Recto: An allegorical design in honour of Pietro da Cortona. Verso: Study for the figure of Time c. 1675
Black chalk | 41.4 x 29.9 cm (sheet of paper) | RCIN 904091
Carlo Maratti (1625-1713)
Recto: An allegorical design in honour of Pietro da Cortona. Verso: Study for the figure of Time c. 1675
Carlo Maratti (1625-1713)
Recto: An allegorical design in honour of Pietro da Cortona. Verso: Study for the figure of Time c. 1675
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Recto: a drawing depicting winged Time trampling upon Envy, while holding aloft a plaque with a portrait of Pietro da Cortona (1596–1669). Verso: a study for the figure of Time.
The likeness of Pietro was based on a medallion by François Chéron (1635–98), derived in turn from a portrait by Pietro’s pupil Ciro Ferri (1634–89). Sculpted tombs of this allegorical type may be found in Roman churches (and Maratti did provide designs for sculpture) but the pictorial nature of the background suggests a two-dimensional project, most likely a commemorative engraving, with the plinth below left blank for an inscribed title. However, no engraving from the design is known before it was reproduced by Francesco Bartolozzi over a century later, after the drawing had passed into George III’s collection, by which time the identification of the portrait as Cortona had been lost. A companion drawing in the Royal Library at Windsor has been identified as a design in honour of Claude.
Carlo Maratti was the leading artist in Rome after the death of Gianlorenzo Bernini (RCIN 905539) in 1680. Principal of the Accademia di San Luca from 1664 and Director of the Antiquities of Rome from 1702, he saw himself as the guardian of the Classical tradition embodied by Raphael and passing through the Carracci, Domenichino and his own master, Andrea Sacchi. Maratti restored Raphael’s frescoes in the Vatican and was a prolific collector of drawings by his predecessors; his collection was acquired by Clement XI in 1703 and purchased by George III in 1762 from Clement’s nephew, Cardinal Alessandro Albani.
Text adapted from Portrait of the Artist, London, 2016Provenance
Probably acquired by George III in 1762 as part of the collection of Cardinal Alessandro Albani; first recorded in a Royal Collection inventory of c.1810 (Inv. A, p. 107: 'Two designs for Monuments, Engrav'd by F. Bartolozzi')
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Creator(s)
Acquirer(s)
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Medium and techniques
Black chalk
Measurements
41.4 x 29.9 cm (sheet of paper)
Object type(s)