Lot Essay
Landscape drawings by Allegrini outside this album are practically unknown, though he is a prolific draughtsman of figure subjects: one was sold at Christie's, New York, 11 January 1994, lot 207, illustrated, a few are in albums in the Museum der Bildenden Künste, Leipzig (M. Roethlisberger, op. cit., fig. 3) and four are included in the Claude album bought by the Nationalmuseum, Stockholm, in 1982. Professor Roethlisberger stresses the influence of Claude's style of the 1630s on Allegrini's landscape drawings and dates the album to 1638-40.
According to the inscriptions on the present drawings, this album records a trip to Naples and Rome: there are views of Posilippo, the Castel del'Ovo, the Porta Nolana and the church of San Lorenzo, Naples, and of the Arch of Drusus, the Porta San Sebastiano, Santa Croce in Jerusalemme, SS. Giovanni and Paolo and the Ponte Molle in Rome.
The present album was part of the collection of 45 albums from Queen Christina's collection in 1692 which was acquired by Prince Livio Odescalchi. An inventory, probably drawn up by the notary Francesco de'Romanis who made the inscription at the front of the album, lists the album as 'a bound book in quarto covered with German leather, 118 pages with 163 drawings by several minor artists', M. Roethlisberger, op. cit., p. 264.
According to the inscriptions on the present drawings, this album records a trip to Naples and Rome: there are views of Posilippo, the Castel del'Ovo, the Porta Nolana and the church of San Lorenzo, Naples, and of the Arch of Drusus, the Porta San Sebastiano, Santa Croce in Jerusalemme, SS. Giovanni and Paolo and the Ponte Molle in Rome.
The present album was part of the collection of 45 albums from Queen Christina's collection in 1692 which was acquired by Prince Livio Odescalchi. An inventory, probably drawn up by the notary Francesco de'Romanis who made the inscription at the front of the album, lists the album as 'a bound book in quarto covered with German leather, 118 pages with 163 drawings by several minor artists', M. Roethlisberger, op. cit., p. 264.