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Lot Essay
Bartoli studied painting with Poussin, but quickly turned his attention to engraving. As a printmaker, he documented many of the antique monuments in Rome such as the Trajan column, as well as many smaller antiquities such as coins and, in the present lot, ancient lamps. The drawings in this album were made in preparation for his set of engravings Le antiche lucerne... first published in 1691, and again in 1704 after the artist's death. The drawings in the present album are in reverse to the engravings.
Bartoli moved among a circle of artists, scholars and patrons in Rome with a deep interest in Antiquity and systematically documenting the antique artifacts that were continually being unearthed in Rome and its environs. Perhaps the best known patron is Cassiano dal Pozzo (1588-1657) whose Museo Cartaceo included innumerable drawings by various artists after antique sculpture, mosaics and monuments. Cardinal Camillo Massimi (1620-1677) was another important Roman patron of the era. Massimi, in a parallel effort to dal Pozzo's Museo Cartaceo enlisted Bartoli and the theorist Giovanni Pietro Bellori (1613-1696) to compile and publish all of the then-known ancient Roman paintings and other antiquities. The first of these publications was Le pitture antiche delle grotte di Roma e del sepolcro de' Nasonj (1680). Le antiche Lucerne sepolcrali... was published a little over a decade later.
Dr. Richard Mead (1673-1754) was an English doctor and collector of great renown. Watteau traveled to London especially to meet with Mead to see if he could treat his tuberculosis, to which he eventually succumbed. Mead acquired many works from Cardinal Massimi's heirs. While the early provenance of the present volume of drawings is not known it seems likely that Mead acquired it directly from Massimi's heirs. Mead also owned the series of drawings by Bartoli for Le pitture antiche delle grotte di Roma, e del sepolcro de'Nasonj which was kept by his family and not included in Mead's 1755 posthumous sale. It is now in the collection of the Glasgow University Library. Another volume of drawings at Windsor Castle is for the Glasgow series (see C. Pace, 'Drawings in Glasgow University Library after Roman paintings and mosaics', Papers of the British School at Rome, 47, 1979, pp. 117-55).
Bartoli moved among a circle of artists, scholars and patrons in Rome with a deep interest in Antiquity and systematically documenting the antique artifacts that were continually being unearthed in Rome and its environs. Perhaps the best known patron is Cassiano dal Pozzo (1588-1657) whose Museo Cartaceo included innumerable drawings by various artists after antique sculpture, mosaics and monuments. Cardinal Camillo Massimi (1620-1677) was another important Roman patron of the era. Massimi, in a parallel effort to dal Pozzo's Museo Cartaceo enlisted Bartoli and the theorist Giovanni Pietro Bellori (1613-1696) to compile and publish all of the then-known ancient Roman paintings and other antiquities. The first of these publications was Le pitture antiche delle grotte di Roma e del sepolcro de' Nasonj (1680). Le antiche Lucerne sepolcrali... was published a little over a decade later.
Dr. Richard Mead (1673-1754) was an English doctor and collector of great renown. Watteau traveled to London especially to meet with Mead to see if he could treat his tuberculosis, to which he eventually succumbed. Mead acquired many works from Cardinal Massimi's heirs. While the early provenance of the present volume of drawings is not known it seems likely that Mead acquired it directly from Massimi's heirs. Mead also owned the series of drawings by Bartoli for Le pitture antiche delle grotte di Roma, e del sepolcro de'Nasonj which was kept by his family and not included in Mead's 1755 posthumous sale. It is now in the collection of the Glasgow University Library. Another volume of drawings at Windsor Castle is for the Glasgow series (see C. Pace, 'Drawings in Glasgow University Library after Roman paintings and mosaics', Papers of the British School at Rome, 47, 1979, pp. 117-55).