Attributed to Ciro Ferri

(Rome 1634-1689)

An Allegory of the Medici family

Footnotes

Provenance
Packwood House, Warwickshire
The Collection of Graham Baron Ash, Wingfield Castle, Diss, by whom gifted to the present owner, circa 1967

Literature
N. Turner, Disegni di Pietro Cortona e Ciro Ferri, Roma, Gabinetto Nazionale delle Stampe, 1978, in Prospettiva, vol. 17, April 1979, pp. 76-77, ill, fig. 8

Engraved
F. Spierre, Rome, 1664

The present drawing appears to have been carried out in preparation for an engraving of an allegory of the Medici family. It was to illustrate a panegyric written by the poet Giovanni Rimbaldesi in honour of the Medici, Iovis Medicei... The iconographic programme devised by Rimbaldesi is based on the five palle of the Medici coat-of-arms. Each palla is represented by the planet Jupiter, shown as the central figure, and his four accompanying satellites, the Stellae Mediceae, discovered and named by Galileo Galilei. The four moons are embodied by the previous four Grand Dukes of Tuscany who reigned before Ferdinando II and each carry with them the attribute of one of the Cardinal Virtues. In the lower section of the image the young prince of Tuscany, Cosimo III, son of Ferdinando and heir to the grand-ducal throne, is bestowed with these Cardinal Virtues.

In his instructions, Rimbaldesi specified that Ciro Ferri should carry out the design for the engraving - 'il disegno sarà fatto da Sig. Ciro, che lo conferirà col Sig. Pietro da Cortona; per l'intaglio o da Monsù Spier solo, o unicamento col Brumarti per spedirlo più presto'. The print (fig. 1) was indeed engraved by F. Spierre and it states that Ciro Ferri drew the design. The poem was published in Rome in 1664.