Giuseppe Piattoli* (active 1785-1807)

An album of 47 drawings with 13 loose sheetsshowing scenes from the life of the Piovano Arlotto, studies of animals, peasants, the deluge, the Drunkenness of Noah, the Holy Family, Christ and the Woman of Samaria and the Temptation of Saint Anthony, Francesca da Rimini, mythological scenes including the battle of Centaurs and Lapiths and Apollo and Marsyas

Details

Giuseppe Piattoli* (active 1785-1807)
An album of 47 drawings with 13 loose sheetsshowing scenes from the life of the Piovano Arlotto, studies of animals, peasants, the deluge, the Drunkenness of Noah, the Holy Family, Christ and the Woman of Samaria and the Temptation of Saint Anthony, Francesca da Rimini, mythological scenes including the battle of Centaurs and Lapiths and Apollo and Marsyas
many sheets inscribed with titles
some in pen and brown ink, some with gray or brown wash, some with watercolour, some with bodycolour, some heightened with white, watermarks posthorn in a crowned cartouche, in an 18th Century binding of patterned paper over boards, eleven sheets loose
2 1/8 x 7 1/8 in. (55 x 182 mm.) overall (60)

Lot Essay

A drawing by Piattoli of The Piovano Arlotto marking the Wall of a Hostelry was sold at Christie's, London, 9 December 1986, lot 55, illustrated.
Arlotto Mainardi (1396-1484) was piovano (rector) of the church of S. Cresci at Macinoli, near Fiesole. He was long celebrated for his practical jokes, and La Facezia del Piovano Arlotto in which many of his adventures are recorded was published posthumously by an anonymous friend. Mainardi also inspired earlier Florentine artists such as Volterrano and Giovanni da San Giovanni.