Testa - Study of a Neo-Attic Relief Fragment of a Dancing Maiden before a Candelabrum

PIETRO TESTA

Lucca 1612 — 1650 Rome

Study of a Neo-Attic Relief Fragment of a Dancing Maiden before a Candelabrum

black chalk underdrawing, pen & brown ink & wash. 101/2 x 81/8" (268 x 210 mm). laid down within the double ink mounting lines of the Museo cartaceo.

provenance:

Cassiano dal Pozzo's Museo cartaceo;
Carlo Antonio Pozzo;
thence by descent
Cosimo Antonio dal Pozzo;
Pope Clement XI;
Cardinal Alessandro Albani;
King George III;
Richard Dalton;
John MacGowan;
Charles Townley;
John Townley;
William Stirling Maxwell.

For type see Bassi Relievi, Book 2, Vol. 156, folio 8296 at Windsor, Royal Collection.

The Dancing Maiden is dressed in the 'wet' draperies beloved of neo-Attic artists exploiting the ornamental possibilities of patterned and fluttering drapery folds. Such females often appear in Roman reliefs from the 1st century B.C. through the 1st century A.D.1 A relief of maidens decorating a candelabrum of the type from which this drawing was copied is in the Louvre (MA 1641). Dancing Maidens were adapted by Mantegna in his rendering of the Muses in his Parnassus, by the School of Raphael in the stuccoes of the Vatican Loggie, and indeed were adapted continually by artists throughout the Renaissance and Baroque periods.2

Passeri states that it was during Testa's apprenticeship to Domenichino that he began executing drawings after the Antique.3 For his empathy with his subject and the skill with which he executed such drawings, Testa became renowned as the "exquisite draughtsman from Lucca." Dempsey tells us that Joachim von Sandaert employed Testa to make some of the drawings for the plates of engravings after the ancient statues in the collection of Vicenzo Giustiniani.4 Later Cassiano dal Pozzo took Testa into his household, offering him protection as well as work making drawings for the Museo cartaceo, along with his friends Poussin and Duquesnoy.5 Cassiano introduced Testa to Pietro da Cortona in whose workshop he was briefly employed. Testa knew Sacchi, Mola, Swanewelt and Claude. These artists were the major protagonists of the 17th century classical style. Their knowledge, acquired in large part through their work for Cassiano, was the basis for the new style they created.

Cassiano dal Pozzo (1598-1657) built one of the most celebrated European collections of the 17th century. It was called the Museo cartaceo and it consisted of drawings which systematically recorded classical antiquities and archeological articles, and drawings of a natural historic and scientific nature including botanicals, particularly citrus fruits. To produce these drawings, Cassiano often hired artists newly arrived in Rome who had not yet made their reputations. His patronage of Testa and Poussin, whom he befriended, was unique. He also employed Duquesnoy for this project, as well as other artists of lesser talent, such as G.B. Ruggieri and Bernardino Campitelli. In addition, Cassiano simply collected drawings by old masters. His entire collection was purchased in 1704 from a descendent by Pope Clement XI and then passed to the Pope's nephew Cardinal Albani. Cardinal Albani already had a vast collection of prints and drawings, including an important collection of the works of 17th century artists formed by Carlo Maratta and another collection formed by himself and his ancestors which included architectural drawings. Negotiations began in 1761 for the purchase of all the Albani Collection by the future George III and in 1763, the drawings arrived in London. They became part of George III's library in Buckingham House. The Museo cartaceo was reorganized by the Royal Librarian, Richard Dalton, who extracted a large number of folios which had formed part of the Bassi Relievi Group. These were kept in his own collection and dispersed after his death in 1791 to be purchased by Charles Townley. Then after WW I another part of the dal Pozzo Collection was dispersed from the Royal Library at Windsor including again, drawings from the Bassi Relievi series and natural history folios.

The full significance of the Museo cartaceo is only now being investigated. There are notes and letters by Cassiano, correspondence between him and scholars, artists, thinkers, and statesmen throughout Europe from which much can be learned of the era. Cassiano was a friend of Galileo's, a man greatly admired by Peiresc, an intellect keenly interested in scientific enquiry and humanism. His contribution and the Museo cartaceo will be found to be great indeed. It certainly was of enormous import to the painters and sculptors of his day for whom the antiquity studies were an important source for their compositions and motifs. And it was a great source for the artists of the Neoclasical period as well. Of the Pozzo-Albani Albums of classical antiqities, two volumes are preserved at the British Museum and twelve volumes remain in the Queen's collection at Windsor Castle. An international team of scholars, under the direction of Prof. Francis Haskell and Dr. Jennifer Montague, will publish the entire surviving corpus of drawings and prints over the next few years. Two volumes recently appeared on Medieval Antiquities and Citrus Fruits. There are already 3 or 4 volumes, published by Olivetti, that examine aspects of the collection. An exhibition at the British Museum in the summer of 1993 of over 150 drawings was accompanied by a well-illustrated and informative catalogue. Another surerb overview exhibition was curated by Francesco Solinas, I Segreti di un Collezionista, Le straordinarie raccolte di Cassiano dal Pozzo 1588-1657. The exhibition took place at Palazzo Barberini, Roma, 2002 and there is a well-illustrated catalogue.

1
Bober & Rubinstein, Renaissance Artists & Antique Sculpture, London, 1986, p. 95, cat. #'s 59A&B.
2
Bober & Rubinstein, op. cit., p. 95.
3
Charles Dempsey, The Greek Style and the Prehistory of Neoclassicism, an essay in the exhibition catalogue Pietro Testa, 1612 - 1650 Prints and Drawings, Philadelphia, 1988.
4
This was published in 1631 as the Galleria Giustiniani.
5
Elizabeth Cropper, Pietra Testa 1612 - 1650: The Exquisite Draughtsman from Luca, an essay in the exhibition catalogue Pietra Testa 1612 - 1650 Prints and Drawings, Philadelphia, 1988, p. xvi.

1	Bober & Rubinstein, Renaissance Artists & Antique Sculpture, London, 1986, p. 95, cat. #'s 59A&B.
2	Bober & Rubinstein, op. cit., p. 95.
3	Charles Dempsey, The Greek Style and the Prehistory of Neoclassicism, an essay in the exhibition catalogue Pietro Testa, 1612 - 1650 Prints and Drawings, Philadelphia, 1988.
4	This was published in 1631 as the Galleria Giustiniani.
5	Elizabeth Cropper, Pietra Testa 1612 - 1650: The Exquisite Draughtsman from Luca, an essay in the exhibition catalogue Pietra Testa 1612 - 1650 Prints and Drawings, Philadelphia, 1988, p. xvi.