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(Florence 1772 - Milan 1850)
LA CONGIURA DEI PAZZI. LORENZO E GIULIANO DE' MEDICI ASSALITI NEL DUOMO DI FIRENZE
Black chalk, 495 x 765 mm.
PROVENANCE: Damiano Pernati (1769-1841)
See the original label.
The friendship between Sabatelli and the nobleman Damiano Pernati (1769-1841) from Novara, dates back to the artist’s stay in Rome. Pernati introduced his friend to his entourage which included Canova, Angelica Kauffmann, Raffaello Morghen and Gaspare Landi. Together the two artists created a series of etchings, Pensieri diversi di Luigi Sabatelli. Pubblicati ed incisi da Damiano Pernati, Rome, 1795. Our drawing was in fact described as follows by the historian Leone Tettoni, who saw it in the Pernati collection: ...lo stupendo disegno della Congiura de' Pazzi...,.See Il cavaliere D. Damiano Pernati incisore all’acquaforte e la sua famiglia patrizia novarese. Cenni genealogico-biografico-storici di Leone Tettoni, Turin, 1874.
The importance of this drawing, besides its format and subject, lies in its technique, in that Sabatelli rarely used black chalk. Throughout, the chalk is applied in hatched lines of three different tonal intensities, allowing him to create three distinct levels of depth in the drawing.
REFERENCES
Il cavaliere D. Damiano Pernati incisore all’acquaforte e la sua famiglia patrizia novarese. Cenni genealogico-biografico-storici di Leone Tettoni, Turin, 1874.
Cenni biografici sul cav. prof. Luigi Sabatelli scritti da lui medesimo e raccolti dal figlio Gaetano, pittore (a cura di C. Stroppa Pedrazzi), Milan 1900.
For this work a certificate of free exportation (Attestato di Libera Circolazione N. 38954) has been released by the Milanese Export Office of Cultural Heritage on April 26 2022.
Sabatelli was the most talented of the Tuscan painters of the generation after Pietro Benvenuti. He was born in the house of Marchese Pier Roberto Capponi, in Florence, while his own father was in domestic service there. The Marchese Capponi was Sabatelli's early sponsor, financing his education at the Florentine Academy and his sojourns in Rome and Venice. In 1808 Luigi Sabatelli was appointed to the chair of painting at the Brera Academy in Milan. There he remained over forty years, although he continued to carry out commissions in Tuscany. During his mature years, Sabatelli established himself as a decorator and fresco painter, with numerous public and private commissions. Sabatelli was a fine painter and one of the premier pre-romantic draftsmen of nineteenth century Italy. He was also an accomplished etcher. See Beatrice Paolozzi Strozzi, Luigi Sabatelli, disegni e incisioni, catalogue of the exhibition at the Gabinetto Disegni e Stampe degli Uffizi, Florence, 1978.
