D 2440

Unità di misura: mm; Altezza: 215; Larghezza: 159

pietra nera

The collection of portraits on cerulean paper by Ottavio Leoni (Rome 1578-1630) conserved in the Genoese civic collections counts no less than 50 sheets and is certainly of great importance in terms of quality and chronological variety: in fact, these are drawings of a high level of execution, the production of which can be scaled throughout the master's career as a portraitist. Also very varied is the range of characters that the portraits document: a vivid cross-section of Roman society in the early 17th century. The historical-artistic research and the writings on the sheets (some autograph, others collectors', sometimes faded and cut out) have made it possible in some cases to give a name to the figures 'photographed' by Leoni: this is the case, among the nobles, of Vincenzo Gonzaga, Duke of Mantua (D2440), the Marquis Paris Pinelli (D2414), and again of Alessandro VII Sforza (1572-1631) Duke of Segni (inv. D2422), son of Federico II Sforza and Beatrice Orsini; or, among the prelates, the young Monsignor Gerolamo Grimaldi (1597-1685), the future Cardinal of Trinità dei Monti (inv. D2434). An elegant passepartout of blue paper with gilded outline characterises the entire collection, which has an interesting collecting history: some of the sheets, in fact, bequeathed to the city in 1848 by the nobleman Marcello Durazzo, bear the inscription "Ulisse Aldrovandi 1799", an indication of a previous provenance from the collections of Count Ulisse (1769-1826) of the Aldrovandi Marescotti family of Bologna, a patron, academic, amateur painter, and collector of graphics and art books. (PRIARONE, 2021) Portrait of Vincenzo Gonzaga, Duke of Mantua.