The Guelf ancestors of the House of Este: John, Apostolic Administrator of the Archdiocese of Bremen, and Otto III, sons of Otto II ('the Strict')

A preparatory study for the grisaille frescoes, designed by Ligorio for Duke Alfonso II d'Este (1533-1597) and painted by Bartolomeo and Girolamo Faccini in 1577 in the courtyard of the Castello in Ferrara, which showed pairs of ancestors of the House of Este. The present drawing represents John, Apostolic Administrator of the Archdiocese of Bremen (d. 1324) and his brother Otto III (1296-1352), Prince of Lüneburg. There seems to have been some confusion in the inscriptions: John was not also Bishop of Minden, which was an office held by his brother Louis; and the brothers were the sons of Otto II (not IV), Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg (circa 1266-1330). They were members of the House of Welf, Italianicised as Guelf: the older branch of the House of Este. Examples of other drawings from the series can be found in the British Museum, the Ashmolean and the Metropolitan Museum, New York (for a discussion of the whole group, see 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, I, pp. 119-20, under no. 209). Further examples were sold in these Rooms on 2 July 1991, lot 76 and 6 July 1999, lot 10, and at Christie's, Paris, 26 March 2014, lot 56.