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Lot Essay
This drawing, and the one in the following lot, were once part of one of the many albums from the collection of Cassiano dal Pozzo (1588-1657), one of the most important Italian collectors and patrons of the 17th Century. Dal Pozzo had a great interest in Archaeology, History and Natural History and in order to record the richness of the natural world and human creativity he put together a large number of albums with drawings for his so-called Museo Cartaceo (Paper Museum). Besides buying drawings for these albums, dal Pozzo also commissioned artists such as Jacopo Ligozzi (1547-1627) and Vincenzo Leonardi (1588-1657) to contribute to them.
It is unclear who executed the present drawing, but it is very close to and must be by the same hand as a few other drawings of fish in the Museo Cartaceo, for example one described as a Cross between a Hake (Family Gadidae) and a Drum or Croaker (Family Sciaenidae) in a private collection (The Paper Museum of Cassiano dal Pozzo, exhib. cat., The British Museum, London, 1993, no. 95) and a Grayling (Thymallus thymallus) recently sold at auction (Bonham's, London, 3 December 2014, lot 7). It is by a different hand than the following lot.
It is unclear who executed the present drawing, but it is very close to and must be by the same hand as a few other drawings of fish in the Museo Cartaceo, for example one described as a Cross between a Hake (Family Gadidae) and a Drum or Croaker (Family Sciaenidae) in a private collection (The Paper Museum of Cassiano dal Pozzo, exhib. cat., The British Museum, London, 1993, no. 95) and a Grayling (Thymallus thymallus) recently sold at auction (Bonham's, London, 3 December 2014, lot 7). It is by a different hand than the following lot.