RC
Giacomo Maria Giovannini (Bologna 1667-Parma 1717)
Caryatids
Red and black chalks on brown paper
Laid down onto an album leaf
360x235mm
Provenance: private collection, Genova
Ludovico Carracci decorated the octagonal cloister of San Michele in Bosco in Bologna. The paintings soon deteriorated but their magnificence has been recorded by Carlo Cesare Malvasia1,2,3 and Giampietro Cavazzoni Zanotti4 in the seventeenth and eighteenth century, respectivey. Our drawing shows two caryatids of a series of eight that Carracci painted to frame his compositions and is preparatory for an etching that Giovannini made for Malvasia's book "Il Claustro di S. Michele in Bosco di Bologna" in 16943.
1Carlo Cesare Malvasia, Vite de' Pittori Bolognesi,Bologna,1678,p.435.
2Carlo Cesare Malvasia, Le Pitture di Bologna, Bologna 1686, pp.331-337.
3Carlo Cesare Malvasia, Il Claustro di S. Michele in Bosco di Bologna, Bologna, 1694.
4Giampietro Cavazzoni Zanotti, Il Claustro di S.Michele in Bosco di Bologna de' Monaci Olivetani, Bologna, 1776.
