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Lot Essay
This belongs to a group of sixteen portraits of artists by Leoni, acquired by Pierre-Jean Mariette in the d'Aubigny sale of 1747 in Paris. This sale included altogether 400 drawings by Ottavio Leoni and a few sheets by his son Ippolito. According to Mariette's extensive account in the Abécédario, he owned the portraits of Guido Reni, Camillo Grafico, Durante and Cherubino Alberti, Federico Zuccaro, Cristoforo Pomarancio, Orazio Borgianni, Domenico Beccafumi, Antiveduto della Gramatica, Filippo d'Angeli, Gaspare Celio, Paul Bril, Girolamo Maffei, Giovanni Maggi, and Carlo Saraceni, P. de Chennevières and A. de Montaiglon, op.cit., pp. 180-1.
Eight portraits are now in the Louvre, two in the Ecole des Beaux-Arts, Paris and one in the Albertina, Vienna. The portrait of Carlo Saraceni, also dated 1614, was sold in these Rooms, 24 March 1964, lot 121.
As John Spike noted, Leoni became Principe of the Accademia di San Lucca in 1614, and this certainly inspired him execute a series of artist's portraits. Leoni only dated the portraits of the artists still alive in 1614, Sarasota, The John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art, Baroque Portraiture in Italy: Works From North American Collections, 1985, pp. 13-4.
When the drawings were mounted for Mariette's collection, they were cut down to approximately the same size. Mariette kept, however, as in the present sheet, Leoni's inscriptions of the sitter's name, which would have otherwise been lost, and inserted them in the lower left corner of each drawings. Another portrait, which shows the inserted piece of paper with Leoni's inscription, is that of the painter Antiveduto della Gramatica in the Louvre, also dated 1614, Paris, Louvre, Le dessin à Rome au XVIIe siècle , 1988, no. 91, illustrated. Another portrait from 1614, also from Mariette, of the engraver Camillo Grafico, is in the Louvre, Le Cabinet d'un Grand Amateur, 1967, no. 77.
Eight portraits are now in the Louvre, two in the Ecole des Beaux-Arts, Paris and one in the Albertina, Vienna. The portrait of Carlo Saraceni, also dated 1614, was sold in these Rooms, 24 March 1964, lot 121.
As John Spike noted, Leoni became Principe of the Accademia di San Lucca in 1614, and this certainly inspired him execute a series of artist's portraits. Leoni only dated the portraits of the artists still alive in 1614, Sarasota, The John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art, Baroque Portraiture in Italy: Works From North American Collections, 1985, pp. 13-4.
When the drawings were mounted for Mariette's collection, they were cut down to approximately the same size. Mariette kept, however, as in the present sheet, Leoni's inscriptions of the sitter's name, which would have otherwise been lost, and inserted them in the lower left corner of each drawings. Another portrait, which shows the inserted piece of paper with Leoni's inscription, is that of the painter Antiveduto della Gramatica in the Louvre, also dated 1614, Paris, Louvre, Le dessin à Rome au XVII