.jpg?w=1)
Lot Essay
The present drawing might be a decoration for a Medici state coach, as in a drawing by Cigoli in the Biblioteca Marucelliana in Florence (G. Brunetti, I disegni dei secoli XV e XVI della Biblioteca Marucelliana, Rome, 1990, no. 194). The drawing in Florence shares a number of compositional characteristics with the present drawing: two figures supporting the Medici coat-of-arms, the composition inscribed in an oval, the Medici palles drawn in trompe l'oeil and the fact that the composition is squared for enlargement. The drawing by Cigoli is connected by Miles Chapell, in the Marucelliana catalogue, to a commission for 'ovati dipinti per 2 carrozze di Loro Altezze Ser.me' for which Cigoli was paid on 9 June 1600.
The first known owner of the present drawing was the Comte d'Oultremont, an 18th Century nobleman who acquired a number of albums of drawings in Tuscany and brought them back to the Southern Netherlands. The drawings, mostly Tuscan, from these albums date from the 16th to the 18th Centuries and are all mounted on very thin paper with brown ink framing lines and some indications of attributions. Almost all known drawings by the Pisan painter Giovanni Battista Tempesti (1729-1804) come from this source, which might point to a Pisan origin for the albums (C. Goguel, Dessins Toscans XVIe-XVIIIe siècle, Paris, 2005, II, nos. 570-84). The Oultremont albums also contained a large number of drawings by Poccetti of which a number were formerly in the Stichting Collectie P. en N. de Boer, sold at Christie's, London, 4 July 1995, lots 28-31. Some Oultremont drawings are also at the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, while groups were sold at Christie's, London, 8 April 1986, lots 25-54, 1 July 1986, lots 54-70 and 201-220 and 9 December 1986, lots 24-37 and 181-198.
The attribution of this drawing to Poccetti has kindly been confirmed by Miles Chappell on the basis of a photograph.
The first known owner of the present drawing was the Comte d'Oultremont, an 18th Century nobleman who acquired a number of albums of drawings in Tuscany and brought them back to the Southern Netherlands. The drawings, mostly Tuscan, from these albums date from the 16th to the 18th Centuries and are all mounted on very thin paper with brown ink framing lines and some indications of attributions. Almost all known drawings by the Pisan painter Giovanni Battista Tempesti (1729-1804) come from this source, which might point to a Pisan origin for the albums (C. Goguel, Dessins Toscans XVIe-XVIIIe siècle, Paris, 2005, II, nos. 570-84). The Oultremont albums also contained a large number of drawings by Poccetti of which a number were formerly in the Stichting Collectie P. en N. de Boer, sold at Christie's, London, 4 July 1995, lots 28-31. Some Oultremont drawings are also at the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, while groups were sold at Christie's, London, 8 April 1986, lots 25-54, 1 July 1986, lots 54-70 and 201-220 and 9 December 1986, lots 24-37 and 181-198.
The attribution of this drawing to Poccetti has kindly been confirmed by Miles Chappell on the basis of a photograph.