Oliviero Gatti (1579-after 1628)

The arms of a Borghese Cardinal, in a cartouche flanked by putti

Details

Oliviero Gatti (1579-after 1628)
The arms of a Borghese Cardinal, in a cartouche flanked by putti
with inscription 'Augustin Carache'
black chalk, pen and brown ink, brown and blue-green wash, watermark rampant lion, the outlines incised
203 x 287 mm.

Provenance

P. Crozat, his number '41'; Paris, 10 April - 13 May 1741, part of lots 453-61.
P.-J. Mariette (L. 1852); Paris, 15 November 1775 - 30 January 1776, probably part of lot 317.
Baron D. Vivant-Denon (L. 779).
C. Gasc (L. 542).

Literature

B. Bohn, Letter to Master Drawings, 1995, XXXIII, p. 189 adding to M. Chappell, 'Oliviero Gatti 'invenit'', Master Drawings, 1993, XXXI, pp. 407-9.

Exhibited

Paris, Galerie Aubry, Dessins franais et italiens du XVIe et du XVIIe sicle, 1971, no. 27, illustrated (as Agostino Carracci).

Engraved

By the artist (Illustrated Bartsch, XLI, 37).

Lot Essay

A study for the engraving dated 1612 of the arms of a Borghese cardinal. The print is inscribed 'SPEMQ METVMQ INTER MEDIO TVTISSIMVS' and acknowledges Gatti as both the engraver and the designer of the print. The Borghese Cardinal could be one of Pope Paul V's nephews Scipione or Pier Maria.
In 1993 Miles Chappell published a drawing from the Uffizi attributed to Gatti representing the arms of a Borghese cardinal. That drawing bears the same motto as the print dated 1612. Two further drawings by Gatti were published by Miles Chappell and Babette Bohn in an addition to the Master Drawings article of 1993. The attribution of the first drawing, in the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge, is based on an old inscription. The second drawing, close in handling to the present one, is a study for the frontispiece of a thesis dated 1620.
Gatti studied with Agostino Carracci and Valesio and worked as an engraver in Bologna from 1602 to 1628.

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