The Glorification of Bartolommeo Colleoni
Pen and brown ink and grey wash over traces of black chalk. Squared in pen and brown ink. Signed or inscribed 'Carloni' top left-hand corner.
355 x 240 mm.
(14 x 9 1/2 inches).
Provenance: Sotheby's, London, 21st March, 1974, lot 101; Professor & Mrs. Joseph Matzker, Cologne.
Literature: W. Hansmann, Eine rheinische Carlone-Sammlung, Wallraf-Richartz Jahrbuch, Köln, 1975, vol. xxxvii, p. 186, no. 2, fig.3; P.O. Krückmann, Carlo Carlone 1686-1775, Der Ansbacher Auftrag, Landshut, 1990, p. 78, fig. 50; A. Barigozzi Brini in AA.VV. Settecento Lombardo, ed. R. Bossaglia & V. Terraroli, Milan, 1991, exh. cat. Milan, Palazzo Reale, p.129, no. I.92; V. Birke & J. Kertész, Die Italienischen Zeichnungen der Albertina, Generalverzeichnis, Wien, 1997, vol. iv, p. 2242, under Inv. no. 23731.
Scaria 1686 ~ 1775 Como
Carlo Innocenzo Carlone was the son of Giovanni Battista Carlone, an architect and sculptor who worked mainly in Austria and Germany. However, Carlo decided to study painting under Giulio Quaglio, a member of the renowned dynasty of architects, decorators and stage designers who worked for eight generations in Vienna and Southern Germany. He then completed his studies in Rome under the Venetian painter, Francesco Trevisani. In the second decade of the eighteenth century, Carlo was active in Austria where he specialised in fresco decorations. Gradually he transformed his style from late Baroque into an elegant Rococo form. He and his father both benefited from the lack of local artists in Central Europe at the end of the Thirty Years War. In south Germany and Austria the transfer of the court from Innsbruck to Vienna in 1666 was very significant and eventually led to a cultural renewal in music and art. The new demand for architects, sculptors and decorative painters produced an influx of Italian artists working alongside local artists who had trained in Italy.
Our drawing is preparatory for the fresco of The Glorification of Bartolommeo Colleoni painted about 1735 for the Palazzo Colleoni at Calusco d'Adda near Bergamo. The fresco has been detached and is now in the Museo Poldi Pezzoli, Milan,1 together with the bozzetto.2 Another preparatory drawing, but less close to the finished fresco, is now in the Albertina.3 This commission offered the artist his first opportunity, after his return from the north, to show his mastery of decorative painting. The composition is organised along diagonal thrusts and the arrangement of figures is not unlike ceilings by Gian Battista Tiepolo.
Bartolommeo Colleoni (1400-1475) was an important fifteenth century condottiere, a mercenary war-lord, whose life-size equestrian statue in bronze, by Verrocchio, dominates the Piazza SS. Giovanni e Paolo, Venice. The iconography of our drawing extols the heroism of this great soldier. It shows Colleoni enthroned on a cloud between Justice and Hercules. Above and behind him is the family coat of arms framed by Victory, and Fame blowing her trumpet. On the lowest level are bound prisoners with Pallas Athene triumphing over them.
1. Hannsmann, op.cit., p.191, fig.6. Krückmann, op.cit., p.79, fig.52.
2. Hannsmann, op.cit., p.79, fig.51. Barigozzi Brini, op.cit., p.129, cat. I.92.
3. Hannsmann, op.cit., p.189, fig.4; Krückmann, op.cit., p.78, fig. 49; Birke & Kertész, op.cit., p. 2242, inv. no. 23731.
