Lot 29: CARLO MARCHIONNI

DOUBLE-SIDED SHEET WITH A CARICATURE OF AN ARTIST AND STUDIES FOR A CHIMNEY-PIECE IN VILLA ALBANI

7 3/16 by 7 3/16 in; 186 by 185 mm (sight size)

Pen and brown ink (recto and verso)

This very amusing drawing was first attributed to Marchionni by Peter Dreyer. More recently, Professor Elisabeth Kieven wrote that caricatures such as those on the recto are very characteristic of the artist and that a number of such drawings are in the Museo di Roma in Palazzo Braschi. (1 ) Furthermore, Simonetta Prosperi has proposed that the artist caricatured is Marco Benefial.

Professor Kieven also identified the architectural studies on the verso as relating to a chimney-piece and frame in the Villa Albani, Rome. The fireplace was located in one of the rooms next to the great gallery, on the piano nobile of the Palazzina. The composition with three figures within the central frame depicts an antique relief with Hermes, Orpheus and Eurydice (fig. 1), one of the greatest works in the collection and still found in the same location today, albeit with a different architectural setting. (2) On the basis of this identification, Professor Kieven has dated the drawing to 1755-58.

1. In a letter to the present owner, dated 26 March 2004.
2. See H. Beck and P.C. Bol, Forschungen zur Villa Albani, Berlin 1982, figs. 145-149