Monday, July 4, 2016

Ottavio Leoni of Rome, 1578-1630

Ottavio Leoni
Portrait of Margherita, Duchess of Ferrara
early 17th century
drawing
Ashmolean Museum, Oxford

Ottavio Leoni
Self-portrait
1624
drawing
British Museum

Ottavio Leoni (1578-1630) was "the leading portraitist of Rome during the early 17th century" according to curators at the British Museum where the spectacular self-portrait immediately above is preserved. Between 1615 and 1629 Leoni compiled an album of over 400 portrait drawings with the faces of  those who were powerful enough to sit for him. The drawings did not go to the sitters, but were instead the models for portrait engravings (samples of the engravings will appear here tomorrow). When Leoni died in 1630 the album of portrait drawings was immediately sold by the family  for a generous price  to Cardinal Scipione Borghese, pre-eminent collector of the age, builder of Villa Borghese, patron of Caravaggio. Scholars believe the album remained intact until at least 1747, when it was re-sold in Paris. Eventually, like most such albums, it was broken up and the drawings dispersed around the world.

Ottavio Leoni
Portrait of Piermarino Bernabò
1618
drawing
Metropolitan Museum of Art

Ottavio Leoni
Portrait of Giovanni Battista Rossa
1620
drawing
Metropolitan Museum of Art

Ottavio Leoni
Portrait of Cardinal Francesco Barberini
1624
drawing
British Museum

Ottavio Leoni
Portrait of a youth
1620
drawing
British Museum

Ottavio Leoni
Portrait of Prudenzia Montone
early 17th century
drawing
Morgan Library, New York

Ottavio Leoni
Portrait of a young woman
ca. 1620
drawing
Prado

attributed to Ottavio Leoni
Portrait of a woman
early 17th century
drawing
Metropolitan Museum of Art

Ottavio Leoni
Portrait of Pope Gregory XV
1621
drawing
British Museum

Ottavio Leoni
Portrait of the painter Federico Barocci
early 17th century
drawing
Morgan Library, New York

Ottavio Leoni
Portrait of a woman
1622
drawing
Morgan Library, New York

Ottavio Leoni
Portrait of Settimia Manenti Salernitana
1629
drawing
Morgan Library, New York

Ottavio Leoni
The artist's son, swaddled
early 17th century
drawing
Ashmolean Museum, Oxford