drawing
- Museum number
- Pp,5.120
- Description
-
Design for a shield, with the Borro coat of arms; three putti supporting the shield and garter, two putti above supporting coronets and a cardinal's hat flanked by standards, trophies of war below
Red chalk, with red-brown wash, heightened with white, on buff prepared paper
- Production date
- 1626-1689
- Dimensions
-
Height: 481 millimetres
-
Width: 426 millimetres
- $Inscriptions
-
- Curator's comments
- Popham has noted on the mount: 'see inventory of Cav. Gabburri in Campori, p.531, No.84.' Catherine Monbeig-Goguel has kindly alerted us that Marta Previtera in her unpublished 1997 thesis on Volteranno describes this as a study for the coat-of-arms in the courtyard of the Palazzo Dal Borro, Florence, now known as the Palazzo Nunes Vais (her fig 1). The fresco commissioned by the marchese Alessandro Dal (or Del) Borro (1600-1656), the Aretine born commander of the Florentine army, features the arms of his employers: the Medici balls on the left of Ferdinand II and the Della Rovere oak of the Grand Duchess Vittoria. The profession of Volteranno's patron are alluded to in the decoration through the martial trophies and the inscription on the banderole (a different one is shown in the drawing); 'con queste per queste' (with these for these, i.e. weapons in the service of the Medici). This finished drawing most likely was done to present the scheme to the general. In her article Monbeig Goguel publishes other drawings related to this project.
Lit.: C. Monbeig-Goguel, 'Une invention baroque à Florence: Baldassare Franceschini, dit Il Volterrano, e la décoration du Palazzo Dal Borro', "Bulletin de l'Association des Historiens de l'Art Italien" (Arts d'Orient et d'Occident : mélanges offerts à Erminia Gentile Ortona), 2009, 14, pp. 56-61, fig. 2
- Location
- Not on display
- Exhibition history
-
1990 April-Aug, BM, Treasures of P&D (no cat.)
- Acquisition date
- 1824
- Department
- Prints and Drawings
- Registration number
- Pp,5.120