Lot 106: Gherardo Cibo (Genoa 1512-1597 Rocca Contrada)

Gherardo Cibo (Genoa 1512-1597 Rocca Contrada)
Travellers approaching a rock formation, a mountainous river landscape beyond
with numbers '.49' and '125'
red chalk, pen and black ink, watercolor, bodycolor
8 3/8 x 11¼ in. (21 x 28.5 cm.)

Works by Cibo were previously attributed to an artist named Messer Ulisse Severino da Cingoli (see J. Bolten, 'Messer Ulisse Severino da Cingoli', Master Drawings, VII, 1969, pp. 123-48). It was not until 1989 that Arnold Nesselrath correctly attributed these drawings to Cibo, a Genoese aristocrat who is known to have travelled to Rome, Bologna and Germany (Gherardo Cibo, alias Ulisse Severino da Cingoli, exh. cat., San Severino Marche, Centro studi Lorenzo e Jacopo Salimbeni per le arte figurative, 1989). Cibo was also a botanist, and the coloring of this landscape is reminiscent of some of his botanical studies (see anonymous sale; Christie's, London, 19 May 1998, lots 1 and 2).