album;
drawing
- Museum number
- 1859,0806.272
- Description
-
Head of Apollo as Sun God on antique gem, obverse; drawing from an album
Pen and brown ink, grey wash, traces of black chalk
- Production date
- 1753 (9 November?)
- Dimensions
-
Height: 320 millimetres (sheet)
-
Width: 216 millimetres
- $Inscriptions
-
- Curator's comments
- See 1859,0806.91 for comment and description of album.
Ghezzi's inscription reads: "It represents Apollo, that is the Sun with the radiate head, on one side one can see the letter L, which I believe one can read as Lux, on the other side one can see two ears of wheat, below the ear, appropriate for the sun, which is the source of all fermentation and production of the earth's fruits, even more so for wheat, whose golden colour perfectly imitates the golden colour of the Sun, it is engraved naked in a beautiful colour, owned by my dear friend the Abbot Ballerini, a very erudite man both in literature and in antiquities and currently he is librarian of the famous library of the Barberini household. Drawn by me, Cavalier Ghezzi, at my age of 79, from a brimstone given to me by the above mentioned Abbot Ballerini on 9 November 1753."
The small oval drawn underneath Apollo's head indicates, according to Ghezzi, the actual size of the gem.
- Location
- Not on display
- Acquisition date
- 1859
- Department
- Prints and Drawings
- Registration number
- 1859,0806.272
