Cardinal Francesco del Monte
Artist
Ottavio Leoni
(Italian, 1578 - 1630)
Date17th Century
CultureItalian
MediumBlack chalk heightened with white chalk
ClassificationDrawings
Credit LineMuseum purchase, 1967
Object numberSN832
Completing more than 400 drawings between 1615 and 1629, Ottavio Leoni was the leading portraitist in Rome during the first three decades of the seventeenth century. Until that time, portraiture in Italy was marked by a tendency towards idealization. Leoni, a contemporary of Caravaggio, instead worked towards greater naturalism in his portraits. This led his biographer, Giovanni Baglione, to note that his drawings were "so natural and alive that nothing better of this sort was possible."
The Ringling sheet is executed in Leoni's signature trois crayons technique-red, black and white chalk-and portrays Francesco Maria Bourbon Del Monte. Venetian by birth, Del Monte settled in Rome in the mid-1570s, and became Cardinal in 1588. One of the most important patrons of the arts during the early seventeenth century-he was the first major supporter of Caravaggio- Cardinal del Monte helped to foster the climate of artistic innovation and invention for which the early Roman Baroque is known.
On View
Not on viewFRAMED: 16 3/4 x 14 3/4 in. (42.5 x 37.5 cm)
Ludovico Mazzolino
circa 1524
