Lot Essay
Dr. Jörg Merz has kindly confirmed the attribution of this drawing in a letter dated 4 April 1996, and connects the recto to a drawing of Urban VIII kneeling in front of the High Altar of the Church of Saint Luca and Saint Martina, in the Pinacoteca Communale in Ascoli-Piceno, Italy (fig. 1), A. Petrioli Tofani, S. Prosperi Valenti Rodino and C. Sciolla, Il Disegno, Le Collezioni Pubbliche Italiane, Milan, 1994, no. 109, illustrated. The events depicted in the drawing, for which the head is a study, are intimately linked with Cortona's involvement with the Barberini and the Accademia di San Luca.
Pietro da Cortona was introduced to Maffeo Barberini by Marcello Sacchetti, who had come across the young artist when purchasing a copy of a Raphael from him. When Maffeo Barberini was elected Pope in 1623, Sacchetti was made a Cardinal and soon after Pietro da Cortona became one the favourite painters of the Barberini family, in the same way as Bernini was their favourite sculptor. They employed him both for public and private commissions: one of the Pope's nephews, Antonio, commissioned an engraving from Cortona of an Allegory in Honour of Cardinal Antonio Barberini the Younger, the drawing for which is in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, J. Bean, 17th Century Italian Drawings in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1979, no. 135, illustrated. The Pope also asked Cortona to paint his portrait, now in the Museo di Roma, as well as the Glorification of the Reign of Pope Urban VIII for the ceiling of the family palace in Rome, now in the Piazza Barberini, F. Haskell, Patrons and Painters, A Study in the relations between Italian Art and Society in the Age of the Baroque, New York, 1963, pp. 24-62.
After the Pope's election, Urban VIII and his nephews became the most important patrons in Rome: as early as 1626 Cardinal Francesco, one of the nepoti, was chosen as Protector of the Academia de San Luca, the painter's guild. Eight years later Pietro da Cortona, the Barberini protégé, was elected its principe. Soon after his election Cortona decided to restore SS. Luca and Martina, the official church of the Academy, and to have his tomb built in it. The run-down church of San Martina had been acquired fifty years earlier by the Academy, and renamed San Luca. It was then decided that a larger church dedicated to Saint Luke should be built over it. Giovanni Battista Montano and other architects executed some of the designs, although by the time Cortona was elected principe, none of these projects had even started.
However, such reconstruction required, a spiritual excuse which would receive the Pope's imprematura. Cortona's solution was to instigate a search for relics of the patron Saint, and they were indeed soon found. Pietro da Cortona could then organize the pilgrimage of the Pope to the church which took place on 28 November 1635. The Pope knelt in front of an altar, newly designed by Cortona, looking at the altarpiece presented by Federico Zuccaro, which was then attributed to Raphael. The Ascoli-Piceno drawing depicts the event.
K. Noeles dates the Ascoli-Piceno drawing to just after the Pope's visit to the church, La Chiesa dei SS. Luca e Martina nell'opera di Pietro da Cortona, Rome, 1969, pp. 101 and 128. Dr. Jörg Merz relates the verso to a picture datable 1643 and hence places the drawing in the next decade. The verso of the Ferretti drawing is a study for the shepherdess' arm in The Finding of Romulus and Remus, in the Louvre, commissioned about 1643 by Louis Phélipeaux de la Vrillière, Secretary of State for Louis XIV, for the gallery of his hôtel in Paris, G. Briganti, Pietro da Cortona o della pittura Barocca, Florence, 1962, no. 91, pl. 216. The direction of the arm in the drawing differs from that in the picture, but Dr. Merz points out that a compositional study for the latter at Worms shows the arm of the shepherdess in the same position as the one in the Ferretti drawing.
Pietro da Cortona was introduced to Maffeo Barberini by Marcello Sacchetti, who had come across the young artist when purchasing a copy of a Raphael from him. When Maffeo Barberini was elected Pope in 1623, Sacchetti was made a Cardinal and soon after Pietro da Cortona became one the favourite painters of the Barberini family, in the same way as Bernini was their favourite sculptor. They employed him both for public and private commissions: one of the Pope's nephews, Antonio, commissioned an engraving from Cortona of an Allegory in Honour of Cardinal Antonio Barberini the Younger, the drawing for which is in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, J. Bean, 17th Century Italian Drawings in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1979, no. 135, illustrated. The Pope also asked Cortona to paint his portrait, now in the Museo di Roma, as well as the Glorification of the Reign of Pope Urban VIII for the ceiling of the family palace in Rome, now in the Piazza Barberini, F. Haskell, Patrons and Painters, A Study in the relations between Italian Art and Society in the Age of the Baroque, New York, 1963, pp. 24-62.
After the Pope's election, Urban VIII and his nephews became the most important patrons in Rome: as early as 1626 Cardinal Francesco, one of the nepoti, was chosen as Protector of the Academia de San Luca, the painter's guild. Eight years later Pietro da Cortona, the Barberini protégé, was elected its principe. Soon after his election Cortona decided to restore SS. Luca and Martina, the official church of the Academy, and to have his tomb built in it. The run-down church of San Martina had been acquired fifty years earlier by the Academy, and renamed San Luca. It was then decided that a larger church dedicated to Saint Luke should be built over it. Giovanni Battista Montano and other architects executed some of the designs, although by the time Cortona was elected principe, none of these projects had even started.
However, such reconstruction required, a spiritual excuse which would receive the Pope's imprematura. Cortona's solution was to instigate a search for relics of the patron Saint, and they were indeed soon found. Pietro da Cortona could then organize the pilgrimage of the Pope to the church which took place on 28 November 1635. The Pope knelt in front of an altar, newly designed by Cortona, looking at the altarpiece presented by Federico Zuccaro, which was then attributed to Raphael. The Ascoli-Piceno drawing depicts the event.
K. Noeles dates the Ascoli-Piceno drawing to just after the Pope's visit to the church, La Chiesa dei SS. Luca e Martina nell'opera di Pietro da Cortona, Rome, 1969, pp. 101 and 128. Dr. Jörg Merz relates the verso to a picture datable 1643 and hence places the drawing in the next decade. The verso of the Ferretti drawing is a study for the shepherdess' arm in The Finding of Romulus and Remus, in the Louvre, commissioned about 1643 by Louis Phélipeaux de la Vrillière, Secretary of State for Louis XIV, for the gallery of his hôtel in Paris, G. Briganti, Pietro da Cortona o della pittura Barocca, Florence, 1962, no. 91, pl. 216. The direction of the arm in the drawing differs from that in the picture, but Dr. Merz points out that a compositional study for the latter at Worms shows the arm of the shepherdess in the same position as the one in the Ferretti drawing.