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Lot Essay
The present drawings can be compared to watercolours by Italian artists commissioned for Giovanni Battista Ferrari's Hespireides, 1646, by Cassiano dal Pozzo (1588-1657) - 'one of the greatest and most compendious citrological treatises ever written' (D. Freedberg, 'Cassiano dal Pozzo's drawings of citrus fruit', in IL Museo cartaceo di Cassiano dal Pozzo, Olivetti, 1989, p. 16).
The handling of the watercolour, in particular the shadow, and pen and brown ink numbering, is very similar to two studies of Limon citratus, in D. Freedberg, op.cit, p. 25, pls. 16 and 17, now in the Royal Library (19363 and 19362). As Freedberg concludes: 'Cassiano's drawings of citrus fruit and flowers form part of a much larger group of natural historical drawings that, as a whole, represents a central but inexplicably neglected chapter in the history of science and art' (Freedberg, op.cit. p. 36).
For further watercolours, possibly from the Dal Pozzo collection, see lot 60.
The handling of the watercolour, in particular the shadow, and pen and brown ink numbering, is very similar to two studies of Limon citratus, in D. Freedberg, op.cit, p. 25, pls. 16 and 17, now in the Royal Library (19363 and 19362). As Freedberg concludes: 'Cassiano's drawings of citrus fruit and flowers form part of a much larger group of natural historical drawings that, as a whole, represents a central but inexplicably neglected chapter in the history of science and art' (Freedberg, op.cit. p. 36).
For further watercolours, possibly from the Dal Pozzo collection, see lot 60.