Vincenzo Leonardi

(Rome 1589-1657)

Study of a purple heron (Ardea purpurea)

Footnotes

Provenance
Cassiano dal Pozzo, and by descent to his brother
Carlo Antonio dal Pozzo, by descent to his son
Gabriele dal Pozzo, by descent to his son
Cosimo Antonio dal Pozzo, by whom sold in 1703 to
Pope Clement XI, thence by descent to
Cardinal Alessandro Albani, 1714, from whom acquired by James Adam in 1762 for
King George III
Sold from the Royal Library, Windsor, early 1920s
With Jacob Mendelson, London, where probably purchased by
Professor Isaacs and gifted by him to the present owner's grandparents on their wedding in 1935


Literature
H. McBurney, Paper Museum of Cassiano dal Pozzo, Birds, Other Animals and Natural Curiosities, London, 2017, pp. 366-7, cat. no. 146, ill.

Few countries in Europe can claim to have contributed as much to art and science in the sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries as did Italy, and one of the people to have left an enduring legacy of his pursuit of both disciplines is the Roman intellectual Cassiano dal Pozzo. Dal Pozzo (1583-1657) had wide-ranging interests, he was secretary to the Pope's nephew, Cardinal Francesco Barberini and he played a significant part in the cultural landscape of Rome. He was patron to a number of artists including Poussin and was a friend of Galileo Galilei, as well as being a member of one of the earliest and most distinguished scientific academies in Europe, the Accademia dei Lincei. An important tenet of the academy – study from first-hand observation – was to inspire him to put together one of the most remarkable collections of natural history and archaeological paintings ever created, known as the Museo Cartaceo of Cassiano dal Pozzo. He had specimens sent to him from all over Europe and further afield, and he commissioned a legion of artists to record them in over 7,000 watercolours which were numbered and bound into volumes for his Paper Museum. Many of the hands have been identified and they include some renowned but perhaps unexpected artists who were then at the start of their careers, such as Pietro da Cortona, Pietro Testa and François du Quesnoy as well as others like Jacopo Ligozzi and Govanna Garzoni who are better known for their natural history studies. Vincenzo Leonardi, who painted the present study, worked for dal Pozzo for around twenty years.

The Paper Museum had a distinguished history, passing from dal Pozzo's family to Pope Clement XI, and from his descendants to King George III (who was actively acquiring for his library and art collection), arriving in London from Italy with the collection of Consul Smith in the summer of 1763. Around twenty years later, after the setting up of a Royal Bindery in Buckingham House, a number of the volumes were rebound and the watercolours remounted, in some cases with the loss, or partial loss, of inscriptions and original numbering: the burnt umber wash lines of the present piece date from this time.

A similar study of a juvenile crane was sold in these room, 3 December 2014, lot 10, for a hammer price of £80,000, a world record for this artist.