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Lot Essay
This was originally one of a set of one hundred drawings by Ligorio depicting two hundred ancestors of the Duke Alfonso d'Este painted by Bartolomeo and Girolamo Faccini in the courtyard of the Castello at Ferrara. Each drawing represents two ancestors, which brings the total of figures to two hundred. The commission originated in the genealogical rivalry between the Este and Medici families, which embittered diplomatic relations between Rome and the Empire from 1541 until the death of Duke Alfonso II in 1587.
The series of drawings is probably based on, or related to, Giovanni Pigna's Historia de'principi d'Este published in 1570 without illustrations. Pigna, and Ligorio, tried to establish a direct line between the Roman Caius Atticus and the contemporary Este family. The frescoes were completed in 1577.
Twenty-four drawings from the same series are in the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, four in Munich, four in London (J.A. Gere and P. Pouncey, Italian Drawings in the Department of Prints and Drawings in the British Museum, Artists working in Rome, c.1550 to c.1640, London, 1983, nos. 206-9), two in the Uffizi, and single sheets at Stuttgart, Princeton and the Metropolitan Museum, J. Bean and L. Turcic, 15th and 16th Century Italian Drawings in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1982, no. 113. Another, showing Filippo II and Giovanni IV, was sold at Christie's London, 2 July 1991, lot 78.
The series of drawings is probably based on, or related to, Giovanni Pigna's Historia de'principi d'Este published in 1570 without illustrations. Pigna, and Ligorio, tried to establish a direct line between the Roman Caius Atticus and the contemporary Este family. The frescoes were completed in 1577.
Twenty-four drawings from the same series are in the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, four in Munich, four in London (J.A. Gere and P. Pouncey, Italian Drawings in the Department of Prints and Drawings in the British Museum, Artists working in Rome, c.1550 to c.1640, London, 1983, nos. 206-9), two in the Uffizi, and single sheets at Stuttgart, Princeton and the Metropolitan Museum, J. Bean and L. Turcic, 15th and 16th Century Italian Drawings in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1982, no. 113. Another, showing Filippo II and Giovanni IV, was sold at Christie's London, 2 July 1991, lot 78.