- Title
- Sebastiano Baldini as the New Columbus Consulting Manuscripts
- Culture
- Italian
- Date Made
- 1684
- Period
- Late 17th-early 18th century
- Medium
- Red chalk on cream laid paper
- Dimensions
- Frame: 17 1/2 × 15 × 1 in. (44.45 × 38.1 × 2.54 cm)
Sight: 9 5/8 × 7 1/8 in. (24.45 × 18.1 cm)
Actual Object: 11 13/16 x 9 1/4 in. (29.9 x 23.4 cm)
- Accession Number
- M.2024.228
- Collecting Area
- Prints and Drawings
- Curatorial Notes
In this red chalk drawing, a scholar studies in an interior, seated at a table topped with open books, a grand curtain drawn in a dramatic diagonal behind him to reveal a studiolo, or place for private study and contemplation. Complex programs for learning were devised for Italian Renaissance studioli, often drawn from learned advisers and incorporating collections of art, texts, antiquities, and precious materials; these spaces allowed elite scholars to cultivate themselves as individuals. In Maratta’s drawing, the sitter’s careful contemplation of the open page in front of him, his gaze cast downward, contrasts with the richly shaded robes and luxurious surroundings in which he finds himself. The introspective scholar is enlivened by the dynamic shadows and folds of the curtains and drapery, suggestive of his rich interior intellectual life.
The work is affixed to an early eighteenth-century mount with the stamp of English collector and Grand Tourist Jonathan Richardson Jr. (1667−1745). Enlightenment-era collectors were entranced by the work of Maratta, admiring the artist’s Baroque classicism, and were able to acquire his drawings through English agents and dealers active in Rome, who procured objects due to their proximity to drawings connoisseurs and practicing artists.
Claire Spadafora Baes
2024
