Paolo de Matteis in his studio

Delightfully comical and vigorously painted, this little portrait by Pier Leone Ghezzi is remarkable as perhaps the first known painted caricature. It can be considered a forerunner of such celebrated caricatures as those produced by the British artist William Hogarth, who even reproduced one of Ghezzi's head sketches in his 1753 treatise, The Analysis of Beauty. Ghezzi was an observant and merciless caricaturist in the more traditional medium of pen and ink and often drew humorous sketches of his wealthy and prominent patrons. The present work, however, is unique as a finished oil painting rather than a pen sketch.

In the painting’s inscription, Ghezzi's subject is identified as Paolo de Matteis, a Neapolitan-born painter and printmaker who worked for a time in Rome (fig. 1). This was, in fact, Ghezzi’s third portrait of de Matteis, the first two being pen-and-ink caricatures, dating from 1725 and drawn from life. Ghezzi’s first sketch of his contemporary contained a lengthy caption poking fun at de Matteis' peripatetic career: 'Paolo de Matteis, Painter, came to Rome where he stained many canvases and took a great deal of money from the Roman nobility, before he returned to Naples disgusted by Rome on 25 June 1725, drawn by me Cav. Ghezzi on 30 June 1725, and he died in Naples in the month of July 1728, on the 26th day of the festival of Saint Anne' (Codici Ottoboniani Latini 3115, fol. III).

The third and present portrait, the only one on canvas, was recorded by Ghezzi in his Memorie (loc. cit.) on 16 November 1732: 'I've finished the caricature of Pavolo de Mattei in which he is painting Fortune standing on the wheel and crowning an ass, nearby a magnificent horse to demonstrate that fortune always protects the ignorant which we see in present times...the present painting has been requested from me by Abbot Pascoli who gave me the book of the lives of the artists written by he himself'. Thus we know the painting's intended recipient, Abbot Lione Pascoli, author of the Vite de'pittori, scultori, ed architetti moderni. Though the painting is dated 1726 on the cartellino, Ghezzi’s account gives the actual date of execution as 1732, perhaps backdated to coincide with de Matteis’ stay in Rome. The Neapolitan artist died in 1728, so Ghezzi likely adapted this composition from one of his earlier pen-and-ink caricatures.

No record survives today of a canvas representing Fortune by Paolo de Matteis to match the one he is depicted painting here. Ghezzi's inclusion of the subject may have been a commentary on the scarce fortune encountered by de Matteis in Rome, with the clientele who failed to recognize his full talents.