Nude study of a reclining man holding a stick (recto); Nude study of a seated man holding a stick and other studies (verso)

Pier Leone Ghezzi’s artistic training began in the studio of his father Giuseppe (1634-1721), a Roman painter (L. Pascoli, Vite de’ pittori, scultori, ed architetti moderni, Valentino Martinelli, ed., Perugia, 1992, pp. 651-663; E. P. Bowron and J. J. Rishel, Art in Rome in the Eighteenth Century, exhib. cat., Philadelphia, Philadelphia Museum of Art, and Houston, Museum of Fine Arts, 2000, p. 368). Pier Leone then joined the studio of Carlo Maratta (1625-1713) in 1687, when the latter was at the height of his fame. The present sheet can be compared with a male academy from 1736 in the Biblioteca Comunale degli Intronati in Siena (inv. E.I.3c.27r.; see A. Lo Bianco, Pier Leone Ghezzi. Setttecento alla moda, Venice, 1999, pp. 37-38). Other examples are in the Musée Louvre (inv. 15810, 15814, 15817, 15866; see C. Legrand and D. d’Ormesson-Peugeot, La Rome baroque de Maratti à Piranèse. Dessins du Louvre et des collections publiques françaises, exhib. cat., Paris, Musée du Louvre, 1990, nos. 104, 107, ill.), and formely in the sale Christie’s, New York, 11 January 1994, lot 231.