br />
collaborator) in: K. Hermann Fiore, Studi sui disegni di figure di<br />
Giovanni e Cherubino Alberti, in “Bollettino d’arte”, 65, 1980, 5,<br />
p. 41, fig. 2.<br />
5 See: R. Manescalchi, Cherubino Alberti: la luce incisa, Florence,<br />
2007, p. 38, cat. 6.
4<br />
Francesco Vanni<br />
Siena 1564 - 1610<br />
Study for “The Madonna <strong>of</strong> the Rosary with Saints”<br />
Chalk on cerulean laid paper<br />
375 x 254 mm (14 ¾ x 10 in.)<br />
Inscriptions: bottom centre in ink, in old handwriting di vanni.<br />
Provenance: private collection, Florence.<br />
Francesco Vanni is considered to be one <strong>of</strong> the artists who<br />
most represents Italian counter-reformation painting. 1<br />
A leading player in the Sienese art scene between the<br />
end <strong>of</strong> the 16 th century and the first decade <strong>of</strong> the 17 th<br />
century, Vanni’s painting production was very prolific<br />
and earned him significant fame, to such an extent that,<br />
by the end <strong>of</strong> his career, he was able to count himself<br />
amongst the city’s nobility. He trained with the painter<br />
Arcangelo Salimbeni, his mother’s second husband,<br />
and was introduced at a very young age to the erudite<br />
and religious Sienese environment linked to Rome. He<br />
undertook an apprenticeship in Bologna which is no<br />
better documented, during which he visited Rome when<br />
at only sixteen, he was able to work alongside Giovanni<br />
de’ Vecchi and come into contact with the Roman<br />
mannerists. He returned to his hometown around<br />
1585 and saw the commencement <strong>of</strong> several important<br />
religious and private commissions undertaken in his<br />
stepfather’s studio with the collaboration, from 1595, <strong>of</strong><br />
his stepbrother Ventura Salimbeni. In the first few years<br />
<strong>of</strong> the 17 th century, Vanni, as well as in Siena, worked<br />
in Lucca (1602), Rome (1603), Genoa and Pisa (1606,<br />
1610). He also received commissions from Lyon,<br />
Monaco and Salzburg. Amongst his most renowned<br />
works are: the Barocci-style Immaculate Conception<br />
(1588), Montalcino, Cathedral <strong>of</strong> St. Peter and the<br />
Annunciation (1588), Siena, St. Mary <strong>of</strong> the servants;<br />
St. Ansanus baptising the people <strong>of</strong> Siena (1596), Siena<br />
Cathedral; the history <strong>of</strong> St. Catherine (1585, pre 1600),<br />
Siena, Basilica <strong>of</strong> St. Dominic; the Fall <strong>of</strong> Simon Mago<br />
(1603), Vatican City, Basilica <strong>of</strong> St. Peter.<br />
Vanni was a painter but he also executed <strong>drawings</strong> and<br />
engravings. His fame for his <strong>drawings</strong> extended beyond<br />
the borders <strong>of</strong> Siena from very early on. His sheets were<br />
sought after and collected throughout the 17 th and<br />
18 th centuries by well-known collectors and today they<br />
can be found in the most important <strong>drawings</strong> cabinets<br />
in Europe: by Leopoldo de’ Medici in the Prints and<br />
Drawings cabinet <strong>of</strong> the Uffizi in Florence, by Everhard<br />
Jabach and Pierre Jean Mariette in the Louvre in<br />
Paris, by Carl Gustaf Tessin in the Nationalmuseum<br />
<strong>of</strong> Stockholm. Purely to highlight the interest that the<br />
<strong>drawings</strong> by Vanni must have aroused in the collectors<br />
and amateurs <strong>of</strong> the time, it is sufficient to mention that<br />
in 1673 Cardinal Leopoldo wrote to his Sienese agent<br />
to procure drawing tests from that school specifying<br />
that «di quelli di Vanni ne prenderei anche fino in cento<br />
se si trovassero» 2 . His sketches, studies and finished<br />
<strong>drawings</strong> are rich in glowing and colourful suggestions<br />
in intense and textured marks. His quick sketches run<br />
into the hundreds, first ideas for compositions in chalk<br />
or in pen; individual figure studies marked out from life<br />
in red or black chalk; and the polychromed sketches in<br />
oils or watercolours.<br />
This drawing is a compositional study for ‘the Madonna<br />
<strong>of</strong> the Rosary and Saints’. Executed in black chalk, it<br />
displays at the centre, (within a frame depicting sketches<br />
<strong>of</strong> the Fifteen Mysteries <strong>of</strong> the Rosary), the Madonna<br />
and child enthroned placed below a canopy with a small<br />
angel alongside her on one side. Kneeling at her feet,<br />
are St. Dominic on the left and St. Catherine <strong>of</strong> Siena<br />
on the right. Next to and behind them, other figures<br />
<strong>of</strong> Saints emerge, sketched lightly in chalk. Underneath<br />
at the centre, the sheet bears the inscription in pen, in<br />
old handwriting, “by Vanni”. The inscription, although<br />
made after the execution <strong>of</strong> the drawing, leaves no<br />
doubt as to the authorship <strong>of</strong> the work. Typical <strong>of</strong> the<br />
Sienese style, a s<strong>of</strong>t black and intentionally intense<br />
chalk line surrounds the figures. The little angels with<br />
supple, plump limbs and faces with tiny features, with<br />
an indication <strong>of</strong> the eye sockets, the curling curve<br />
<strong>of</strong> the lips and a chin which is a little chiselled are
characteristic in his compositions. There are numerous<br />
comparisons traceable to his other works. For the small<br />
angels, see for example the Partial study <strong>of</strong> a little angel in<br />
the Biblioteca Comunale degli Intronati 3 , also executed<br />
in black chalk, although described in more detail, and<br />
linked to the altarpiece with the Madonna and Saints<br />
(1593) in the Church <strong>of</strong> St. Francis <strong>of</strong> the Capuchins at<br />
Arcidosso (Grosseto). A representation <strong>of</strong> St. Catherine<br />
kneeling, in a very similar pose to that in our piece, is<br />
present in a preparatory drawing portraying the Virgin<br />
protector <strong>of</strong> the city <strong>of</strong> Siena (around 1588?), in a private<br />
collection, although this one is mainly finished and the<br />
head <strong>of</strong> the Saint is rotated further upwards towards the<br />
Madonna. 4<br />
As it emerges from the study <strong>of</strong> the preparatory <strong>drawings</strong><br />
for the paintings by Vanni, his operating approach is<br />
characterised by the meticulous planning <strong>of</strong> every single<br />
work, through sketches, studies and drafts executed in the<br />
most diverse <strong>of</strong> techniques. The artist did not hesitate to<br />
reuse his quick preliminary sketches for multiple works,<br />
even years after using them for the first time. In this case,<br />
in the opinion <strong>of</strong> John Marciari 5 , the drawing could<br />
constitute a first idea for the altarpiece portraying the<br />
Madonna <strong>of</strong> the Rosary and St. Pius V in the Co-cathedral<br />
<strong>of</strong> St. Peter and Paul in Pitigliano, dated 1609.<br />
The sheet in question would therefore precede the<br />
compositional study held today in Oxford 6 , which is<br />
very similar to the definitive work, but which recalls the<br />
fundamental elements <strong>of</strong> our drawing: the Madonna<br />
and child, St. Dominic and St. Catherine kneeling in<br />
their presence, the angels at the top, and the saints in<br />
the background, some <strong>of</strong> whom with crowns on their<br />
heads. At the latest stage, the patron could have requested<br />
a modification to the preliminary study, desiring the<br />
inclusion <strong>of</strong> the figure <strong>of</strong> Pius V as well in the composition,<br />
thus “compressing” the main scene upwards.<br />
The portrayals <strong>of</strong> the “Madonna <strong>of</strong> the Rosary with St.<br />
Catherine and St. Dominic”, which started to disseminate<br />
from the 15 th century, became ever more popular after the<br />
establishment <strong>of</strong> the festival <strong>of</strong> the Madonna <strong>of</strong> the Rosary<br />
precisely by Pius V. The festival was created following the<br />
Victory <strong>of</strong> Lepanto to give thanks to the Madonna. In<br />
counter-reformed Siena this subject 7 was requested to<br />
artists by religious patrons, by the brotherhoods dedicated<br />
to the Dominican patron saint and by private citizens.<br />
1 Please refer to the very recent and extended study on the artist<br />
written by M. Ciampolini, Pittori senesi del Seicento, 3 vols.,<br />
Poggibonsi (Siena), 2010, vol. III (Marcantonio Saracini-Stefano<br />
Volpi), pp. 897-1016 (with preceding bibliography). In order to<br />
study Vanni’s <strong>drawings</strong> the following contributions are essential:<br />
P. A. Riedl, Disegni dei barocceschi senesi (Francesco Vanni e Ventura<br />
Salimbeni), exhibition catalogue, Florence, 1976; C. Gar<strong>of</strong>alo,<br />
Francesco Vanni (Siena, 1563-1610), in Nel segno di Barocci. Allievi<br />
e seguaci tra Marche, Umbria e Siena, exhibition catalogue by A.M.<br />
Ambrosini Massari and M. Cellini, Milan, 2005, pp. 346-369;<br />
C. Gar<strong>of</strong>alo, Aggiunte al “corpus” grafico di Francesco Vanni, in<br />
“Commentari d’arte”, XIV, 39-40, 2008, p. 26-50.<br />
2 Cf. C. Gar<strong>of</strong>alo 2008, cit., p. 26 and note 1.<br />
3 Inv. S.II.3, c. 1r a.; cf. C. Gar<strong>of</strong>alo 2008, p. 29, fig. 7; p. 33 and<br />
note 53.<br />
4 Francesco Vanni. Art in Late Renaissance Siena, exhibition catalogue<br />
by J. Marciari and S. Boorsch, Yale, 2013, p. 68, fig. 8a.<br />
5 Doctor Marciari, whom we thank here, expressed this opinion<br />
upon seeing the drawing in a photographic reproduction.<br />
6 Ashmolean Museum, University <strong>of</strong> Oxford, inv. N. WA1998,174.<br />
Cf. J. Marciari, in Francesco Vanni, 2013, cit., pp. 217-218, sheet<br />
no. 79.<br />
7 By scrutinising the detailed list <strong>of</strong> works by Vanni compiled by<br />
M. Ciampolini cit., 2010 the only one with this subject is the<br />
Madonna <strong>of</strong> the Rosary and St. Pius V in the Co-cathedral <strong>of</strong> St.<br />
Peter and Paul in Pitigliano, dated 1609.<br />
Luisa Berretti
5<br />
Giuseppe Cesari called Cavalier d’Arpino<br />
Arpino 1568 - 1640 Rome<br />
St. Mark and David with the head <strong>of</strong> Goliath within two niches<br />
Pen, brown ink, brown washes, heightened with white on laid paper<br />
194 x 180 mm (7 ⅝ x 7 ⅛ in.)<br />
Provenance: Jean-François Gigoux, Paris and Besançon (L. 1164); Raymond de Bailleul (?);<br />
Jean de Bailleul, Paris (L. 335); Alfred Normand, Paris (L. 153c).<br />
Appeared on the market as a work by Cherubino Alberti<br />
(1553-1615), this attractive double drawing is in fact an<br />
early work by Giuseppe Cesari.<br />
Originally from Arpino, Giuseppe, son <strong>of</strong> Muzio Cesari,<br />
not a very talented provincial painter, trained in Rome<br />
where his family moved to, probably by the first half <strong>of</strong><br />
the 1570s. In the Eternal City, according to Giovanni<br />
Baglione, who dedicated one <strong>of</strong> the most eulogistic<br />
biographical essays to the painter in his Vite de’ pittori,<br />
scultori et architetti (1642), Giuseppe Cesari started<br />
working as an assistant in the building sites <strong>of</strong> the Vatican<br />
lodges, where he was noticed by the superintendent<br />
Egnazio Danti; gifted with an early artistic sensitivity<br />
and a pr<strong>of</strong>ound and very bright talent, Cesari managed<br />
to free himself from the position <strong>of</strong> assistant to start<br />
out on his own and impose himself, in a very short<br />
space <strong>of</strong> time, on the Roman art scene. Responsible for<br />
the most important public building sites <strong>of</strong> the papal<br />
capital – amongst which the cycle <strong>of</strong> frescoes in the<br />
Salone dei Conservatori at the Campidoglio (1595-<br />
1. Giuseppe Cesari called Cavalier d’Arpino, Justice <strong>of</strong> Brutus, pen,<br />
brown ink, brown washes, heightened with white on laid paper, 460<br />
x 751 mm (18 ⅛ x 29 ½ in.), Département des Arts graphiques,<br />
Musée du Louvre, Paris.<br />
1639), the decoration <strong>of</strong> the transept <strong>of</strong> the Basilica <strong>of</strong><br />
San Giovanni in Laterano (1599-1600) and the mosaic<br />
on the cupola <strong>of</strong> St. Peter’s Basilica (1603-1612) –, and<br />
creator <strong>of</strong> numerous devotional and pr<strong>of</strong>ane paintings,<br />
Giuseppe Cesari was at the head <strong>of</strong> the most important<br />
artistic workshop in Rome between the end <strong>of</strong> the<br />
1500’s and halfway through the following century 1 .<br />
The two <strong>drawings</strong> that we present here belong to<br />
the early stage <strong>of</strong> Giuseppe Cesari’s career, to whom<br />
these can be attributed without reservation by means<br />
<strong>of</strong> stylistic comparisons with other sheets already<br />
attributed to the painter. For example, the Study for a<br />
nude male in the Kupferstichkabinett in Berlin (fig. 2)<br />
perhaps a preparatory drawing for the figure <strong>of</strong> Samson<br />
depicted whilst he battles the lion in a fresco on the Scala<br />
Sancta 2 , or the Justice <strong>of</strong> Brutus in the Louvre, which has<br />
recently been attributed to Cesari by the writer (fig. 1) 3 ,<br />
or, again, the Project for the ceiling <strong>of</strong> the Olgiati chapel,<br />
held today in the Gabinetto Disegni e Stampe at the<br />
Uffizi 4 . These sheets were executed, precisely like the St.<br />
Mark and David with the head <strong>of</strong> Goliath, according to<br />
a technique, which Cesari used very frequently during<br />
his earliest years <strong>of</strong> activity. This followed the example<br />
<strong>of</strong> artists operating in Rome between the 1560s and<br />
70s, and in particular <strong>of</strong> Raffaellino Motta da Reggio,<br />
a point <strong>of</strong> reference to all the young painters <strong>of</strong> Cesari’s<br />
generation 5 . Pen is used to mark the outline <strong>of</strong> the<br />
figures, and brown wash applied extensively over the<br />
sheet, is used to give body to the volumes, which are<br />
emphasised with white lead applied in a thick weave <strong>of</strong><br />
parallel and crossed hatching.<br />
The same facial features <strong>of</strong> the figures from the round<br />
and sunken eyes, circled by a shadow, the small mouths<br />
matched with pointed noses, are typical stylistic<br />
expressions <strong>of</strong> the very young Arpino. He must have<br />
created the two sheets around halfway through the
2. Giuseppe Cesari called Cavalier d’Arpino, Study for a nude male,<br />
pen, brown ink, brown washes on laid paper , 280 x 175 mm<br />
(11 x 6 ⅞ in.), Kupferstichkabinett, Staatliche Museen, Berlin.<br />
1580s, close in date to the previously recalled Justice <strong>of</strong><br />
Brutus, which should be placed around 1586. Although<br />
stylistic analysis <strong>of</strong> the two pieces allows them to be easily<br />
placed within a precise chronological window, the St.<br />
Mark and David with the head <strong>of</strong> Goliath are not precisely<br />
linked to any <strong>of</strong> the painted works attributed to the<br />
young Arpino. One can imagine the two figures within<br />
niches to be part <strong>of</strong> a large decoration, with the idea <strong>of</strong><br />
filling the spaces in the walls next to vastly sized scenes.<br />
For example, this layout characterises the old Room <strong>of</strong><br />
the Swiss Guards in the Vatican, where, around 1583,<br />
Cesari «figure di chiaro, e scuro Sansone, che porta in spalla<br />
le porte della città di gazza» 6 , or in the Sala dei Palafrenieri<br />
in which Arpino painted some <strong>of</strong> the figures <strong>of</strong> the<br />
Apostles 7 . Amongst these a painted St. Mark has also been<br />
attributed to Arpino, however, it is executed using forms<br />
which are rather different to those which characterise the<br />
apostle in our drawing. With the evangelist in the Vatican<br />
fresco, it only shares the pose <strong>of</strong> the legs, the flexed and<br />
slightly raised right and the extended left. In the Sala<br />
Palafrenieri, depictions <strong>of</strong> figures and episodes from the<br />
Old Testament are missing, such as the David drawn on<br />
the right hand <strong>of</strong> our sheet. This, in my opinion, was<br />
imagined for the same decoration <strong>of</strong> the St. Mark, as the<br />
lighting on the figures, who are struck by an intense glow<br />
originating from the left, appears to suggest.
The drawing, destined therefore to a large decoration,<br />
either lost or which was created with a different<br />
iconography to that expressed in the sheet that<br />
we present here for the first time with its correct<br />
attribution, reveals the strength and excellence <strong>of</strong> the<br />
very young Arpino. It represents one <strong>of</strong> the artist’s<br />
earliest known works on paper, and certainly one <strong>of</strong><br />
the most fascinating due to its refined execution and<br />
formal elegance.<br />
Marco Simone Bolzoni<br />
1 With regards to the painted work <strong>of</strong> Giuseppe Cesari see the<br />
crucial monograph by Herwarth Röttgen and to the monograph<br />
exhibition catalogue dedicated to the painter and written by the<br />
same author: Il Cavalier d’Arpino, exhibition catalogue by H.<br />
Röttgen, Rome, Palazzo Venezia, 1973; H. Röttgen, Il Cavalier<br />
Giuseppe Cesari d’Arpino: un grande pittore nello splendore della<br />
fama e nell’incostanza della fortuna, Rome, 2002.<br />
2 Berlin, Staatliche Museen, Kupferstichkabinett, Inv. K. d. Z.<br />
406; cf. M. S. Bolzoni, Il Cavalier Giuseppe Cesari d’Arpino.<br />
Maestro del disegno, Rome, 2013, p. 15, fig. 6, p. 164, cat. 4<br />
(with preceding bibliography).<br />
3 Paris, Musée du Louvre, Inv. 10550; cf. M. S. Bolzoni, Il<br />
Cavalier Giuseppe Cesari d’Arpino. Maestro del disegno, Rome,<br />
2013, p. 17, fig. 7, pp. 161-162, cat. 2.<br />
4 Florence, Gabinetto Disegni e Stampe, Uffizi, Inv. 906 E; cf.<br />
M. S. Bolzoni, Il Cavalier Giuseppe Cesari d’Arpino. Maestro<br />
del disegno, Rome, 2013, p. 21, fig. 11, p. 228, cat. 73 (with<br />
preceding bibliography).<br />
5 Regarding the relationship between Raffaellino da Reggio<br />
and Giuseppe Cesari see: M. S. Bolzoni, Il Cavalier Giuseppe<br />
Cesari d’Arpino. Maestro del disegno, Rome, 2013, p. 11 and ff.;<br />
on Raffaellino da Reggio see M. S. Bolzoni, The Drawings <strong>of</strong><br />
Raffaellino Motta da Reggio, in “Master Drawings”, 54, 2, <strong>2016</strong>,<br />
pp. 147-204.<br />
6 G. Baglione, Vite de’ pittori, scultori et architetti, Rome, 1642,<br />
edition by J. Hess, H. Röttgen, Vatican City, 1995, p. 368<br />
[270].<br />
7 Regarding the painted decoration <strong>of</strong> the two rooms see H.<br />
Röttgen, Il Cavalier Giuseppe Cesari d’Arpino: un grande pittore<br />
nello splendore della fama e nell’incostanza della fortuna, Rome,<br />
2002, pp. 227-231, cat. 2-3.
6<br />
Giovanni Andrea Donducci called Il Mastelletta<br />
Bologna 1575 - 1655<br />
Recto: The Preaching <strong>of</strong> St. John the Baptist<br />
Pen, brown ink, brown wash, squared in black chalk on light blue watermarked laid paper<br />
Verso: Three studies <strong>of</strong> heads in pr<strong>of</strong>ile<br />
Red chalk on light blue watermarked laid paper<br />
336 x 225 mm (13 ¼ x 8 ⅞ in.)<br />
The main source for the life <strong>of</strong> the Bolognese painter<br />
Giovanni Andrea Donducci, better known as<br />
Mastelletta 1 , is the biography by Carlo Cesare Malvasia<br />
who remembers him as an odd, hypochondriac,<br />
antisocial man: «Nemico degli amici, sospettoso con<br />
tutti, in odio a se stesso, fantastico, impraticabile,<br />
peggio insomma che bestia [...] Ritiratosi in una casetta<br />
nel disabitato, in fondo alle Moline, vi si riduceva<br />
straora, acciò non si sapesse, ed osservasse qual fosse la<br />
sua abitazione: vi stava ascosto settimane intere, senza<br />
lasciati vedere» 2 . It’s in these reckless features that<br />
Malvasia, not a great admirer <strong>of</strong> Mastelletta’s work,<br />
believed he could see traces <strong>of</strong> also in the paintings<br />
by the Bolognese artist. However, it’s precisely the<br />
uncommon character, sometimes even visionary, that<br />
characterises the creations <strong>of</strong> Mastelletta, which has so<br />
fascinated the modern critic.<br />
If his paintings have recently been described and<br />
fully reassessed for their uniqueness - in the context<br />
<strong>of</strong> 17 th century Bolognese painting - for their formal<br />
characteristics, Mastelletta’s <strong>drawings</strong> instead have<br />
not yet received the same attention, probably due to<br />
their exiguous number. Indeed very few examples <strong>of</strong><br />
these are preserved and the famous corpus <strong>of</strong> sheets<br />
attributed with certainty to Mastelletta comprise only<br />
about ten.<br />
Therefore, The Preaching <strong>of</strong> the Baptist reveals itself as<br />
a rare work within Mastelletta’s oeuvre. In the biblical<br />
episode, which depicts St. John whilst he announces<br />
the coming <strong>of</strong> Christ to the crowd, certain formulae<br />
typical <strong>of</strong> Emilian painting <strong>of</strong> the end <strong>of</strong> the 16 th<br />
century can be identified, a style which Mastelletta<br />
always looked at throughout the course <strong>of</strong> his career.<br />
A passionate admirer <strong>of</strong> the formal elegance <strong>of</strong><br />
Parmigianino (1503-1540) and <strong>of</strong> Nicolò dell’Abate<br />
(1512-1571) - reminders <strong>of</strong> their work consistently<br />
reappear in the that <strong>of</strong> our artist - Mastelletta developed<br />
a style made up <strong>of</strong> curving lines, and slender, slim,<br />
elegant small figures, like those we see in his paintings<br />
and in the present drawing. The same abundant use <strong>of</strong><br />
brown ink applied over the sheet in wide and light<br />
movements, is reminiscent <strong>of</strong> Emilian graphic art<br />
<strong>of</strong> the second half <strong>of</strong> the 16 th century. The pictorial<br />
qualities <strong>of</strong> The Preaching are directly linked to the<br />
extreme freedom <strong>of</strong> the Mastelletta’s paintings, which<br />
appear to be almost “improvised” on the canvas,<br />
without the guide <strong>of</strong> a preparatory drawing.<br />
Verso
Our sheet, however, must certainly have been employed<br />
for the execution <strong>of</strong> a painting, given that it’s completely<br />
squared up ready for the project to be recreated in larger<br />
format. It is not known, however, which work the sheet<br />
was a preparatory study for. Within Mastelletta’s oeuvre<br />
only three paintings are known <strong>of</strong> the same subject: the<br />
first in a private collection, the second in Bologna in the<br />
sacristy <strong>of</strong> St. Mary <strong>of</strong> the Servants, and the third, whose<br />
location remains unknown, has recently appeared on<br />
the art market 3 . Only with the latter, although it doesn’t<br />
exactly match our composition, it shares not only the<br />
vertical format but also the same style <strong>of</strong> executing the<br />
figures with tiny heads on slender silhouettes.<br />
Similar features, which characterise our drawing can be<br />
found in the earlier well-known paintings by Mastelletta,<br />
such as Moses releasing water from the rock and the<br />
Crossing <strong>of</strong> the Red Sea in the Galleria Spada 4 . In these<br />
one can find the same taste for crowded compositions,<br />
arranged with compact groups, and with figures “in the<br />
abyss” in the immediate foreground, which appears to<br />
be a typical solution <strong>of</strong> the 16 th century but which was<br />
still employed by Mastelletta in the first decades <strong>of</strong> the<br />
17 th century, the date which the two Roman paintings are<br />
attributed to, probably executed around 1630. Following<br />
a careful analysis <strong>of</strong> these compositional similarities, it<br />
can be suggested, albeit cautiously, that our Preaching <strong>of</strong><br />
the Baptist was also produced around the same time to<br />
that attributed to the paintings.<br />
As already mentioned at the start <strong>of</strong> this essay, <strong>drawings</strong><br />
by Mastelletta are rare. The most consistent group is held<br />
at the British Museum in London: The Coronation <strong>of</strong> a<br />
Saint lying on her deathbed 5 , in pen and coloured washes,<br />
seems to be, <strong>of</strong> the few pieces attributed with a degree <strong>of</strong><br />
certainty to our painter, the most similar to our sheet.<br />
In particular, the faces <strong>of</strong> the figures, “summarised” in<br />
quick, minute lines to indicate the eyes, nose and mouth,<br />
agree closely with the physical features which typify the<br />
figures in The Preaching <strong>of</strong> the Baptist.<br />
1 For more information on the painter, see: A. Coliva, Il Mastelletta.<br />
Giovanni Andrea Donducci 1575-1655, Rome, 1980; A. Coliva in<br />
Dizionario biografico degli Italiani, ad vocem Donducci, Giovanni<br />
Andrea, detto il Mastelletta, vol. 41, 1992; D. Benati, Giovanni<br />
Andrea Donducci, detto il Mastelletta un “genio bizzarro”, Bologna,<br />
2007.<br />
2 Cf. C. C. Malvasia, Felsina pittrice. Vite dei pittori bolognesi [1678],<br />
Bologna 1841, vol. II, pp. 67-72.<br />
3 For the first two paintings see: A. Coliva, Il Mastelletta. Giovanni<br />
Andrea Donducci 1575-1655, Rome, 1980, pp. 94-95, cat. 10, p.<br />
135, cat. 97; the third painting (Current location unknown, oil on<br />
canvas, 43 x 33 cm) recently appeared on the art market at Boetto<br />
auction house, on 22 February <strong>2016</strong>, lot 168.<br />
4 Cf. A. Coliva, Il Mastelletta. Giovanni Andrea Donducci 1575-1655,<br />
Rome, 1980, pp. 90-91, cat. 3-4.<br />
5 London, British Museum, Inv. 1980, 1011.3, pen, brown ink,<br />
brown and green wash, 173 x 126 mm; the drawing is mentioned<br />
in: Le génie de Bologne des Carracci aux Gandolfi: dessins des XVIIe<br />
et XVIIIe siècles (Les dessins en Italie dans les collections publiques<br />
françaises), exhibition catalogue by C. Loisel, cat. 29.
7<br />
Giovan Mauro della Rovere called Il Fiamminghino<br />
Milan 1575 - 1640<br />
The temptations <strong>of</strong> a hermit saint(?)<br />
Pen and brown ink, with brown wash, heightened with white, over blue laid paper<br />
213 x 207 mm (8 ⅜ x 8 ⅛ in.)<br />
Inscriptions: on the old mount, bottom left corner in ink Gio. Mauro Roveri.<br />
Also well-known as Fiammenghino, Giovanni Mauro<br />
della Rovere was born in Milan to a father <strong>of</strong> Flemish<br />
origins (hence the nickname) and a Lombard mother.<br />
According to the artistic biography dedicated to him by<br />
Pellegrino Antonio Orlandi in his Pictorial A - Z (1704)<br />
Giovanni Mauro carried out his artistic apprenticeship<br />
initially in the studio <strong>of</strong> Camillo and later in that <strong>of</strong><br />
Giulio Cesare Procaccini 1 . In collaboration with his<br />
elder brother Giovanni Battista (1561-pre-1633), also a<br />
painter, Giovanni Mauro della Rovere worked tirelessly<br />
from a very young age on the many assignments<br />
commissioned to the family “firm” which in short became<br />
one <strong>of</strong> the most active studios in Lombardy between the<br />
end <strong>of</strong> the 16 th and halfway through the 17 th centuries,<br />
so much so that Orlandi remembers that «non v’è angolo,<br />
Chiesa o Palagio, nei quali non si ritrovino pennellate dei<br />
Fiammenghini » 2 .<br />
Giovanni Mauro worked by himself, and with enormous<br />
success, for the whole <strong>of</strong> the 17 th century, thus establishing<br />
himself as one <strong>of</strong> the most highly esteemed artists <strong>of</strong> his<br />
time. Amongst the many works by his hand, the ones<br />
which stand out due to the refinement <strong>of</strong> execution are<br />
Gloria in the church <strong>of</strong> Saints Gusmeo and Matteo in<br />
Gravedona (1608), the Stories <strong>of</strong> the Virgin in the Rosary<br />
chapel in the church <strong>of</strong> San Martino, Montemezzo (1619)<br />
and the frescoes in the church <strong>of</strong> the Baptist in Brenzio<br />
(1628-29). Our sheet, hitherto unpublished, relates to<br />
his mature years between the twenties and thirties <strong>of</strong><br />
the 17 th century, and is similar in technique and style to<br />
the three autograph works by Fiammenghino compiled<br />
by Sebastiano Resta in his Galleria Portabile (Milan,<br />
Ambrosian Library) 3 and to the one portraying a draped<br />
male figure held in London at the British Museum 4 . As<br />
suggested by the inscription located on the lower right<br />
hand side <strong>of</strong> the London sheet, this was formerly attributed<br />
to the Lombard painter Paolo Lomazzo, who was<br />
inspired in his graphical productions by Fiammenghino,<br />
especially in the years <strong>of</strong> his maturity. Indeed, the works<br />
<strong>of</strong> the two artists are comparable by the use <strong>of</strong> blue paper<br />
and <strong>of</strong> washes, which contrast with the lead white and are<br />
distributed over the paper using full-bodied and textured<br />
strokes. It is precisely this attention to the pictorial<br />
effects which typifies our sheet, one <strong>of</strong> the most unique<br />
features <strong>of</strong> Fiammenghino’s drawing is that throughout<br />
the course <strong>of</strong> his career he always favoured the use<br />
<strong>of</strong> paper and washes (in particular blue) in his quest<br />
for refined colour effects. The speed <strong>of</strong> execution, the<br />
familiarity with the fresco technique and the narrative<br />
ease <strong>of</strong> Fiammenghino sparked huge demand for the<br />
artist, in particular for the creation <strong>of</strong> extensive cycles<br />
<strong>of</strong> mural paintings. Perhaps our drawing also relates to<br />
a cycle <strong>of</strong> paintings now lost or not yet found. Indeed,<br />
its subject has proven problematic to identify. In the<br />
foreground, lying on the ground, with her arms raised<br />
to the sky as a sign <strong>of</strong> wonder, is a woman, in front<br />
<strong>of</strong> whom is a monk, whilst a third figure appears on a<br />
cloud, a man (perhaps an angelic figure) ready to release<br />
the arrow from the large crossbow he clutches with both<br />
his hands. The pose <strong>of</strong> ostentatious devotion <strong>of</strong> the<br />
woman, the participation <strong>of</strong> the angel and the setting <strong>of</strong><br />
the scene (a rocky cleft at the bottom <strong>of</strong> which one can<br />
glimpse the outline <strong>of</strong> a rugged landscape) could lead<br />
one to believe that the drawing depicts the temptation<br />
<strong>of</strong> a hermit saint, as we have suggested in the title <strong>of</strong><br />
this sheet. However, it lacks the iconographic elements<br />
necessary to immediately identify the subject portrayed,<br />
that is, the attributes <strong>of</strong> the saint, the halos around the<br />
heads <strong>of</strong> the characters and the wings <strong>of</strong> the angel. This<br />
omission could perhaps be connected to how finished<br />
the drawing is. Indeed, the sheet could represent an<br />
intermediate stage <strong>of</strong> the fine-tuning <strong>of</strong> the depiction,<br />
between the sketch and the finished drawing.<br />
1 A. Orlandi, Abecedario pittorico ecc , Bologna, 1704, p. 224.<br />
2 Ibidem. Amongst the many works completed in collaboration<br />
with Giovanni Battista, the large paintings in the cathedral in<br />
Milan featuring the Stories <strong>of</strong> the life <strong>of</strong> St Carlo Borromeo (1602-<br />
03), or those <strong>of</strong> the Sacro Monte d’Orta (1607-08) have to be<br />
remembered.<br />
3 G. Bora, I disegni del Codice Resta, Cinisello Balsamo (Milan),<br />
1976, cat. 95-96 and 156.<br />
4 London, British Museum, Inv. no. 1946,0713.360; pen, black<br />
and grey ink, heightened with white, over black chalk, on blue<br />
paper, 336 x 220 mm.
8 Pietro Novelli, known as Il Monrealese<br />
Monreale 1603 - 1647 Palermo<br />
The Holy Communion <strong>of</strong> St. Mary Magdalen<br />
Pen, brown ink, watercoloured ink and chalk on laid paper. Squared in chalk and incised for transfer.<br />
350 x 237 mm (13 ¾ x 9 ⅜ in.)<br />
Inscriptions: bottom centre with an old attribution in ink P. Novello; bottom centre and on the right edge old<br />
numbering Pa.ri 9 e 13.<br />
Exhibited: AA.VV., Ritorno al Barocco da Caravaggio a Vanvitelli, exhibition catalogue, Naples, 2009, n o 3.<br />
One <strong>of</strong> the most celebrated artists in 17 th century<br />
Sicily, Pietro Novelli, better known as Il Monrealese,<br />
received his first training in the workshop <strong>of</strong> his father,<br />
the painter and mosaicist Pietro Antonio (1568-1625).<br />
Even though little is known <strong>of</strong> Pietro’s earliest career,<br />
1. Pietro Novelli know as Il Monrealese, The Holy Communion <strong>of</strong> St.<br />
Mary Magdalen, oil on canvas, 333 x 352 cm, Galleria Regionale<br />
della Sicilia, Palermo.<br />
works as Daniel in the Lion’s Den, in the Abbey <strong>of</strong><br />
Monreale (1629), or the Coronation <strong>of</strong> the Virgin in the<br />
church <strong>of</strong> San Domenico (1630), Palermo, reveal the<br />
influence <strong>of</strong> the Flemish Baroque painter Anthony Van<br />
Dyck 1 , an artist Novelli may have come into contact<br />
with through the many Genoese and Flemish painters<br />
working in Sicily during the 1620s.<br />
According to his biographers, Pietro first travelled to<br />
Rome and then to Naples. Close links to the art <strong>of</strong><br />
Ribera, Battistello Caracciolo, Massimo Stanzione and<br />
Andrea Vaccaro appear, in fact, in Novelli’s <strong>of</strong> the 1630’s,<br />
as The Miracle <strong>of</strong> St. Francis Xavier (Naples, Chiesa del<br />
Gesù Nuovo) or Joseph’s Brothers Showing His Bloody<br />
Tunic to Jacob (Palermo, Tasca d’Almerita collection).<br />
Back to Palermo, Novelli received numerous prestigious<br />
private and public commissions; in 1636 he was<br />
appointed Engineer and Architect <strong>of</strong> the Senate <strong>of</strong><br />
Palermo, and in 1643 Engineer <strong>of</strong> the Kingdom. 2<br />
As noted by the art historian Maurizio Calvesi, Novelli’s<br />
substantial output is at once the product both <strong>of</strong> eclectic<br />
contamination and influence (ranging from Rubens and<br />
Van Dyck to Ribera, Domenichino and the Carracci<br />
family) and <strong>of</strong> the search for an ideal <strong>of</strong> “<strong>master</strong>y” and <strong>of</strong><br />
expert measure, <strong>of</strong> the “proper distance” between man<br />
and the deity, in which dignified depiction becomes the<br />
unfailing goal <strong>of</strong> his creativity 3 . All <strong>of</strong> these elements can<br />
be easily detected in our drawing, a rare and exquisite<br />
example <strong>of</strong> Novelli’s draughtsmanship. A preparatory<br />
study for the altarpiece with The Holy Communion <strong>of</strong> St.<br />
Mary Magdalen in the church <strong>of</strong> Santa Cita, the present<br />
drawing was executed between 1637 and 1642 when<br />
the Dominicans fathers commissioned the painting for<br />
the order’s church in Palermo (fig. 1) 4 .<br />
The Dominican Order’s patron saint since 1279, when<br />
her remains were discovered in the crypt <strong>of</strong> the Abbey<br />
<strong>of</strong> Saint Maximin in Provence, France, the protagonist
<strong>of</strong> the present drawing, St. Mary Magdalene, was a much venerated<br />
saint, particularly after the Council <strong>of</strong> Trent. The drawing’s iconography<br />
is inspired by Provençal sources, which claim that after Christ’s death,<br />
Magdalene travelled to South France with her sister Martha, her brother<br />
Lazarus and the Bishop Maximinus. After converting local pagan princes<br />
to Christianity, she retired to lead a penitent’s life on the mountain <strong>of</strong> St.<br />
Baume, where she dwelt in a cave for thirty years. As death approached,<br />
the angels who had come to her aid during her time as a hermit carried her<br />
to Aix-en-Provence, where Bishop Maximinus administered her the Holy<br />
Communion.<br />
This is moment <strong>of</strong> the life <strong>of</strong> Saint Magdalene selected by Pietro Novelli<br />
for his painting. Few differences distinguish Novelli’s first design from the<br />
final painted composition: the architectural setting, the figures <strong>of</strong> the angels<br />
on the upper left, the pose <strong>of</strong> the angel holding St. Maximinus’ stole with<br />
one hand and a candle with the other in the lower corner <strong>of</strong> the canvas.<br />
Furthermore, in the painting the head <strong>of</strong> the angel in the foreground is<br />
turned towards us, almost as though he was trying to draw the observer’s<br />
attention. In the perfect balance struck between its various parts, the<br />
painting reveals the direct influence <strong>of</strong> Domenichino’s Communion <strong>of</strong> St.<br />
Jerome (1614), while in the skilled juxtaposition <strong>of</strong> colours recalls Rubens’<br />
Last Communion <strong>of</strong> St. Francis (1616). A certain realistic appeal finds<br />
inspiration in the Neapolitan painting.<br />
In addition to being one <strong>of</strong> the most exquisite examples <strong>of</strong> Novelli’s artistic<br />
maturity, the present drawing is also one <strong>of</strong> the extremely rare handful <strong>of</strong><br />
<strong>drawings</strong> that have come down to us, in which we can discern such a high<br />
level <strong>of</strong> formal definition 5 . In fact, what we are looking at is a fully-fledged<br />
preparatory drawing, squared for transfer and extremely meticulous in<br />
every detail, to which the accomplished use <strong>of</strong> watercolour confers both<br />
depth and strong effects <strong>of</strong> chiaroscuro.<br />
This elegant drawing also displays a highly successful and possibly unique<br />
compositional synthesis in which Novelli expresses his experience both as<br />
a painter and as an architect in a <strong>master</strong>ly balance.<br />
1 The Flemish painter had despatched the Madonna <strong>of</strong> the Rosary for the Oratory <strong>of</strong> the<br />
Rosary in San Domenico from Genoa prior to 1628.<br />
2 Novelli’s paintings – depicting for the most part religious subjects - are conserved in<br />
some <strong>of</strong> the most prestigious Sicilian churches and in the major public collections, in<br />
Italy and abroad. Most <strong>of</strong> these are to be found in the Galleria Regionale della Sicilia<br />
in Palermo and in the Museo Nazionale di Capodimonte in Naples; the list <strong>of</strong> foreign<br />
museums displaying his work includes the Gemäldegalerie in the Kunsthistorisches<br />
Museum in Vienna and the Paul Getty Museum in Malibu.<br />
3 In this connection, see the introduction to the splendid and extremely significant<br />
exhibition entitled Pietro Novelli e il suo ambiente in the exhibition catalogue, Palermo,<br />
1990, pp. 19–20.<br />
4 See AA.VV., Pietro Novelli e il suo ambiente, exhibition catalogue, Palermo, 1990, pp.<br />
320–322.<br />
5 We know <strong>of</strong> one other example, the Assumption <strong>of</strong> the Virgin now in the Galleria<br />
Regionale della Sicilia in Palermo (inv. vol.1565/10), it too a preparatory study for<br />
an altarpiece for the church <strong>of</strong> the Capuchin Friars in Ragusa painted in 1635. See S.<br />
Grasso, Appunti sui disegni figurativi di Pietro Novelli, in AA.VV., Pietro Novelli e il suo<br />
ambiente, exhibition catalogue, Palermo, 1990, pp. 370 - 455. In particular, cat. III.20,<br />
pp. 390–392.
9<br />
Vincenzo Dandini<br />
Florence 1607 - 1675<br />
Recto: Reason refrains Will to embrace Sense and Pleasure<br />
Pen and brown ink on laid paper<br />
Verso: Two full figure studies for a Penitent St. Mary Magdalen;<br />
Three quarter lenghth study for a Penitent St. Mary Magdalen<br />
Pen, brown ink and red chalk on laid paper<br />
144 x 207 mm (5 ⅝ x 8 ⅛ in.)<br />
Inscriptions: on the recto to the centre in ink Piacere Senso volonta ragione.<br />
Having trained in Florence in the studio <strong>of</strong> his elder brother<br />
Cesare (1596-1657), Vincenzo Dandini continued his<br />
apprenticeship in the studios <strong>of</strong> Domenico Cresti from<br />
Passignano, Matteo Rosselli and Andrea Commodi<br />
and commenced his painting career by enrolling at the<br />
Accademia del Disegno in 1631. 1 From the biography<br />
Life dedicated to him halfway through the eighteenth<br />
century by the famous Florentine naturalist Giovanni<br />
Targioni Tozzetti (1712-1783) (the descendent <strong>of</strong> the<br />
two brothers and <strong>of</strong> their nephew, Pietro di Ottaviano<br />
Dandini (1646-1712), who was also a painter, as well as<br />
heir to the vast collection <strong>of</strong> original <strong>drawings</strong> then in<br />
the family’s possession) we learn that between 1635 and<br />
1636 Vincenzo visited Rome where, as well as copying<br />
from the Antique and from the works <strong>of</strong> Raphael,<br />
Michelangelo, Annibale Carracci, Domenichino and<br />
Lanfranco, he also attended the school <strong>of</strong> Pietro da<br />
Cortona. Thanks to his support he was awarded the<br />
first prize for painting at the Accademia di San Luca. 2<br />
After returning to Florence, Vincenzo Dandini spent<br />
the following twenty years fine tuning his own style<br />
which facilitated in a harmonic syncretism the constant<br />
cohesion with his brother Cesare with regard to the<br />
Cortonesque baroque, the classicism originating in<br />
Emilia-Romagna (Guido Reni, Domenichino, Nicolas<br />
Poussin, Andrea Sacchi) and the highly charged and<br />
sensual poetics typical <strong>of</strong> the exceptional production <strong>of</strong><br />
Francesco Furini (1603-1646).<br />
The indisputable <strong>master</strong>pieces <strong>of</strong> the central stage <strong>of</strong><br />
Dandini’s career are the large canvas <strong>of</strong> The Adoration<br />
<strong>of</strong> Niobe (Florence, Florentine Galleries storage, inv.<br />
1890, no. 8318), created between 1637 and 1638,<br />
commissioned by Don Lorenzo de’ Medici, 3 the slightly<br />
later Moses abandoned in the waters (New York, Marco<br />
Grassi collection), 4 the ‘Furinian’ Mercury, Herse and<br />
Love (Florence, Florentine Galleries storage, inv. 1890,<br />
no. 7800), formerly in the Medici family’s Villa di<br />
Castello and datable to the first half <strong>of</strong> the fifth decade<br />
<strong>of</strong> the seventeenth century 5 and finally, the beautiful<br />
Verso
octagon portraying Jeroboam and the prophet Achia<br />
(Florence, Major Seminary), painted in 1645 for the rich<br />
Florentine gentleman Gabriello Zuti. 6<br />
His entry into the secular company <strong>of</strong> San Benedetto<br />
Bianco and the progressive growth <strong>of</strong> a personal<br />
religiosity which was ever more committed and obvious,<br />
had a determining influence on the subsequent pictorial<br />
production <strong>of</strong> Vincenzo Dandini starting with the<br />
altarpiece with the Saints Andrea Zoerandro and Carlo<br />
Borromeo, signed and dated 1657 for the abbey <strong>of</strong> Santa<br />
Maria in Gradi, Arezzo, which signifies a real turning<br />
point in that sense. 7 Certain altar canvases in particular<br />
highlight the late activity <strong>of</strong> the artist during the seventh<br />
decade <strong>of</strong> the seventeenth century. Indeed, these were<br />
highly esteemed by his contemporaries, and which link<br />
together the elegance <strong>of</strong> the composition with its classicist<br />
Roman origins and the unavoidable references to Cesare<br />
Dandini with an overtly baroque solemnity <strong>of</strong> structure<br />
and eloquence. Those in question are, amongst the many<br />
others, the two altarpieces created in Prato respectively<br />
in 1663 and 1664 (St. Bernadine <strong>of</strong> Siena in glory in San<br />
Francesco al Palco and St. Hyacinth crushes the demon in<br />
San Domenico), the Martyrdom <strong>of</strong> St. Margaret (around<br />
1665 circa; Florence, church <strong>of</strong> Santa Margherita in<br />
Montici) 8 and the Descent <strong>of</strong> the Holy Spirit, documented<br />
in 1667 for the Florentine church <strong>of</strong> San Giorgio alla<br />
Costa and rediscovered in 2009 in the nearby convent <strong>of</strong><br />
the Holy Spirit. 9<br />
The three sketches distributed on both sides <strong>of</strong> the present<br />
sheet, previously attributed to Francesco Furini, in my<br />
opinion reflect the mature graphical style <strong>of</strong> Vincenzo<br />
Dandini in a period <strong>of</strong> undeniable interest in the<br />
painting <strong>of</strong> the great Florentine <strong>master</strong> who died in 1646<br />
(<strong>of</strong> whom our artist had possessed numerous autograph<br />
<strong>drawings</strong> 10 ) and for some <strong>of</strong> the fortunate compositional<br />
inventions launching his expertise in the first half <strong>of</strong><br />
the forties in three well-known room paintings. The<br />
desperate and thoughtless way the daughter <strong>of</strong> Lot throws<br />
herself at her mother transformed into a salt statue in the<br />
Furini canvas <strong>of</strong> the same name today held at the Horne<br />
museum 11 is shown again with just as much intensity in<br />
the fast movement, in opposition to the demon, granted<br />
by Vincenzo Dandini to the cited St. Hyacinth <strong>of</strong> Prato<br />
in 1664, as also in the symbolic personification <strong>of</strong> Will<br />
with arms outstretched (blind and winged as required<br />
by the Iconologia <strong>of</strong> Cesare Ripa) quickly outlined in<br />
pen on the verso <strong>of</strong> the sheet in question. On the verge<br />
<strong>of</strong> throwing herself, held back by Reason, towards<br />
Pleasure equipped with a harp, escorted by the Three<br />
Graces, and Sense portrayed as «un Giovane ignudo, &<br />
grasso (a naked and fat young man)». 12 The fact that the<br />
described moral allegory is a work by Vincenzo Dandini<br />
is shown by the evident style similarities, especially in<br />
the typical shortened portrayal <strong>of</strong> the faces and the legs,<br />
with some graphical examples in red chalk which can<br />
certainly be attributed to the later activity <strong>of</strong> the painter.<br />
For example, the well-known Appearance <strong>of</strong> the angel to<br />
the Saints Cecilia and Valeriano at the Louvre, datable<br />
to around 1662, 13 or the contemporaneous study for a<br />
Judith, which appeared on the Milanese art market in<br />
2007. 14<br />
A clear reinterpretation created by Vincenzo Dandini<br />
<strong>of</strong> another exceptional <strong>master</strong>piece by Francesco Furini,<br />
Agar and the angel now in the Piero Bigongiari collection<br />
in Florence, 15 we will now consider the two pen sketches<br />
on the verso <strong>of</strong> the present sheet (one <strong>of</strong> which is partial)<br />
<strong>of</strong> a female figure seated on the ground with her hands<br />
holding her face in a pathetic manner, both marked<br />
by a quick and tangled stroke and similar in date and<br />
style (perhaps for the purposes <strong>of</strong> the same pictorial<br />
composition) to a Penitent St. Mary Magdalen executed<br />
in pen, a typical example <strong>of</strong> the later <strong>drawings</strong> by the<br />
artist. 16<br />
But further and decisive confirmation regarding the<br />
Dandinian authorship <strong>of</strong> the <strong>drawings</strong> on the present<br />
sheet and to their very late dating, situated in the second<br />
half <strong>of</strong> the seventh decade <strong>of</strong> the seventeenth century,<br />
comes from the three-quarter figure <strong>of</strong> the Penitent St.<br />
Mary Magdalen drawn on the reverse in red chalk. The<br />
‘dressed’ variant <strong>of</strong> the famous Furinian prototype, which<br />
features an entirely nude figure, formerly in the Medici<br />
collections and now in Vienna 17 (which echoes the seated<br />
pose with the arms outstretched along the torso and the<br />
hands superimposed on the left thigh) the Saint shares<br />
the simplified characterisation <strong>of</strong> the face, with her gaze<br />
raised to Heaven, and the lightness <strong>of</strong> stroke outlining the<br />
clothes with two originals by Vincenzo Dandini, likewise<br />
in red chalk, both portraying a Holy Monk in prayer. 18<br />
Although conceived as a “room picture” as proven by the<br />
framing that defines the edges, this drawn Magdalen was<br />
transposed into paint by Vincenzo Dandini in the image<br />
<strong>of</strong> the same saint, slightly differing in the light twisting<br />
<strong>of</strong> the head that is beside the Virgin Mary in the cited<br />
altarpiece with the Descent <strong>of</strong> the Holy Spirit, executed<br />
in 1667.<br />
Maria Cecilia Fabbri
1 The biographical and pr<strong>of</strong>essional journey <strong>of</strong> Vincenzo Dandini<br />
was reconstructed some time ago by Sandro Bellesi in his recent<br />
monograph and the successive projects which result from this;<br />
Vincenzo Dandini e la pittura a Firenze alla metà del Seicento,<br />
Ospedaletto (Pisa), 2003 (with preceding bibliography);<br />
Dandini Vincenzo, in S. Bellesi, Catalogo dei Pittori Fiorentini<br />
‘600 e ‘700, 3 vols., Florence, 2009, I, pp. 127- 129; Il fratello<br />
di Cesare: Vincenzo Dandini, in S. Bellesi, Studi sulla pittura e<br />
scultura del ‘600 -‘700 a Firenze , Florence, 2013, pp. 35-46.<br />
2 Cf. Le Notizie della Vita di Vincenzio Dandini il Vecchio, by<br />
Giovanni Targioni Tozzetti, are kept at the National Central<br />
Library <strong>of</strong> Florence (Ms. Targioni Tozzetti 240, Band 323, cc,<br />
1-41), and were transcribed and publicised by Sandro Bellesi<br />
in Una Vita inedita di Vincenzo Dandini e appunti su Anton<br />
Domenico Gabbiani, Giovan Battista Marmi, Filippo Maria<br />
Galletti e altri, in “Paragone”, Nuova serie, no.s 9-10-11, 1988,<br />
pp. 97-123. This Notizie compensates for the lack <strong>of</strong> a biography<br />
expressly dedicated to the painter by Filippo Baldinucci.<br />
3 S. Bellesi, op. cit. 2003, pp. 80-83, no. 7 (with preceding bibl.).<br />
4 Ibid., pp. 85-86, no. 10 (with preceding bibl.).<br />
5 Ibid., pp. 92-93, no. 15 (with preceding bibl.).<br />
6 With regards to this octagon, belonging to the series <strong>of</strong> eight<br />
biblical scenes inherited in 1680 by the company San Benedetto<br />
Bianco (and also for everything regarding the discovery <strong>of</strong> the<br />
exact date), please refer to the very recent contribution <strong>of</strong> M.C.<br />
Fabbri, in Il Rigore e la Grazia. La Compagnia di San Benedetto<br />
Bianco nel Seicento fiorentino, exhibition catalogue (Florence,<br />
Palazzo Pitti, Palatine Chapel, 22 October 2015 – 17 May <strong>2016</strong>)<br />
by A. Grassi, M. Scipioni and G. Serafini, Livorno, 2015, pp.<br />
144-145, no. 18.<br />
7 The importance <strong>of</strong> the Arezzo altarpiece in the artistic journey <strong>of</strong><br />
Vincenzo Dandini has been widely proven by Sandro Bellesi (op.<br />
cit. 2003, pp. 28-29, 111-112, no. 33).<br />
8 See S. Bellesi, op. cit. 2003, pp. 11-117, no.s 35-36, pp. 119-<br />
120, no. 39. regarding these three canvases.<br />
9 S. Bellesi, op. cit. 2009, I, p. 128, II, fig. 460; S. Bellesi, op. cit.<br />
2013, pp. 44-45, figs. 28-28a.<br />
10 This news, inferred from documentary sources, was made known<br />
by Sandro Bellesi (Cesare Dandini, Turin, 1996, p. 212; op. cit.<br />
2003, 59, 68, note 33).<br />
11 F. Furini, La moglie di Lot, Florence, Museum <strong>of</strong> the Horne<br />
Foundation, inv, no. 7; cf. R. Maffeis, in Un’altra bellezza.<br />
Francesco Furini, exhibition catalogue (Florence, Palazzo Pitti,<br />
Museo degli Argenti, 22 December 2007 – 27 April 2008) by<br />
M. Gregori and R. Maffeis, Florence, 2007, pp. 226-227, no. 36<br />
(with preceding bibl.).<br />
12 Cf. C. Ripa, Iconologia, Rome, 1603, anastatic ed. Milan, 1992,<br />
p. 403.<br />
13 Cf. S. Bellesi, op. cit. 1988, p. 118, note 79, tav, 154; S. Bellesi,<br />
op. cit. 2003, pp. 166-167, no. 19.<br />
14 Cf. Books, Prints & Drawings, Sotheby’s, Milan, 26 June 2007,<br />
no. 52.<br />
15 Regarding this Furini painting, datable within the first half <strong>of</strong><br />
the fifth decade <strong>of</strong> the seventeenth century, and today in the<br />
possession <strong>of</strong> the Pistoia and Pisa Building Society, please see<br />
F. Baldassari, La collezione Piero ed Elena Bigongiari. Il Seicento<br />
fiorentino fra ‘favola’ e dramma, Milan, 2004, pp. 24; 128, no. 23;<br />
R. Maffeis, in op. cit. 2007, pp. 224-225, no. 35.<br />
16 Regarding this drawing (location unknown) see S. Bellesi, op.<br />
cit. 2003, pp. 169-170, no. 25.<br />
17 F. Furini, Maddalena Penintente, Vienna, Kunsthistorisches<br />
Museum, inv. no. 193; cf. R. Maffeis, in op. cit. 2007, pp. 218-<br />
219, no. 32 (with preceding bibl.).<br />
18 Regarding an example held in Florence at the Gabinetto Disegni<br />
e Stampe degli Uffizi, no. 15237 F (for which cf. S. Bellesi, op.<br />
cit. 2003, p. 120, no. 26) and the other sold at auction Books,<br />
Prints & Drawings, Sotheby’s, Milan, 26 June 2007, no. 54.
10<br />
Giacinto Gimignani<br />
Pistoia 1606 - 1681 Rome<br />
Alpheus and Arethusa<br />
Pen, brown ink, grey wash, heightened with white on prepared laid paper<br />
130 x 178 mm (5 ⅛ x 7 in.)<br />
Inscriptions: on the right edge <strong>of</strong> the sheet autograph inscription in brown ink fuggendo Aretusa e non trovando<br />
cui scamp[are] invocò Diana.<br />
Having received his early artistic training probably<br />
from his father Alessio, also a painter, Giacinto<br />
Gimignani moved from Tuscany to Rome when he was<br />
still young. Here, where his presence is documented<br />
from the 1630s, he worked for almost his whole life 1 .<br />
Under the supervision <strong>of</strong> Pietro da Cortona, who<br />
inspired his approach particularly in his youth,<br />
Giacinto Gimignani executed his first well-known<br />
work, the lunette depicting the Rest on the flight into<br />
Egypt, a fresco painting, in the chapel <strong>of</strong> the palazzo<br />
Barberini at the Quattro Fontane (1632). Amongst<br />
many works executed in Rome by Gimignani it is worth<br />
recalling the most famous in which, alongside clear<br />
stylistic hallmarks <strong>of</strong> Cortonesque origins, elements<br />
taken from the art <strong>of</strong> Poussin and Domenichino are<br />
introduced during the course <strong>of</strong> his long career: the<br />
decoration <strong>of</strong> the Sala delle donne illustri (1648) and<br />
that <strong>of</strong> Roman Histories in the Palazzo Pamphili in<br />
Piazza Navona, the many works carried out under the<br />
direction <strong>of</strong> Gian Lorenzo Bernini (amongst which the<br />
canvas with Elisha purifying the waters <strong>of</strong> Jericho in the<br />
Fonseca chapel in San Lorenzo in Lucina (1664) and<br />
the Glory <strong>of</strong> St. Thomas <strong>of</strong> Villanova in the Berninian<br />
church <strong>of</strong> Castelgandolfo (1661) ), and the frescoes in<br />
the courthouse <strong>of</strong> Santa Maria ai Monti (1675).<br />
The creator <strong>of</strong> numerous paintings <strong>of</strong> devotional nature,<br />
Giacinto Gimignani <strong>of</strong>ten tackled classic mythology<br />
which he sketched taking particular inspiration from<br />
Ovid’s Metamorphoses 2 . This is the case <strong>of</strong> our drawing,<br />
whose subject is taken from Ovid’s text and presented<br />
here for the first time. As can be read from the artist’s<br />
inscription along the right edge <strong>of</strong> the sheet (“ fuggendo<br />
Aretusa e non trovando cui scamp[are] invocò Diana”<br />
- “Arethusa fled and didn’t find a way to escape, so<br />
she prayed to Diana”), the drawing illustrates the fable<br />
<strong>of</strong> Alpheus and Arethusa (Metamorphoses, V, 572 and<br />
ff.): son <strong>of</strong> the Ocean god, Alpheus, personification <strong>of</strong><br />
the river <strong>of</strong> the same name, is in love with the nymph<br />
Arethusa, who, in order to escape the persistence <strong>of</strong><br />
the lover, takes refuge in Sicily, near Syracuse. Here,<br />
thanks to the intervention <strong>of</strong> the goddess Artemis,<br />
the young woman was transformed into a fountain<br />
<strong>of</strong> water. In the sheet, Gimignani decided to illustrate<br />
the decisive moment in the Ovidian tale, that is, the<br />
intervention <strong>of</strong> the goddess in favour <strong>of</strong> the nymph.<br />
Alpheus appears on the left, disorientated by the<br />
disappearance <strong>of</strong> the young woman, who is hidden<br />
from his view by the blanket <strong>of</strong> clouds upon which the<br />
goddess Artemis sits, who has descended from heaven<br />
to save her from her aggressor.<br />
The Ovidian subject, like other tales narrated in<br />
the Metamorphoses, enjoyed moderate success in the<br />
seventeenth century. Indeed, several versions <strong>of</strong> the<br />
subject are known, amongst which one <strong>of</strong> the most<br />
famous examples by Filippo Lauri (Rome 1623 –<br />
1694) held today at the Galleria Pallavicini in Rome 3 ,<br />
and one by Carlo Maratta (Camerano, 1625 – Rome,<br />
1713) which recently appeared on the market 4 . The<br />
story <strong>of</strong> Alpheus and Arethusa owes its popularity not<br />
only to the distinctly erotic shades <strong>of</strong> the tale, but also<br />
to the moralistic interpretation attributed to it: the<br />
fable was in fact an invitation to men to control their<br />
desire for women, which if left uncontrolled would<br />
lead to the loss <strong>of</strong> their loved one and to ruin.<br />
Our sheet is a preparatory drawing for the painting<br />
held today at the Museo Clemente Rospigliosi in<br />
Pistoia, where it is kept along with several <strong>of</strong> the<br />
series <strong>of</strong> twenty-five canvases executed by Gimignani<br />
during his stay in Tuscany in the 1650s for the family<br />
<strong>of</strong> his protégé, Giulio Rospigliosi 5 . The series, carried<br />
out in sequence, as indicated by the similarity <strong>of</strong> the<br />
subjects, the frames and the style, together makes up,<br />
in the words <strong>of</strong> Angela Negro, «ricordi romani (da<br />
Raffaello, dalla Galleria Farnese, dallo stesso Cortona)
actual size
aggiornandoli con il gusto morbido e decorato della<br />
pittura fiorentina del momento, con infusioni di ombre e<br />
arredi preziosi, in una dimensione larvatamente sensuale<br />
che richiama la cultura di Francesco Furini, ma anche<br />
l’astrazione idealizzante di Dolci» 6 .<br />
For the Rospigliosi paintings the critic has proposed<br />
a dating <strong>of</strong> around the first half <strong>of</strong> the sixth decade<br />
(1652-1654), a time frame around which therefore<br />
our preparatory study can be located. It was carried<br />
out as a project to be submitted for the approval <strong>of</strong> the<br />
patron, as demonstrated by the composed character <strong>of</strong><br />
the drawing. In the sheet, Giacinto Gimignani marks<br />
the edge <strong>of</strong> the canvas using a faint line and pauses to<br />
define some details: he draws the topography <strong>of</strong> the<br />
background landscape with precision, and traces with<br />
accuracy the surfaces touched by the light.<br />
The drawing, through its technique, style and<br />
composition, reveals itself as a typical work <strong>of</strong><br />
Gimignani as a draughtsman. The compositional<br />
arrangement <strong>of</strong> the sculptural figures, the horizontal<br />
layout <strong>of</strong> the image, similar to a bas-relief, are<br />
characteristic <strong>of</strong> the work <strong>of</strong> the Pistoiese painter,<br />
and so are the attention paid to the colouristic and<br />
painted effects in the drawing. Indeed Gimignani<br />
always demonstrated in his compositional <strong>drawings</strong> a<br />
certain inclination for tinted paper or coloured with<br />
paste on which he drew mostly with inks mixed with<br />
lead white, which was used in abundance to create<br />
chromatic contrast effects.<br />
If one wants to find a stylistic comparison for our<br />
drawing amongst the almost 160 sheets attributed to<br />
the painter, a large number <strong>of</strong> which are held in Rome<br />
at the Istituto Centrale per la Grafica, in Lipsia, in<br />
Düsseldorf and in Paris, one could mention Erminia<br />
amongst the shepherds in the Ashmolean Museum <strong>of</strong><br />
Oxford, also datable to the start <strong>of</strong> the 1650s 7 . This is a<br />
preparatory study for the painting <strong>of</strong> the same subject<br />
(signed and dated 1651), today in a private collection<br />
and datable very closely to Rospigliosi’s Alpheus and<br />
Arethusa. The English drawing, which is more finished<br />
in execution, is similar to ours in that it pays the<br />
same attention to chromatic effects and has the same<br />
decisive and confident hand, which reminds us, for the<br />
fluidity <strong>of</strong> the line, <strong>of</strong> the style <strong>of</strong> Pietro da Cortona,<br />
Gimignani’s first source <strong>of</strong> inspiration.<br />
1 For a full perspective on Giacinto Gimignani see: G. Di<br />
Domenico Cortese, Percorso di G. G., in “Commentarii”, XVII,<br />
1967, pp. 186-206; U. V. Fischer Pace, Les oeuvres de Giacinto<br />
Gimignani dans les collections publiques françaises, in “La Revue<br />
du Louvre et des Musées de France”, XVIII, 1978, 5-6, pp. 343-<br />
358; U. V. Fischer Pace, Disegni di Giacinto e Ludovico Gimignani<br />
nella collezione del Gabinetto nazionale delle stampe, catalogue<br />
by U. V. Fischer Pace, Rome, 1979; A. Negro, in Dizionario<br />
Biografico degli Italiani, ad vocem “Giacinto Gimignani”, vol. 54,<br />
2000.<br />
2 In 1637 Gimignani painted a canvas for a ceiling in the<br />
Villa Medici in Rome with Hero and Leander; cf. A. Negro,<br />
in Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani, ad vocem “Giacinto<br />
Gimignani”, vol. 54, 2000.<br />
The lost series <strong>of</strong> twelve paintings with mythological and<br />
allegorical subjects, which are recorded as being in the possession<br />
<strong>of</strong> Prince Mattias de’ Medici in a 1659 inventory must have<br />
likewise been inspired by the fables <strong>of</strong> Ovid. The commission<br />
was perhaps procured thanks to a letter sent by the painter to the<br />
prince in 1654 with which he enclosed a drawing depicting Acis<br />
and Galatea. Cf. A. Negro, in Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani,<br />
ad vocem “Giacinto Gimignani”, vol. 54, 2000.<br />
3 Rome, Galleria Pallavicini, Inv. 259; cf. F. Zeri, Galleria<br />
Pallavicini in Roma. Catalogo dei dipinti, Rome, 1959, p. 151.<br />
4 The painting was recently presented on the antiques market at<br />
Christie’s (cf. Christie’s, London, 4th December 2013, lot 171).<br />
5 The Rospigliosi paintings, currently split between the Museo<br />
Clemente Rospigliosi and the Collezione della Cassa di Risparmio<br />
di Pistoia, are mentioned and discussed in: U. V. Fischer, Giacinto<br />
Gimignani (1606-1681). Eine Studie zur römischen Malerei des<br />
Seicento, Doctorate thesis, Freiburg, 1973, pp. 50, 153-156.<br />
The painting with Alpheus and Arethusa is remembered in the<br />
same volume on p. 156, cat. 54. With regards to the Rospigliosi<br />
paintings see also A. Negro, in Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani,<br />
ad vocem “Giacinto Gimignani”, vol. 54, 2000 (with preceding<br />
bibliography); F. Baldassarri, Quattro ‘favole’ inedite di Giacinto<br />
Gimignani, Florence, 2010, pp. 12 and ff.<br />
6 A. Negro, in Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani, ad vocem<br />
“Giacinto Gimignani”, vol. 54, 2000 (with preceding<br />
bibliography).<br />
7 Ashmolean Museum, University <strong>of</strong> Oxford, inv. WA1953.154,<br />
red chalk, red stone, heightened with white, on prepared paper,<br />
385 x 523 mm.
11<br />
Carlo Maratta<br />
Camerano, Ancona 1625 - 1713 Rome<br />
Recto: Full figure <strong>of</strong> a draped man in pr<strong>of</strong>ile and two hand studies<br />
Black and red chalk on watermarked laid paper<br />
Verso: Male head, turned three-quarters to the right and six hand studies<br />
Red chalk on watermarked laid paper<br />
413 x 251 mm (16 ¼ x 9 ⅞ in.)<br />
Inscriptions: bottom right in an 18 th century hand in ink Il Maratti fece; on the verso to the centre in ink Aless.<br />
Maggiori comprò a Roma nel 1808.<br />
Provenance: A. Maggiori (L. 3005 b).<br />
According to Giovan Pietro Bellori, his biographer and<br />
friend, Carlo Maratta arrived in Rome at the early age <strong>of</strong><br />
eleven and in 1636 joined the bottega <strong>of</strong> Andrea Sacchi.<br />
He spent his first years in Rome studying the works<br />
<strong>of</strong> the great Renaissance artists. He was particularly<br />
inspired by the work <strong>of</strong> Raphael, whose strain <strong>of</strong><br />
Classicism had a great influence on his work. At the<br />
outset <strong>of</strong> his career Maratta was also strongly influenced<br />
by Sacchi. This is evident in the style <strong>of</strong> the frescoes<br />
(based on his <strong>master</strong>’s cartoons) he executed for the<br />
Baptistery <strong>of</strong> San Giovanni in Laterano (prior to 1650)<br />
and in the Adoration <strong>of</strong> the Shepherds in the church <strong>of</strong><br />
San Giuseppe dei Falegnami (1650-1651), the latter<br />
being his first religious work in Rome. Following these,<br />
Maratta executed the decorations <strong>of</strong> the chapels <strong>of</strong> San<br />
Giuseppe and <strong>of</strong> the Crocifisso in Sant’Isidoro (1653-<br />
1656) and in 1657 he contributed to the fresco cycle<br />
<strong>of</strong> the Galleria <strong>of</strong> Alessandro VII, working under the<br />
guidance <strong>of</strong> Pietro da Cortona. Following Sacchi’s death<br />
in 1661 and Berrettini’s in 1669, Maratta became the<br />
dominant artistic figure in Rome. It was during this<br />
period that he produced one <strong>of</strong> his most significant<br />
works: the Allegory <strong>of</strong> Clemency, executed in 1673-75<br />
for the Salone delle Udienze in Palazzo Altieri, and<br />
commissioned by Pope Clement X. In 1686 he was<br />
commissioned by Cardinal Alderano Cybo to paint<br />
the fresco for the main altar <strong>of</strong> Santa Maria del Popolo,<br />
which was followed by the Death <strong>of</strong> the Virgin for Villa<br />
Albani. Towards the end <strong>of</strong> his career he produced the<br />
<strong>drawings</strong> for the statues <strong>of</strong> the Apostles in San Giovanni<br />
in Laterano and the restorations <strong>of</strong> Raphael’s frescoes<br />
at the Farnesina and in the Vatican Stanze. The main<br />
nucleus <strong>of</strong> Maratta’s <strong>drawings</strong> belong to the collections<br />
<strong>of</strong> the Kunstmuseum in Düsseldorf, the Accademia <strong>of</strong><br />
San Fernando in Madrid and the Cabinet des Dessins<br />
<strong>of</strong> the Louvre in Paris. A careful study <strong>of</strong> his oeuvre - a<br />
detailed monograph has yet to be published - reveals<br />
that Maratta was a tireless and prolific draughtsman<br />
who employed an incredible variety <strong>of</strong> styles and<br />
techniques in his work. The surviving examples range<br />
from the somewhat convulsive rapid sketches used to<br />
define a general composition (<strong>of</strong>ten traced in pen), to<br />
the fine studies <strong>of</strong> details <strong>of</strong>ten outlined in red or black<br />
chalk, a medium he employed throughout his career.<br />
If one compares the <strong>drawings</strong> which can be dated with<br />
security - whether <strong>of</strong> figures, draperies, anatomical<br />
elements (heads, arms, hands, legs or feet) - then it<br />
can be noticed that Maratta’s graphic style evolved and<br />
transformed radically. He substituted the precision and<br />
clarity <strong>of</strong> line, the gentle and s<strong>of</strong>t rendering <strong>of</strong> volumes<br />
with the use <strong>of</strong> chiaroscuro, typical <strong>of</strong> the years prior to<br />
the 1660s with a more dynamic and sharp line and a<br />
greater use <strong>of</strong> parallel hatching to define shadows.<br />
The inscription in pen on the verso proves that this<br />
sheet was purchased in Rome in 1808 by Count<br />
Alessandro Maggiori (1764 - 1834), an art scholar<br />
and critic from Fermo in the Marche region. He had<br />
lived in the papal city since 1798, where over time he<br />
gathered a vast collection <strong>of</strong> high quality old <strong>master</strong><br />
<strong>drawings</strong> which went missing after his death and which<br />
only in part found its way into the fund in his name in<br />
1990 at the Palazzo Buonafede in Monte San Giusto. 1<br />
The attribution <strong>of</strong> the studies on the present sheet to<br />
Carlo Maratti, proven ab antiquo by the inscription
Recto<br />
Verso
on the recto which dates prior to the purchase by<br />
Maggiori, is confirmed by the style details which in no<br />
uncertain terms refer to the mature style <strong>of</strong> the artist,<br />
the undisputed leader <strong>of</strong> Roman painting at European<br />
level between the 17 th and 18 th centuries, and as such,<br />
the subject <strong>of</strong> the very recent International convention<br />
held in Rome on the occasion <strong>of</strong> the anniversary <strong>of</strong> the<br />
third century after his death (1713-2013). 2<br />
The head on the verso, finely outlined in red, without<br />
doubt belongs to the male model portrayed from<br />
life, from whom Maratti inferred the resemblance<br />
<strong>of</strong> Stanislao Kostka in a study <strong>of</strong> his face, again in<br />
sanguine, today in the Kunstmuseum <strong>of</strong> Düsseldorf<br />
and a preparatory study for the altarpiece dedicated to<br />
the Polish saint completed in 1687 for the Church <strong>of</strong><br />
St. Andrew at the Quirinal in Rome. 3 The use <strong>of</strong> the<br />
same facial features and the corresponding similarities<br />
<strong>of</strong> the graphical stroke encourage us to assume a close<br />
temporal proximity between the execution <strong>of</strong> our piece<br />
and that <strong>of</strong> the cited German drawing, which certainly<br />
hails from halfway through the ninth decade <strong>of</strong> the 17 th<br />
century and which can therefore be connected to Carlo<br />
Maratti’s most successful period pr<strong>of</strong>essionally, when he<br />
was engaged in Rome in several projects simultaneously<br />
and created highly prestigious pictorial compositions<br />
which were widely acclaimed in Europe. 4 Indeed, during<br />
1686, just a year after completing some cartoons for the<br />
mosaics on the Presentation chapel in St. Peter’s, Maratti<br />
had already set to work on the altarpiece commissioned<br />
to him by the banker Francesco Montioni in Santa<br />
Maria in Montesanto (delivered the following year) and<br />
had simultaneously completed the well-known Dispute<br />
over the Immaculate Conception in the renovated family<br />
chapel in Santa Maria del Popolo commissioned by<br />
the Genoese Cardinal Alderano Cybo <strong>of</strong> the dukes <strong>of</strong><br />
Massa (1613-1700); 5 a picture which was immediately<br />
translated into an etching by the French artist Nicolas<br />
Dorigny (1658-1746) 6 and to which I propose to<br />
connect, as preparatory studies, a large number <strong>of</strong> the<br />
partial studies in red and black chalk on the recto and<br />
verso <strong>of</strong> the sheet in question.<br />
The difficulties linked to a strict view <strong>of</strong> the theme<br />
relating to the doctrine <strong>of</strong> the Immaculate Conception,<br />
disseminated by Alexander VII in 1661 with the<br />
significant support <strong>of</strong> the same cardinal Cybo, as<br />
also to the decision to paint in oils directly on to the<br />
wall (a technique which did not allow for changes<br />
to be made during the course <strong>of</strong> the work) restricted<br />
Maratti to subjecting himself to a real tour de force,<br />
aimed at creating a composed installation based on two<br />
superimposed narrative registers; at the top, sitting on<br />
the clouds and surrounded by cherubs, is the Virgin<br />
Mary crowned with twelve stars and with her feet<br />
resting on the crescent moon, as St. John the Evangelist<br />
appears (Apocalypse 12, 1), represented in turn, in the<br />
lower register, in the act <strong>of</strong> revealing the Marian mystery<br />
to three church doctors, the saints Gregory Magnus,<br />
Augustine, and John Chrysostum. 7<br />
The numerous studies from the collection prepared<br />
by Maratti in view <strong>of</strong> the final outcome (there are at<br />
least nine shared between New York, Düsseldorf,<br />
Madrid and Windsor Castle) allow us to retrace the<br />
graphical creation <strong>of</strong> the Cybo composition; from the<br />
idea to the embryonic state documented by a sheet<br />
in the Metropolitan Museum 8 and finally to the very<br />
advanced sketch from the Madrid collection which<br />
gives a preview <strong>of</strong> the scene to be transferred into paint. 9<br />
At an intermediate stage <strong>of</strong> this intense creative process,<br />
in order to highlight the key role played by St. John<br />
in the theological dispute (the conceptual connection<br />
between the otherworldly viewpoint and the fatherly<br />
assembly underneath) belongs to another study in red<br />
chalk in the Metropolitan Museum 10 in which one<br />
can see the sudden switching from right to left <strong>of</strong> the<br />
standing figure <strong>of</strong> the Evangelist, portrayed in pr<strong>of</strong>ile<br />
with his torso slightly leaning forwards and the index<br />
finger <strong>of</strong> his right hand pointing into the book which<br />
St. Gregory, sitting in front <strong>of</strong> him and about to write,<br />
has open on his lap.<br />
The moment when the artist passes from this intermediate<br />
stage to the graphical conception <strong>of</strong> that much more<br />
evolved stage shown in the two similar studies from<br />
the collection held in Düsseldorf 11 and at the Pierpont<br />
Morgan Library in New York 12 can be identified in my<br />
opinion on the recto <strong>of</strong> the sheet in question, and more<br />
precisely, in the male standing character in black chalk,<br />
equipped with a book and with his right hand raised,<br />
which is connected to the study in red chalk visible next<br />
to it, in relation to the right hand pointing upwards.<br />
This draped figure, similar to St. John in the sheet in the<br />
Metropolitan Museum due to the bent left leg and the<br />
foot resting on a step, appears to be a further meditation<br />
on the Evangelist in the Cybo altarpiece; which, both in<br />
the later <strong>drawings</strong> and in the pictorial edition maintains<br />
the upright position taken for the first time in our sheet,<br />
indicates St. Gregory’s book with his left hand and points<br />
to the sky with his right, thus creating a visual and<br />
conceptual link between the doctrine <strong>of</strong> the Immaculate<br />
Conception explained to the Church doctors and the<br />
Virgin Mary in glory above.
The two studies <strong>of</strong> hands in red chalk on the verso <strong>of</strong><br />
the present sheet, relating to the right hand grasping<br />
the pen and to the left holding the book on his knee<br />
are connected to the figure <strong>of</strong> St. Augustine dressed in<br />
his episcopal gown which moved during the drawing<br />
process from the background to the very front, sitting<br />
on the ground about to write. Both these partial studies<br />
should be considered connected to the first version <strong>of</strong><br />
St. Augustine (subjected to changes in the journey to<br />
the end painting) seen in the advanced drawing project<br />
in the Pierpont Morgan Library, which the head <strong>of</strong><br />
the man examined previously and the study <strong>of</strong> hands<br />
underneath appear to be connected to, and which are<br />
both preparatory studies for the representation <strong>of</strong> the<br />
Madonna originally portrayed by Maratti with her hands<br />
crossed over her chest. One should not be surprised<br />
by the use <strong>of</strong> male models; even in the definitive fine<br />
tuning <strong>of</strong> the Virgin Mary with her arms open, which<br />
appears in the Cybo altarpiece, the artist instructed one<br />
<strong>of</strong> the young men from his studio to pose as shown in<br />
the study in red and black chalk held in Düsseldorf. 13<br />
Maria Cecilia Fabbri<br />
1 For a biographical pr<strong>of</strong>ile <strong>of</strong> Alessandro Maggiori and the<br />
events linked to his collection <strong>of</strong> <strong>drawings</strong> see G. Angelucci,<br />
Il fondo Maggiori a Monte San Giusto. I disegni, Monte San<br />
Giusto, 2005 (with preceding bibl.).<br />
2 Cf. Maratti e l’Europa, Atti del Convegno Internazionale di Studi<br />
su Carlo Maratti nel terzo centenario dalla morte (Roma, Palazzo<br />
Altieri e Accademia Nazionale di San Luca, 11-12 Novembre<br />
2013) by L. Barroero, S. Prosperi Valenti Rodinò and S.<br />
Schültze, Rome, 2015.<br />
3 Düsseldorf, Museum Kunstpalast, Inv. KA (FP) 14022;<br />
cf. E. Schaar, in A. Sutherland Harris – E. Schaar, Die<br />
Handzeichnungen von Andrea Sacchi und Carlo Maratta,<br />
Düsseldorf, 1967, p. 128, no. 349. For more about the<br />
altarpiece and the dating <strong>of</strong> it, see J. K. Westin - R. H. Westin,<br />
Carlo Maratti and his Contemporaries. Figurative Drawings from<br />
the Roman Baroque, exhibition catalogue (University Park, The<br />
Museum <strong>of</strong> Art, The Pennsylvania State University, 19 January<br />
– 16 March 1975), Philadelphia, 1975, pp. 59-61.<br />
4 Maratti’s legacy in England, Spain, France and North Europe<br />
was analysed in very recent contributions by Stella Rudolph,<br />
Manuela B. Mena Marqués, Stéphane Loire and Ursula Fischer<br />
Pace published in Maratti e L’Europa, cit. 2015, pp. 127-143,<br />
145-166, 167-185, 187-194.<br />
5 For more on the Cybo Chapel in Santa Maria del Popolo,<br />
renovated by the architect Carlo Fontana between 1679<br />
and 1684, please refer to S. Carbonara Pompei, L’apparato<br />
decorativo della Cappella Cybo, in Santa Maria del Popolo. Storia<br />
e restauri, by I. Miarelli Mariani and M. Richielli, 2 vols.,<br />
Rome, 2009, II, pp. 661-672 (with preceding bibliography).<br />
6 For more on this and other etchings by Nicolas Dorigny taken<br />
from Maratti paintings, who lived in Rome between 1687 and<br />
1711, see E. Borea, Maratti e i suoi incisori a Roma nel suo<br />
tempo, in Maratti e l’Europa, cit. 2015, pp. 256-257, fig. 11.<br />
7 For more on the iconography on the Cybo altarpiece see the<br />
writings <strong>of</strong> Stella Rudolph in L’idea del Bello. Viaggio per Roma<br />
nel Seicento con Giovanni Pietro Bellori, exhibition catalogue<br />
(Rome, Palazzo delle Esposizioni, 29 March – 26 June 2000)<br />
by E. Borea and C. Gasparri, 2 vols., Rome, 2000, II, pp. 471-<br />
472 and, previously, by J. K. Westin - R. H. Westin, op. cit.<br />
1975, pp. 53-57.<br />
8 New York, The Metropolitan Museum <strong>of</strong> Art, Inv. Rogers<br />
Fund no. 64.295.2, cf. J. K. Westin - R. H. Westin, op. cit.<br />
1975, pp. 53, 56, no. 29, fig. 32.<br />
9 Madrid, Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando,<br />
Cat. Alcaide no. 23; cf. V. M. Nieto Alcaide, Carlo Maratti:<br />
cuaranta y tres dibujos de tema religioso, exhibition catalogue<br />
(Madrid, Real Academia de San Fernando), Madrid, 1965, p.<br />
13, no. 23, table 14.<br />
10 New York, The Metropolitan Museum <strong>of</strong> Art, Inv. Rogers<br />
Fund no. 62.137; cf. J. K. Westin - R. H. Westin, op. cit. 1975,<br />
pp. 55-57, fig. 36; J. Bean, 17 th Century Italian Drawings in the<br />
Metropolitan Museum, New York, 1979, p. 212, no. 278.<br />
11 Düsseldorf, Museum Kunstpalast, Inv. KA (FP) 1131; cf. E.<br />
Schaar, in A. Sutherland Harris – E. Schaar, op. cit. 1967, p.<br />
127, no. 342, fig. 85; S. Rudolph, in L’idea del Bello, cit. 2000,<br />
II, pp. 471-472, no. 17.<br />
12 New York, The Pierpont Morgan Library, IV 183; cf J. K.<br />
Westin - R. H. Westin, op. cit. 1975, pp. 53, 57, no. 32, fig.<br />
35.<br />
13 Düsseldorf, Museum Kunstpalast, Inv. KA (FP) 1318; cf. E.<br />
Schaar, in A. Sutherland Harris – E. Schaar, op. cit. 1967, p.<br />
128, no. 346, fig. 86.
12<br />
Luigi Vanvitelli<br />
Naples 1700 - 1773 Caserta<br />
Recto: Study for section (rib) <strong>of</strong> umbrella vault<br />
Verso: Study for half ceiling with two pendentives<br />
Pen, brown ink, grey washes and black chalk on laid paper<br />
245 x 164 mm (9 ⅝ x 6 ½ in.)<br />
Inscriptions: bottom right corner in ink Vanvitelli; on the verso top right corner in pencil 78.<br />
Provenance: private collection, Milan.<br />
Luigi Vanvitelli, son <strong>of</strong> Dutch-born Gaspar Van Wittel,<br />
the most famous vedutista <strong>of</strong> the seventeenth century<br />
who lived and worked his whole life in Rome, was an<br />
important protagonist <strong>of</strong> the Late Italian Baroque.<br />
Though born in Naples, he was raised in the Urbe by<br />
his father and maternal grandfather who was also an<br />
artist 1 . Luigi, who started drawing when he was only a<br />
child, was introduced early on to the cultural and artistic<br />
environment that his father frequented who even helped<br />
him with his paintings. However, he decided to focus<br />
on architecture in the early 1730s. His first important<br />
commission was the restoration <strong>of</strong> the Renaissance-style<br />
palace Albani in Urbino (1728), after being nominated<br />
architect <strong>of</strong> the Reverend Apostolic Chamber, to which<br />
other important commissions followed. Clement XII<br />
commissioned him to restore the port and the hospital<br />
<strong>of</strong> Ancona (1733), where he also built the Cappella delle<br />
Reliquie in the Cathedral <strong>of</strong> San Ciriaco (1739), he<br />
worked on the Chiesa del Gesù (1743), as well as on other<br />
buildings. He also worked in Macerata, Pesaro, Loreto and<br />
Perugia where he built the church and the convent <strong>of</strong> the<br />
Olivetani (1739). In Rome, where Luigi was nominated<br />
architect <strong>of</strong> the Fabbrica <strong>of</strong> St. Peter, he was also entrusted<br />
with other important commissions, such as to strengthen<br />
Michelangelo’s dome in the Basilica di San Pietro (1742),<br />
decorate Palazzo Sciarra (1743), build the Convent <strong>of</strong> St.<br />
Augustin (1746), and restore Santa Maria degli Angeli<br />
(1748). In 1751 and until his death, Luigi worked on the<br />
planning and designing <strong>of</strong> the Royal Palace <strong>of</strong> Caserta<br />
upon the request <strong>of</strong> Charles <strong>of</strong> Bourbon, all the while still<br />
working on the other assignments he was entrusted with<br />
in Rome, as well as in Naples, Capua and Benevento.<br />
Luigi Vanvitelli’s hundreds <strong>of</strong> designs, mostly preserved<br />
at the Royal Palace <strong>of</strong> Caserta, bear witness to the<br />
numerous activities he carried out as architect, designer,<br />
decorator and scenographer: landscapes, figure studies,<br />
illustrations for the publishing sector, stage and theatre<br />
studies, architectural and decorative studies, some <strong>of</strong><br />
which allow us to make precise reference to documented<br />
works or works still in existence today.<br />
Verso
The drawing, here the object <strong>of</strong> examination, which<br />
can be attributed with certainty to Vanvitelli as per the<br />
inscription, appears on the front wall decoration <strong>of</strong> part<br />
<strong>of</strong> an umbrella vault. Starting from the bottom, it shows<br />
a rectangular frame, which seems to be a coat <strong>of</strong> arms<br />
under a well-rounded arch; above the arch, two winged<br />
angels hold a round medallion depicting the portrait <strong>of</strong> a<br />
person. Above them, two small angels carry a crown (<strong>of</strong><br />
victory), and the palm (<strong>of</strong> martyrdom) on a diamondshaped<br />
c<strong>of</strong>fered background. Above them, the <strong>drawings</strong><br />
(maybe flying angels) are hard to decipher. Two ribs flank<br />
the vault, one on each side, and are decorated with a<br />
ribbon-like motif. The drawing on the verso shows half<br />
<strong>of</strong> a flat ceiling with two pendentives decorated with the<br />
coat <strong>of</strong> arms <strong>of</strong> the Albani family between garlands.<br />
Claudio Marinelli explained the artist’s modus operandi:<br />
«Luigi Vanvitelli, come disegnatore, abitualmente fissa la<br />
prima idea in schizzi via via sempre più elaborati e, per<br />
fasi successive di autostilizzazione, arriva al progetto; con lui<br />
si raggiungono vertici qualitativi che suscitano meraviglia:<br />
incredibile è la padronanza con cui si serve del disegno a<br />
inchiostro acquarellato, tanto che, se pure questa tecnica ha<br />
origine in ambienti romani e precisamente nel circolo del<br />
Cardinal Albani e in particolare in Carlo Fontana, risulta<br />
in lui come rivitalizzato» 2 . Being the key protagonist <strong>of</strong><br />
the artistic panorama <strong>of</strong> the eighteenth century, Luigi<br />
Vanvitelli modernised Baroque style, thanks to his<br />
modern way <strong>of</strong> seeing and conceiving a space, something<br />
he learned from his vedutista father and which he<br />
expressed throughout his activities, where «architettura<br />
e decorazione interagiscono in una forma di dipendenza<br />
reciproca» 3 , a fundamental aspect <strong>of</strong> how he conceived<br />
a drawing. The drawing here represents a preliminary<br />
sketch by Vanvitelli, a fresh and instant idea expressed<br />
through loose strokes, a very expressive ductus, enriched<br />
by the use <strong>of</strong> watercolours that highlight the light/dark<br />
contrasts on white paper. The drawing <strong>of</strong> the diamondshaped<br />
c<strong>of</strong>fered ceiling is inspired by the white and<br />
golden stucco cover and with the same decorative motif<br />
and rosettes inscribed in the hexagons, as seen in the<br />
dome vault <strong>of</strong> the church <strong>of</strong> Sant’Andrea al Quirinale by<br />
Bernini. The angels and small angels are also inspired by<br />
Bernini models, most probably envisioned in stucco.<br />
It seems that the drawing calls to mind an early drawing <strong>of</strong><br />
Vanvitelli, Study <strong>of</strong> a chapel on the recto and on the verso<br />
Figurative and architectonic sketches 4 drawn with the same<br />
technique and with similar decorative motifs, stylistically<br />
speaking similar to this drawing. In particular, it also has<br />
a c<strong>of</strong>fered ceiling on the front and flying cherubs bearing<br />
an oval form on the back. Another useful comparison<br />
can be made with the 5 Study for the stucco <strong>of</strong> the Tribune<br />
made on the verso <strong>of</strong> a sheet held in the image collection<br />
<strong>of</strong> Caserta. The latter was identified as being the project<br />
made for one <strong>of</strong> the domes on the sides <strong>of</strong> the choir<br />
<strong>of</strong> Basilica di San Pietro. The three circular medallions<br />
supported by angels are almost identical to the one<br />
represented in our drawing, just as the figures around<br />
it. With regards to this drawing, Jörg Garms suggested<br />
that though the dome’s decoration was executed between<br />
1752 and 1757, it may have represented a preliminary<br />
study Vanvitelli made in the early 1730s 6 . Because there<br />
are no other elements, it is not possible to compare the<br />
study drawn on the verso <strong>of</strong> the sheet to the one made<br />
on the recto. It most probably refers to a patron, Albani,<br />
as it bears the coat <strong>of</strong> arms <strong>of</strong> that family. Just like with<br />
Luigi’s father, Gaspar, who had maintained artistic<br />
relations with the cardinals Alessandro and Annibale,<br />
nephews <strong>of</strong> Pope Clement XI, they entrusted Luigi too<br />
with prestigious commissions ever since he started his<br />
career as an architect. So, in summary, the drawing here,<br />
after having compared it stylistically-speaking with other<br />
<strong>drawings</strong> <strong>of</strong> Vanvitelli, represents a preliminary sketch <strong>of</strong><br />
a project that has not yet been found but, according to<br />
the verso <strong>of</strong> the drawing, may refer to a part <strong>of</strong> a vault<br />
dedicated to a martyred saint while the recto refers to<br />
a commission ordered by Albani. Therefore, we suggest<br />
dating the drawing to somewhere in the early 1730s.<br />
Luisa Berretti<br />
1 For a complete monograph regarding Vanvitelli, please see: C.<br />
De Seta, Luigi Vanvitelli, Naples, 1998.<br />
2 C. Marinelli, L’esercizio del disegno. I Vanvitelli, in L’esercizio del<br />
disegno. I Vanvitelli. Catalogo generale del fondo dei disegni della<br />
Reggia di Caserta, exhibition catalogue by C. Marinelli, Rome,<br />
1991, p. 13.<br />
3 A. Pampalone, in C. Marinelli, op. cit.,1991, p. 70.<br />
4 Caserta, Royal Palace, Prints and Drawings, inv. 1689. A.<br />
Pampalone, in C. Marinelli, op. cit., 1991, p. 91, No. 187.<br />
5 Caserta, Royal Palace, Prints and Drawings, inv. 1670. A.<br />
Pampalone, in C. Marinelli, op.cit, 1991, p. 110-111, No. 253.<br />
6 Disegni di Luigi Vanvitelli nelle collezioni pubbliche di Napoli e<br />
di Caserta, exhibition catalogue (Naples, Royal Palace), by J.<br />
Garms, Naples, 1973, p. 67, No. 68.
13<br />
Fedele Fischetti<br />
Naples 1732 - 1792<br />
Fame and the Virtues prevail over the Vices<br />
Black chalk, polychrome wash heightened with white on prepared paper<br />
654 x 473 mm (25 ¾ x 18 ⅝ in.)<br />
Inscriptions: bottom left corner, in an old hand, traces <strong>of</strong> writing in ink il Decoro e […]; on the verso,<br />
upper left in ink la Dignità, la Pace, l’Equità e l’Innocenza […] la Malvagità e l’Inganno.<br />
Born into a family <strong>of</strong> painters, Fedele Fischetti learned<br />
the rudiments <strong>of</strong> painting in the studio <strong>of</strong> Gennaro<br />
Borrelli, steeped in the post-Solimenian tradition. His<br />
early painting was carried out above all in the religious<br />
sphere with work executed in the Neapolitan Spirito<br />
Santo, Santa Maria in Portico and Santa Maria la Nova<br />
churches. Evident here, his leaning towards Roman<br />
classicism with a Batonian bent can be explained by a<br />
presumed study stay in the papal city. Specialising in<br />
fresco painting and having a close artistic partnership<br />
with Luigi Vanvitelli, Fischetti decorated the interiors<br />
<strong>of</strong> aristocratic buildings in Naples and the principal<br />
royal residences outside <strong>of</strong> the city that the architect<br />
worked on, like the Palazzo Casacalenda (c. 1770),<br />
Villa Campolieto in Herculaneum (1772-1773), the<br />
Royal Palace <strong>of</strong> Caserta (1778-1781), the Palazzo<br />
Doria d’Angri (1784) and the Palazzo Cellamare (c.<br />
1789). In the frescoes, carried out from 1780 almost<br />
until his death in 1792, Fischetti became an increasing<br />
devotee <strong>of</strong> neo-classical principles, creating a happy<br />
synthesis between the local rocaille solutions and<br />
the contemporary examples <strong>of</strong> Classicism linked to<br />
the Neapolitan works <strong>of</strong> Anton Raphael Mengs and<br />
Angelika Kauffmann, the latter residing in Naples<br />
from 1782 to 1786.<br />
The highly finished composition and the obsessive<br />
attention to detail, the extremely careful rendering <strong>of</strong><br />
the light and shade and the studied harmony <strong>of</strong> the<br />
chromatic values are all elements which qualify this<br />
Allegory <strong>of</strong> the Virtues prevailing over the Vices by Fedele<br />
Fischetti as a true and authentic modello, made to<br />
prefigure the final result to be submitted to the client.<br />
The iconographic framework which regulates this<br />
symbolic representation appears likewise highly studied<br />
and complex to decipher. It is a framework which<br />
shows itself to be so learned and well-orchestrated<br />
that it suggests the presence, at the painter’s side, <strong>of</strong> an<br />
expert in iconology.<br />
The scene – to be read from the bottom to the top -<br />
expresses the eternal battle between Good and Evil, the<br />
former personified by the triumphant Virtues arranged<br />
on the clouds in an orderly fashion, and the latter by<br />
the Vices portrayed in the act <strong>of</strong> plummeting from<br />
the clouds, agitated and screaming, succumbing to the<br />
violent whip lashes inflicted on them by a young winged<br />
man. These, as can be inferred from the Iconology by<br />
Cesare Ripa, represent the Love <strong>of</strong> Virtue, whilst Deceit<br />
with the serpent’s tail, Fraud with the eagles talons,<br />
holding in his hands two hearts and a mask, and Theft<br />
equipped with a bag and a knife should be recognized<br />
in the Vices 1 . The Love <strong>of</strong> Virtue, having undertaken the<br />
task <strong>of</strong> battling and annihilating everything that causes a<br />
diversion from the right path, rises to the defence <strong>of</strong> the<br />
three allegorical personifications behind them: Equity,<br />
furnished with scales and a cornucopia, Innocence -<br />
«young virgin dressed in white, with a garland <strong>of</strong> flowers<br />
on her head, and a Lamb in her arms» - and Virtue<br />
portrayed as a young winged girl «crowned with la aurel,<br />
and holding an oak branch» 2 .The message is clear: only<br />
through a heroic and virtuous being, immune from sin<br />
and led by the sentiments <strong>of</strong> justice and <strong>of</strong> equity is it<br />
possible to obtain that Authority in social assembly – the<br />
matron seated in the act <strong>of</strong> pointing to the symbols <strong>of</strong><br />
power at her feet (a crown, a cardinal’s hat, a sword and<br />
a book) – and that Decorum - «A youth <strong>of</strong> handsome and<br />
honest appearance, wearing a lion skin» - which allows one<br />
to ascend to Fame, and through this, to the Empirical<br />
supreme, evoked here along the upper margin <strong>of</strong> the<br />
sheet by a circular temple 3 . This dialectic <strong>of</strong> themes<br />
is not solely metaphoric but is also expressed in the<br />
physical space on the sheet through the counterposition<br />
<strong>of</strong> the groups in the lower section.
The clarity <strong>of</strong> the structure, the classically balanced<br />
composition and the nobility <strong>of</strong> the figures, not entirely<br />
devoid <strong>of</strong> a rocaille verve, has led to the temporal placing<br />
<strong>of</strong> the execution <strong>of</strong> this model in the central stage <strong>of</strong> the<br />
artistic journey <strong>of</strong> Fischetti, or rather around the start <strong>of</strong><br />
the ninth decade <strong>of</strong> the 1700’s at the time <strong>of</strong> his closest<br />
adhesion to the neoclassical influence <strong>of</strong> Angelika<br />
Kauffmann. In support <strong>of</strong> this dating are comparisons<br />
with other important works carried out by the painter<br />
during this time: together with the frescoes in the Doria<br />
d’Angri palace, executed between 1783 and 1784,<br />
above all it reminds one <strong>of</strong> the coeval canvas <strong>of</strong> Allegory<br />
<strong>of</strong> Love (Naples, Gambardella collection) 4 and the series<br />
<strong>of</strong> allegorical paintings, also dating from the same years,<br />
completed by Fischetti for the bedroom <strong>of</strong> Charles<br />
de Bourbon’s son in the Madrid Royal Palace (today<br />
at El Pardo, Palacio Real) 5 . Both in the Gambardella<br />
canvas and in the Allegories <strong>of</strong> Peace and Prosperity in El<br />
Pardo, the feminine figure personifying Authority in our<br />
modello, appears almost identical, indicating a plausible<br />
temporal proximity.<br />
Maria Cecilia Fabbri<br />
1 Cf. C. Ripa, Iconologia, Venice, ed. 1645, pp. 25-26; 231-232;<br />
235-236; 281.<br />
2 Ibid., pp. 178; 286-287; 672.<br />
3 Ibid., pp. 70-71; 133-134.<br />
4 Cf. N. Spinosa, Pittura napoletana del Settecento dal Rococò al<br />
Classicismo, Naples,1987, tab. 49.<br />
5 Ibid., p. 140, n. 217, figs. 287-290.
14<br />
Venetian Artist - 19 th century<br />
The Porticos <strong>of</strong> Palazzo Ducale<br />
Pen and ink with squaring and numbering in chalk, with framing lines, on smooth tissue paper<br />
230 x 324 mm (9 x 12 ¾ in.)<br />
Inscriptions: top centre in ink Notte con Luna, bottom centre in ink Portici del Palazzo Ducale.<br />
This beautiful drawing represents an extremely accurate<br />
study <strong>of</strong> the porticoes on the water-side facade <strong>of</strong> the<br />
Doge’s Palace in Venice (fig. 1), at the southern corner <strong>of</strong><br />
Saint Mark’s Piazzetta. In the background is the Library<br />
complex, planned and built in the 1540s-1550s by<br />
Jacopo Sansovino and completed by Vincenzo Scamozzi<br />
between 1583 and 1588. On the left rises the monolithic<br />
shaft <strong>of</strong> red and grey granite, the column on which the<br />
bronze lion <strong>of</strong> Saint Mark is sat. The sculpture itself is<br />
thought to be <strong>of</strong> Persian origin, dating from the Sassanid<br />
period, and was originally created as a ‘chimera’. In a<br />
later era it was adapted to become the symbol <strong>of</strong> Saint<br />
Mark by the addition <strong>of</strong> wings. The French removed the<br />
lion in 1797, returning it only in 1815 by which point it<br />
was so damaged that significant restoration was required<br />
including partial recasting. Behind the column, and<br />
beyond the watery area in front <strong>of</strong> the tip <strong>of</strong> the Zecca,<br />
is the imposing baroque form <strong>of</strong> the church <strong>of</strong> La Salute,<br />
which signals the entrance to the Grand Canal along with<br />
the Punta della Dogana. A large sailing boat docked on<br />
the water-front closes the scene on the far left, its network<br />
<strong>of</strong> ropes creating the effect <strong>of</strong> curtains at the side <strong>of</strong> a stage.<br />
The rhythm <strong>of</strong> the columns in the porticade, with their<br />
strength and solidity, is rendered gracefully and elegantly;<br />
1. Porticoes <strong>of</strong> the Doge’s Palace in Venice.<br />
and the level <strong>of</strong> attention paid to detail reveals the artist’s<br />
training in the landscape genre. However, although the<br />
work <strong>of</strong>fers a harmonious perspectival view <strong>of</strong> the scene,<br />
the representation is in fact rather more imaginary than<br />
objective. It would seem that the artist made use <strong>of</strong> several<br />
vantage points; indeed, in reality it is impossible to find<br />
a single spot from which to make out all the different<br />
parts <strong>of</strong> the drawing at the scale at which they are shown.<br />
For example, if one were to stand alongside the fourth<br />
pilaster one could make out the column <strong>of</strong> Saint Mark<br />
as it is shown in the drawing; however, the church <strong>of</strong> La<br />
Salute and the Punta della Dogana are not visible from<br />
that spot. We can therefore suppose that this extremely<br />
elegant drawing represents the final result <strong>of</strong> multiple<br />
sketches made on site from different vantage points. The<br />
sketches would later have been juxtaposed to create a<br />
harmonious and stage-set-like scene. This was, after all,<br />
the technique depoloyed by Canaletto, and later adopted<br />
by a large proportion <strong>of</strong> the Venetian ‘vedute’ painters:<br />
not, therefore, a slavishly copied ‘photographic’ image <strong>of</strong><br />
Venice, but a hypothetical image, poetically transposed<br />
into the illusion <strong>of</strong> reality. Along its edges the drawing<br />
is completely subdivided into millimetres and is marked<br />
with an unknown numbering system - from 0 to 6 - the<br />
significance <strong>of</strong> which is not clear. It may, however, refer to<br />
the drawing’s tonal range as a means <strong>of</strong> potentially turning<br />
it into a painting. The figures’ dress would suggest the<br />
work dates from the 1840s or 1850s. This is particularly<br />
evident in the female figure to the left in the drawing<br />
who is seen from behind, as well as in the man beside<br />
her and in the solitary figure to the right, gazing towards<br />
the woman and child seated on the bench. Whilst the<br />
work is thought to date from around the 1840s, the street<br />
lamps depicted along the waterfront and along the side<br />
<strong>of</strong> the Doge’s Palace <strong>of</strong>fer a vital clue in determining one<br />
<strong>of</strong> the perameters <strong>of</strong> the timeframe. On July 9 th 1839 the<br />
Venetian municipality, then under Austrian occupation,<br />
made an agreement with the Compagnie du Gaz to install<br />
gas lamps in the city.
After a first trial in the area around the<br />
Convent <strong>of</strong> Saint Catherine in Cannaregio,<br />
from March 13 th 1843 the service was limited<br />
to the area around St. Mark’s Square with the<br />
installation <strong>of</strong> 128 gas lamps along the length<br />
<strong>of</strong> the Piazza and the Piazzetta, as well as 49<br />
alongside the Procuratie buildings. Similar<br />
lamps also appear in paintings by Carlo<br />
Canella, Federico Moja and Ippolito Caffi,<br />
created after 1843. A very interesting stylistic<br />
parallel can be drawn with a painting by<br />
Giuseppe Bernardino Bison, which came onto<br />
the market in 1996, depicting the Entrance<br />
to the Library <strong>of</strong> Saint Mark’s. The painting<br />
features a depiction <strong>of</strong> the elegant arched<br />
facade similar to that in the drawing, and the<br />
conception <strong>of</strong> the architectural complex is<br />
similar too, as if the artist had ‘zoomed-in’ on<br />
an area <strong>of</strong> the drawing and adjusted it slightly<br />
to the right to focus on one fascinating detail.<br />
There are no lamps in the painting, and it<br />
must be acknowledged that Bison had left the<br />
Veneto region in 1831 for Lombardy. Despite<br />
these intriguing hypotheses, we are nonetheless<br />
faced with an incongruent chronology which<br />
is difficult to resolve.<br />
Annalisa Scarpa
15<br />
Giuseppe Bernardino Bison<br />
Palmanova 1762 - 1844 Milan<br />
Idyll with Spinner<br />
Pen, brown ink, wash and black chalk on laid paper<br />
179 x 254 mm (7 x 10 in.)<br />
Iscriptions: signed bottom right in ink Bison; on the verso upper left corner in pencil Bison: Due Filatrici,<br />
at the centre in pencil GB, bottom right corner in pencil 62.<br />
Provenance: O. Basilio collection, Trieste; private collection, Trieste.<br />
Exhibited: Cento disegni del Bison, exhibition catalogue by A. Rizzi, Udine, 1962.<br />
The role <strong>of</strong> Drawing in the artistic journey <strong>of</strong> the Friuliborn<br />
Giuseppe Bernardino Bison was fundamental over<br />
the whole span <strong>of</strong> his long and prolific career. After<br />
having studied the “elements <strong>of</strong> figure” with a pupil<br />
<strong>of</strong> Tiepolo, Costantino Cedini, Bison applied himself<br />
with particular interest to the study <strong>of</strong> perspective at<br />
the Accademia in Venice. Ever since the first years <strong>of</strong> his<br />
training, Bison pitched the first bases for his production<br />
as an easel painter, decorator and vedutista and today<br />
he is recognised as one <strong>of</strong> the greatest representatives <strong>of</strong><br />
Venetian vedutismo. It was thanks to his collaboration<br />
with the architect Giannantonio Selva that Bison<br />
worked in Ferrara in Palazzo Bottoni (1787), and then<br />
in Treviso, in the Casino Soderini (1796). Finally he<br />
moved to Trieste, where he spent thirty years <strong>of</strong> his life.<br />
Here he obtained unprecedented success and decorated<br />
some <strong>of</strong> the most prestigious private and public buildings<br />
<strong>of</strong> the city, including the famous Teatro Nuovo 1 , without<br />
ever neglecting his tireless production <strong>of</strong> easel works.<br />
After a brief stay in Venice around 1800, Bison moved<br />
to Trieste, working as a set designer. In his later life, he<br />
visited Florence and Rome, which he depicted in some <strong>of</strong><br />
his most sticking painted city views. At the age <strong>of</strong> sixtynine<br />
he finally moved to Milan, where he died in 1844.<br />
Within Bison’s graphic oeuvre, it is hard to find a<br />
preparatory drawing for a painting, whether this be a<br />
veduta, a landscape, a countryside scene or a painting<br />
with a mythological or sacred subject. Each invention<br />
finds its origin in the creative force <strong>of</strong> the artist and is<br />
born <strong>of</strong> the recomposition <strong>of</strong> fragments <strong>of</strong> his personal<br />
visual memory, sometimes authentic acts <strong>of</strong> homage to<br />
Tiepolo, both father and son, or to Francesco Guardi,<br />
Canaletto, Marco Ricci and Francesco Zuccarelli.<br />
Our drawing is an exquisite example <strong>of</strong> this aspect<br />
<strong>of</strong> Bison’s graphic output, where his pen strokes are<br />
immediate, his line pure, slight and delicate, and<br />
where the brown wash imbues the composition with a<br />
subtle painterly effect. Idyll with Spinner may thus be<br />
considered a self-contained, finished work probably<br />
intended for sale as an autonomous picture, and thus<br />
signed for that reason. This <strong>master</strong>piece met the taste<br />
<strong>of</strong> the times and even today has a bewitching quality<br />
which succeeds in capturing the observer’s gaze. We<br />
are looking at a «splendid drawing, worthy <strong>of</strong> Goya. The<br />
energetically expressive realism, the product <strong>of</strong> a vigour at<br />
once rhythmic and linear, critical and psychological, marks<br />
a leap forward into the future in relation to iconographic<br />
and aesthetic standards that were only just beginning to<br />
take root in Italian culture. The graphic litany, purged <strong>of</strong><br />
its traditional dross, is wholly Romantic in feel». 2 That was<br />
how Aldo Rizzi described our drawing in the exhibition<br />
catalogue Cento Disegni del Bison (Udine, 1962), when<br />
it was chosen for the poster advertising the exhibition<br />
on the grounds that perfectly encapsulated the artist’s<br />
imagination and creative talent.<br />
1 Bison had already undertaken many commissions independently<br />
before arriving in Trieste. For example the decorations for the<br />
Teatro Nuovo and Degli Obizzi in Ferrara (around 1790) and<br />
the many works in the Treviso region. Cf. F. Magani, Giuseppe<br />
Bernardino Bison, Soncino (CR), 1993, pp. 9-12.<br />
2 Cf. Cento disegni del Bison, exhibition catalogue by A. Rizzi,<br />
Udine, 1962, p. 56.
16<br />
Umberto Brunelleschi<br />
Montemurlo 1879 - 1949 Paris<br />
The war puppeteer<br />
Pen, ink and traces <strong>of</strong> black chalk heightened with tempera<br />
380 x 301 mm (15 x 11 ⅞ in.)<br />
Inscriptions: signed bottom right corner in ink Brunelleschi.<br />
Born in Montemurlo, Tuscany, in 1879, Umberto<br />
Brunelleschi studied painting and sculpture at the<br />
Accademia di Belle Arti, Florence. When he moved to<br />
Paris in 1901, the French capital was swimming with<br />
advertising posters - an art form that had found a new<br />
lease <strong>of</strong> life with the advent <strong>of</strong> colour and Japanese<br />
printing techniques. Humorous fliers abounded,<br />
amongst which “Le Rire” particularly stood out. A longstanding<br />
collaboration with Toulouse-Lautrec made<br />
this periodical the most famous <strong>of</strong> its kind. Using the<br />
pseudonym Aroun-al-Rascid, Brunelleschi became one<br />
<strong>of</strong> the leading contributors <strong>of</strong> “La Rire” and signed his<br />
famous illustrations for “L’Assiette au Beurre” 1 . In Paris<br />
he participated to the Salon d’Automne and the Salon<br />
des Indépendants, that guaranteed him a prestigious<br />
position in the Parisian art scene. His studio on Rue<br />
Boissonade became a meeting place for friends and<br />
colleagues, including some <strong>of</strong> the major Parisian artists<br />
<strong>of</strong> the time: Kees Van Dongen, Giovanni Boldini,<br />
Amedeo Modigliani, Pablo Picasso, André Derain, and<br />
Chaïm Soutine.<br />
When around 1912 he began to work for some <strong>of</strong><br />
the most important Parisian fashion magazines as the<br />
“Gazette du Bon Ton”, the “Journal des Dames et des<br />
Modes” and “Fémina Noël”, Brunelleschi started to<br />
attract the attention <strong>of</strong> the critics, who praised his skills<br />
as a set designer 2 and illustrator. It was during these<br />
years <strong>of</strong> intense activity that Brunelleschi published<br />
some <strong>of</strong> his most significant <strong>master</strong>pieces, including the<br />
Contes du Temps Jadis (1912), La Nuit Vénitienne (1913)<br />
and Les Masques et les Personagges de la Comédie Italienne<br />
(1914), a large-format limited-edition album <strong>of</strong> twelve<br />
tempera and watercolour engravings which was to prove<br />
immensely popular and which sold out almost at once.<br />
Leaving France for one <strong>of</strong> his now customary holidays<br />
in Tuscany in July 1914, Brunelleschi ended up staying<br />
for longer than usual, and when Italy joined the war in<br />
May 1915 he enlisted as a volunteer. He was initially<br />
assigned to air defence in Venice but he was later moved<br />
to the 49 th Infantry’s Second Battalion command post<br />
at the front.<br />
Throughout the war, however, he never missed a single<br />
opportunity to work, and in 1918 he was commissioned<br />
by the Duke <strong>of</strong> Aosta to cooperate with the Third<br />
Army’s famous trench magazine “La Tradotta”. We<br />
may surmise that our drawing, The War Puppeteer – a<br />
preparatory study for an illustration, most probably<br />
for a magazine cover, maybe for “La Tradotta” itself –<br />
dates back to precisely this three-years period. Italy in<br />
fact joined the war on the Allies’ side against the socalled<br />
central empires, Germany, the Austro-Hungarian<br />
and the Ottoman Empire, to which the three puppets<br />
dressed up in their respective uniforms at the feet <strong>of</strong> an<br />
imposing young woman clearly allude. The beautiful,<br />
enigmatic and elegant female figure in the form <strong>of</strong> a<br />
large arabesque combines an almost oriental grace with<br />
a distant echo <strong>of</strong> 18 th century Venice and France. The<br />
figure’s purity <strong>of</strong> line and supple lightness hark back in<br />
part to Art Nouveau (in its references to such illustrators<br />
as Georges de Feure and Alphonse Mucha), and in part<br />
to the elegance <strong>of</strong> Aubrey Beardsley’s work.<br />
The two-dimensional feel achieved through the use<br />
<strong>of</strong> black and white enables Brunelleschi to display<br />
the decorative independence <strong>of</strong> his own clear, firm<br />
<strong>master</strong>y <strong>of</strong> line, <strong>of</strong>fering us a work which exemplifies to<br />
perfection both his art, almost heralding the motifs <strong>of</strong><br />
Art Déco, and his thought: irony is there, but it lurks<br />
only in the caricatural features <strong>of</strong> the three uniformed<br />
puppets, and the warning, though veiled, leaves little to<br />
the imagination.<br />
1 See. G. Ercoli, Umberto Brunelleschi – Liberty e Art Déco nell’opera<br />
grafica di un artista italiano a Parigi, Florence, 1978, pp. 3-25.<br />
2 The critic <strong>of</strong> the the “Petit Parisien” wrote: «The Comédie<br />
italienne, based on the designs <strong>of</strong> the painter Brunelleschi,<br />
is without doubt the most beautiful and bold production the<br />
theatre has put on since the famous Bakst designs». See C. Nuzzi,<br />
Umberto Brunelleschi illustrazione, moda e teatro (1879-1949),<br />
Milan, 1979, p. 16.
Literature<br />
1.Taddeo Zuccari<br />
Renaissance into Baroque. Italian Master Drawing by the Zuccari 1550-1600, exhibition catalogue by E. James Mundy, Cambridge University<br />
Press, 1989; C. Acidini Luchinat, Taddeo e Federico Zuccari, fratelli pittori del Cinquecento, Milan-Rome, 1998.<br />
2. Lombard Artist - 16 th century<br />
L’immagine di San Francesco nella Controriforma, exhibition catalogue by S. Prosperi Valenti Rodinò and C. Strinati, Rome, 1983.<br />
3. Cherubino Alberti<br />
K. Hermann Fiore, Studi sui disegni di figure di Giovanni e Cherubino Alberti, in “Bollettino d’arte”, 65, 1980; Disegni degli Alberti, exhibition<br />
catalogue by K. Hermann Fiore, Rome, 1984; R. Manescalchi, Cherubino Alberti: la luce incisa, Florence, 2007.<br />
4. Francesco Vanni<br />
P. A. Riedl, Disegni dei barocceschi senesi (Francesco Vanni e Ventura Salimbeni), exhibition catalogue, Florence,1976; Nel segno di Barocci.<br />
Allievi e seguaci tra Marche, Umbria e Siena, exhibition catalogue by A.M. Ambrosini Massari and M. Cellini, Milan, 2005; C. Gar<strong>of</strong>alo,<br />
Aggiunte al “corpus” grafico di Francesco Vanni, in “Commentari d’arte”, XIV, 39-40, 2008, pp. 26-50; M. Ciampolini, Pittori senesi del<br />
Seicento, 3 vols., Poggibonsi (Siena), 2010, vol. III; Francesco Vanni. Art in Late Renaissance Siena, exhibition catalogue by J. Marciari and S.<br />
Boorsch, Yale, 2013.<br />
5. Giuseppe Cesari called Cavalier d’Arpino<br />
G. Baglione, Vite de’ pittori, scultori et architetti, Rome, 1642, edition by J. Hess, H. Röttgen, Vatican City, 1995; Il Cavalier d’Arpino,<br />
exhibition catalogue by H. Röttgen, Rome, Palazzo Venezia, 1973; H. Röttgen, Il Cavalier Giuseppe Cesari d’Arpino: un grande pittore nello<br />
splendore della fama e nell’incostanza della fortuna, Rome, 2002; J. L. Baroni, Master Drawings, New York e Londra, 1-31 maggio, 2002, 1-12<br />
luglio 2002, cat. 10; M. S. Bolzoni, Il Cavalier Giuseppe Cesari d’Arpino. Maestro del disegno, Rome, 2013; M. S. Bolzoni, The Drawings <strong>of</strong><br />
Raffaellino Motta da Reggio, in “Master Drawings”, 54, 2, <strong>2016</strong>, pp. 147-204.<br />
6. Giovanni Andrea Donducci called il Mastelletta<br />
C. C. Malvasia, Felsina pittrice. Vite dei pittori bolognesi [1678], Bologna, 1841, vol. II, pp. 67-72; A. Coliva, Il Mastelletta. Giovanni<br />
Andrea Donducci 1575-1655, Rome, 1980; A. Coliva in Dizionario biografico degli Italiani, ad vocem Donducci, Giovanni Andrea, detto il<br />
Mastelletta, vol. 41, 1992; D. Benati, Giovanni Andrea Donducci, detto il Mastelletta un “genio bizzarro”, Bologna, 2007; Le génie de Bologne<br />
des Carracci aux Gandolfi : dessins des XVIIe et XVIIIe siècles (Les dessins en Italie dans les collections publiques françaises), exhibition catalogue<br />
by C. Loisel, cat. 29.<br />
7. Giovan Mauro della Rovere called Il Fiamminghino<br />
A. Orlandi, Abecedario pittorico ecc , Bologna, 1704; G. Bora, I disegni del Codice Resta, Cinisello Balsamo (Milan), 1976.<br />
8. Pietro Novelli known as Il Monrealese<br />
AA.VV., Civiltà del Seicento a Napoli, exhibition catalogue, Naples, 1984; A. Mazzè, Pietro Novelli il Monrealese, Palermo, 1989; AA.VV.,<br />
Pietro Novelli e il suo ambiente, exhibition catalogue, Palermo, 1990; AA.VV., Ritorno al Barocco da Caravaggio a Vanvitelli, exhibition<br />
catalogue, Naples, 2009.<br />
9. Vincenzo Dandini<br />
C. Ripa, Iconologia, Rome, 1603, anastatic ed. Milan, 1992; S. Bellesi, Una Vita inedita di Vincenzo Dandini e appunti su Anton Domenico<br />
Gabbiani, Giovan Battista Marmi, Filippo Maria Galletti e altri, in “Paragone”, Nuova serie, no.s 9-10-11, 1988, pp. 97-123; Vincenzo<br />
Dandini e la pittura a Firenze alla metà del Seicento, Ospedaletto (Pisa), 2003; F. Baldassari, La collezione Piero ed Elena Bigongiari. Il Seicento<br />
fiorentino fra ‘favola’ e dramma, Milan, 2004; Un’altra bellezza. Francesco Furini, exhibition catalogue by M. Gregori and R. Maffeis, Florence,<br />
2007; S. Bellesi, Catalogo dei Pittori Fiorentini ‘600 e ‘700, 3 vols., Florence, 2009; S. Bellesi, Studi sulla pittura e scultura del ‘600 -‘700 a<br />
Firenze , Florence, 2013; La Compagnia di San Benedetto Bianco nel Seicento fiorentino, exhibition catalogue by A. Grassi, M. Scipioni and<br />
G. Serafini, Livorno, 2015.
10. Giacinto Gimignani<br />
F. Zeri, Galleria Pallavicini in Roma. Catalogo dei dipinti, Rome, 1959; G. Di Domenico Cortese, Percorso di G. G., in “Commentarii”,<br />
XVII, 1967, pp. 186-206; U. V. Fischer, Giacinto Gimignani (1606-1681). Eine Studie zur römischen Malerei des Seicento, Doctorate thesis,<br />
Freiburg, 1973;U. V. Fischer Pace, Les oeuvres de Giacinto Gimignani dans les collections publiques françaises, in “La Revue du Louvre et des<br />
Musées de France”, XVIII, 1978, 5-6, pp. 343-358; Disegni di Giacinto e Ludovico Gimignani nella collezione del Gabinetto nazionale delle<br />
stampe, catalogue by U. V. Fischer Pace, Rome, 1979; A. Negro, in Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani, ad vocem “Giacinto Gimignani”, vol.<br />
54, 2000; F. Baldassarri, Quattro ‘favole’ inedite di Giacinto Gimignani, Florence, 2010.<br />
11. Carlo Maratta<br />
M. Nieto Alcaide, Carlo Maratti: cuaranta y tres dibujos de tema religioso, exhibition catalogue, Madrid, 1965; A. Sutherland Harris – E.<br />
Schaar, Die Handzeichnungen von Andrea Sacchi und Carlo Maratta, Düsseldorf, 1967; J. K. Westin - R. H. Westin, Carlo Maratti and<br />
his Contemporaries. Figurative Drawings from the Roman Baroque, exhibition catalogue, Philadelphia, 1975; J. Bean, 17 th Century Italian<br />
Drawings in the Metropolitan Museum, New York, 1979; L’idea del Bello. Viaggio per Roma nel Seicento con Giovanni Pietro Bellori, exhibition<br />
catalogue by E. Borea and C. Gasparri, 2 vols., Rome, 2000, II; G. Angelucci, Il fondo Maggiori a Monte San Giusto. I disegni, Monte San<br />
Giusto, 2005; S. Carbonara Pompei, L’apparato decorativo della Cappella Cybo, in Santa Maria del Popolo. Storia e restauri, by I. Miarelli<br />
Mariani and M. Richielli, 2 vols., Rome, 2009; Maratti e l’Europa, Atti del Convegno Internazionale di Studi su Carlo Maratti nel terzo<br />
centenario dalla morte (Roma, Palazzo Altieri e Accademia Nazionale di San Luca, 11-12 Novembre 2013) by L. Barroero, S. Prosperi Valenti<br />
Rodinò and S. Schültze, Rome, 2015.<br />
12. Luigi Vanvitelli<br />
Disegni di Luigi Vanvitelli nelle collezioni pubbliche di Napoli e di Caserta, exhibition catalogue by J. Garms, Naples, 1973; L’esercizio del<br />
disegno. I Vanvitelli. Catalogo generale del fondo dei disegni della Reggia di Caserta, exhibition catalogue by C. Marinelli, Rome, 1991; C. De<br />
Seta, Luigi Vanvitelli, Naples, 1998.<br />
13. Fedele Fischetti<br />
C. Ripa, Iconologia, Venice, ed. 1645; N. Spinosa, Pittura napoletana del Settecento dal Rococò al Classicismo, Naples,1987; M. Pisani, Una<br />
famiglia di pittori: i Fischetti, in “Napoli nobilissima”, 27, exhibition catalogue, Naples, 1988; F. Bertozzi, Fischetti, Fedele, in “Dizionario<br />
Biografico degli Italiani”, vol. 48, Rome ,1997, ad indicem; I. Mauro, Il primo programma decorativo per la sala del Baciamano della Reggia<br />
di Caserta e un modelletto di Fedele Fischetti, in “Napoli nobilissima”,10, exhibition catalogue, Naples, 2009; XXVII Biennale Internazionale<br />
dell’Antiquariato di Firenze, exhibition catalogue, Florence, 2011.<br />
14. Venetian Artist - 19 th century<br />
A. Rizzi, Disegni del Bison, Udine, 1976; T. Pignatti, A. Dorigato, Disegni antichi del Museo Correr, Venice, 1983; G. De Marco, I diari e i<br />
disegni di Francois Vervloet, “pittore prospettico” in viaggio per le corti d’Europa, Rome, 2007; G. Romanelli, F. Pedrocco, A. Bellieni, 800 disegni<br />
inediti dell’Ottocento veneziano, Venice, 2010; G. Pavanello, A. Craievich, D. D’Anza, Giuseppe Bernardino Bison, Trieste, 2012.<br />
15. Giuseppe Bernardino Bison<br />
C. Piperata, Giuseppe Bernardino Bison (1762 – 1844), Padova, 1940; A. Rizzi, Cento disegni del Bison, Udine, 1962-1963; F. Zava Boccazzi,<br />
Per la grafica del Bison, in «Arte Veneta», XXVII, 1973, pp. 236-249; A. Rizzi, Disegni del Bison, Udine, 1976; F. Magani, Giuseppe Bernardino<br />
Bison, Soncino (CR), 1993; Giuseppe Bernardino Bison pittore e disegnatore, exhibition catalogue by G. Bergamini, F. Magani, G. Pavanello,<br />
Milan, 1997; G. Pavanello, A. Craievich, D. D’Anza, Giuseppe Bernardino Bison, Trieste, 2012.<br />
16. Umberto Brunelleschi<br />
G. Ercoli, Umberto Brunelleschi – Liberty e Art Déco nell’opera grafica di un artista italiano a Parigi, Florence, 1978; C. Nuzzi, Umberto<br />
Brunelleschi illustrazione, moda e teatro (1879-1949), Milan, 1979.
Printed in Florence<br />
November <strong>2016</strong>
Drawings are sold mounted but not framed.<br />
© Copyright Mattia & Maria Novella Romano, 2017<br />
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