Leoni

Oil on copper. Inscribed and dated top left: Romae/ 1607.

20.1 x 15.8 cms (7  x 6 ¼ in.)

BIBLIOGRAPHY: F. Solinas, Ottavio Leoni (1578-1630): les portraits de Berlin, Rome 2013; F. Solinas, ‘La maniera del Leoni. Un ‘Amore’ dipinto e due ritratti di Don Taddeo Barberini ‘, Dal Razionalismo al Rinascimento. Scritti in Onore di Slivia Danesi Squarzina, under the direction of M.G. Aurigemma, p.287-296, Rome 2011; F. Solinas, ‘La Signora degli Scorpioni: Un inedito di Ottavio Leoni (1578-1630) e qualche ritratto romano del tempo di Caravaggio’, in Caravaggio nel IV centenario della Cappella Contarelli, p.243-265, Rome 2002.

This rare and precious portrait was painted by Ottavio Leoni on a copper plate, and dated in fine gold: Romae 1607.

Ottavio Leoni is one of the greatest European portraitists of his time. From his early years, the artist was supported by Cardinal Francesco Maria Del Monte (1549-1627), patron of the arts in Rome and founder, alongside Cardinal Federico Borromeo, of the Academy of Saint Luke, created to welcome artists coming to work in the Eternal City. Del Monte, known as “Cardinale Fiorentino” represented the Grand Duke of Tuscany in Rome and was one of the richest and most refined patrons of his age who counted amongst his protégés, Caravaggio (his favourite), Barocci, Ligozzi, Vouet and indeed Leoni who was also a friend of Caravaggio’s. These artists, along with a few others, all had the favour of this art loving prelate who advanced their careers with prestigious commissions, both public and private, for the Church and the establishment, both in Florence and elsewhere.

Along with Caravaggio, who played an important role in his development, the young Leoni was influenced by Scipione Pulzone (1550-1598) and Pietro Facchetti (1540-1619), successful portraitists and painters to the Popes and to Italian nobility. Ottavio had been trained by his father, Ludovico, goldsmith, sculptor in bronze and wax as well as painter to the papal court. During repeated sojourns at the Tuscan court, in 1597, 1598 and 1590, Ottavio had the opportunity to study the Medici portraits by Bronzino, Allori and Santi di Tito. Thanks to Princess Christine of Lorraine, who married Grand Duke Ferdinand I in 1589, the young painter had the chance to study dozens of the small, portable portraits drawn or painted on panel by François Clouet and his circle. Only heir to her grandmother, Catherine de Medici, Christine of Lorraine was left a considerable treasure trove of jewels, precious tapestries and the extraordinary collection of portraits of the last Valois, which had been commissioned by the queen and are now, for the most part, at Chantilly.

In 1607, the year this portrait was painted, Ottavio Leoni had already fulfilled a number of prestigious portrait commissions for the nobility and for important prelates in the Eternal City. He had painted a life size portrait of Pope Paul V (reg. 1605-1621), today still in the Borghese collections, along with that of his nephew, Cardinal Scipio Borghese (1577-1633) which is now in the Musée Fesch, Ajaccio. Among his sitters can be listed the Gonzagas and the Medicis, the Colonna Princes, the Orsini Dukes and the Ambassadors of France and Spain. As well as being an associate of Caravaggio, Leoni studied those works of Rubens and of Frans Pourbus which could be seen in Florence, Rome and Mantua.

This intimate portrait, recently rediscovered and till now unpublished, was executed with a particular mastery of technique, expressing the character and spirit of this adolescent, perhaps only 13 or 15 years old but dressed as a knight. The young noble shows all the characteristics of a future papal courtier: the gilded sword, the sapphire ring on his little finger, the golden chain on which there presumably hangs a cross, hidden by the doublet because the chivalric order has not yet been granted to him. Elegant, virtuous, the young boy without doubt belongs to an old noble family from Rome or perhaps from one of the many families who installed themselves in the Eternal City in order to improve their situation or to assume the posts created by each new Pope. Bareheaded, the young man is shown in an interior, an antechamber perhaps on the ground floor of a palace, the neutral background is lit in the Caravaggesque manner with a vibrant light coming from a source high up and to the left. As in other portraits painted by Leoni and, notably, in the important group portrait on copper now in the Metropolitan Museum which shows a Cardinal with his cortège, the expressions of the sitters are described with precision, as are their clothes. In this portrait, the cloak of black wool is lined with silk satin of the same colour, the waistcoat is of pleated brocade shot through with colour and the collar and cuffs are elaborately made from fine linen decorated with precious Venetian lace.

Thanks to his drawn portraits, which often bear the names or the titles of the sitters, it has been possible to identify certain of the painted portraits: this is the case, for example, with the magnificent Marcantonio Borghese, Principe di Sulmona in the collection of the Stibbert Museum in Florence which was identified thanks to a drawing also now in Florence, in the Accademia Colombaria.

The present young Cavaliere is strikingly like the subject portrayed in two drawings known from old photographs in the collection of the Witt Library and that of the Documentation des Arts Graphiques of the Louvre. One is a portrait made in dating from around 1615-1619 representing Pietro Paolo Melchiorri in profil and identified by an inscription, now partially illegible. Related to the Marquis Benedetto Melchiorri, an art collector and patron of Caravaggio, it is Pietro Paolo’s likeness which seems to have been drawn again on a sheet from the collection of the marquis de Lagoy and later owned by Jacques Petithory showing him a few years older and in court dress. This latter drawing would have been made at least ten or twelve years after the present work. Further research in Roman archives could possibly clarify the clearly amicable relationship between the artist and the Melchiorri marchese, most well known for being protectors and patrons to Caravaggio.

Translated from a text by F. Solinas.