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Lot Essay
This vibrant black chalk drawing is for one of the nymphs offering exotic gifts to the sun god, featured at right on the ceiling fresco of the Sala di Apollo at Palazzo Pitti, Florence (Fig. 1). Commissioned from Pietro da Cortona by Grand Duke Ferdinand II de’ Medici, the decoration of the Sala di Apollo went through a long gestation. Begun in 1642-43, when the artist designed and frescoed the figures from the main group (Apollo, Ferdinand II, Fame and Hercules), it was left unfinished upon his departure for Rome in 1647. Responding belatedly to the Grand Duke’s persistent requests to continue the work, twelve years later, in the Fall of 1659, Cortona sent his best pupil Ciro Ferri, who completed the frescoes with the aid of drawings and cartoons executed by his master in Rome (Briganti, op. cit., pp. 236-39).
While the complex iconographical program for the Planetary rooms at Pitti was prepared by the court poet Francesco Rondinelli, the development of Cortona’s ideas for the decoration of the ceiling, considered a peak in his career and a milestone in Baroque decoration, can be followed through his drawings. Datable to the earlier phase of the design, around 1647, are some compositional sketches in pen and ink for the entire ceiling, followed by rough chalk studies for the single figures, now in Rome, Florence and New York (Prosperi Valenti Rodinò, op. cit., no. 8.15-18 ill.). The present sheet, however, was developed later as it relates to a figure that was frescoed by Ferri only during the 1659 campaign. It can be dated as early as 1656, the year when Cortona resumed work on designing the ceiling and asked Rondinelli to provide him with the ‘soggetto’ and other details which he had forgotten in the intervening years (Campbell, op. cit., pp. 144-45).
Coming with an illustrious British provenance, this study of a nymph offering a pineapple is caught in a powerful sotto in su, masterfully rendered with layered strokes of black chalk, a distinctive technique developed by Cortona later in his career, which infuses the figure with a subtle sense of movement. An important record for the artist's workshop practice, the present drawing attests to the high degree of attention and finish he dedicated to each figure while working in Rome. This provided a model that was diligently followed by Ciro Ferri while painting the fresco in Florence.
We are grateful to Simonetta Prosperi Valenti Rodinò for confirming the attribution of this drawing based on digital photographs.
Fig. 1 Ciro Ferri based on drawings by Pietro da Cortona, Sala di Apollo (ceiling, detail). Florence, Palazzo Pitti.
While the complex iconographical program for the Planetary rooms at Pitti was prepared by the court poet Francesco Rondinelli, the development of Cortona’s ideas for the decoration of the ceiling, considered a peak in his career and a milestone in Baroque decoration, can be followed through his drawings. Datable to the earlier phase of the design, around 1647, are some compositional sketches in pen and ink for the entire ceiling, followed by rough chalk studies for the single figures, now in Rome, Florence and New York (Prosperi Valenti Rodinò, op. cit., no. 8.15-18 ill.). The present sheet, however, was developed later as it relates to a figure that was frescoed by Ferri only during the 1659 campaign. It can be dated as early as 1656, the year when Cortona resumed work on designing the ceiling and asked Rondinelli to provide him with the ‘soggetto’ and other details which he had forgotten in the intervening years (Campbell, op. cit., pp. 144-45).
Coming with an illustrious British provenance, this study of a nymph offering a pineapple is caught in a powerful sotto in su, masterfully rendered with layered strokes of black chalk, a distinctive technique developed by Cortona later in his career, which infuses the figure with a subtle sense of movement. An important record for the artist's workshop practice, the present drawing attests to the high degree of attention and finish he dedicated to each figure while working in Rome. This provided a model that was diligently followed by Ciro Ferri while painting the fresco in Florence.
We are grateful to Simonetta Prosperi Valenti Rodinò for confirming the attribution of this drawing based on digital photographs.
Fig. 1 Ciro Ferri based on drawings by Pietro da Cortona, Sala di Apollo (ceiling, detail). Florence, Palazzo Pitti.