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Lot description
CARLO MARATTI (ITALIAN 1625-1713) STUDIES FOR AN ALLEGORICAL FIGURE OF AFRICA (RECTO AND VERSO)Red chalk, traces of white chalk on blue laid paper, watermark 39.6 x 29.6cm (15½ x 11½in.)Provenance:Bishop PercyDavid Lindsay, 28th Earl of Crawford and 11th Earl of Balcarres (1900-1975), Balcarres House, FifeAnd thence by descentExhibited:Edinburgh, National Gallery of Scotland, Italian 17th century drawings from British private collections, 1972, no. 74, p. 84, illustratedLiterature:J. Bean and F. Stampfle, Drawings from New York collections II: The 17th century in Italy, New York, 1967, p. 74 under no. 112 J. Montagu, 'Bellori, Maratti and the Palazzo Altieri', Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes, XLI, 1978, pp. 336-7, pl. 54, fig. d, and addendum E. Feinblatt, 'A drawing by Carlo Maratta', Los Angeles County Museum of Art Bulletin, XXV, 1979, pp. 16-17, fig. 17 (verso) B. Davis, Master Drawings in the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, 1997, p. 66, under no. 26.On both the recto and verso of the present drawing are sketches relating to the allegorical figure of Africa for one of the spandrels in the Sala della Clemenza, the verso being a slightly more developed study for the figure with some symbolic attributes and indications of the architectural setting. The ceiling fresco in the Hall of Clemency in the Alteri Palace, Pope Clement X's family home was one of Maratti's most important projects. Commissioned in the early 1670s, Maratti painted the central section of the vault with an Allegory of Clemency surrounded by Happiness. Maratti planned to fill the spandrels and lunettes with several allegorical personifications of Christian virtues, as well as with representations of the Four Part of the World- Europe, Africa, Asia and America. The project was never finished though a substantial body of preparatory drawings exist many in public collections worldwide including The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, The Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, Museo de Bella Artes, Santiago de Chile, The Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam and a more finished study of Africa, also in red chalk, is in The Los Angeles County Museum of Art, see B. Davis, op.cit, 1997, no. 26.