Lot 314: AGOSTINO MASUCCI

ROME 1690 - 1768 STUDIES FOR THE HEAD OF ST. PETER AND A SEPARATE STUDY OF A PROPHET Pen and brown ink over traces of black chalk within grey ink framing lines; bears numbering in pen and brown ink lower right: m 139 177 by 268 mm

Leeds, Temple Newsam House, Old Master Drawings from the Collection of Mr Richard Gatty, May-June 1954, no. 67b (as F. Trevisani); Newcastle, 1960, no. 36 (as Francesco Trevisani); Newcastle, 1964, no. 66; Newcastle, 1974, no. 105, reproduced pl. XXVIII; London, 1975, no. 69; Newcastle, 1982, no. 86

William F. Webb and his daughter, Lady Cheamside, by descent to Richard Gatty, Pepper Arden, Northallerton, Yorkshire, his sale and others, London, Sotheby's, 18 March 1959, part of lot 51 (as Francesco Trevisani), purchased by Ralph Holland

This and lot 429 are studies for the decoration of the ceiling in the Sala dei Pannini of the Casino, or Coffee House, located in the garden of the Quirinal Palace, Rome. The head studies relate to St. Peter, in the central composition on the ceiling, whose subject is Christ's exhortation to Peter, Feed my Sheep. The larger lower study of St. Peter is the one adopted for the final composition. The separate study of the Prophet is an early sketch for one of the four ovals which surround the central section. The Casino was built for Pope Benedict XIV by the architect Ferdinando Fuga, between 1741 and 1744.