Two Heads of Soldiers (recto); Designs for a Frame (verso)
Signature
inscribed, verso; ‘Salvatore Rosa’ and the coat of arms of the De Cepparello family
Provenance
(Probably) Giovan Battista Ricciardi (1623–1686) Castello di Strozzavolpe; by inheritance to
De Cepparello Family, Castello di Strozzavolpe; acquired by
Bianchi-Bizzari Family, Castello di Strozzavolpe
Bibliography
A. Arcangeli, Il Castello di Strozzavolpe, in Quaderni Poggibonsesi, Poggibonsi, 1961, p. 123.
Michael Mahoney, The Drawings of Salvator Rosa, New York, 1977, vol. 2, no. 31.13, p. 365.
Essay
Always highly experimental in his artistic practice, Salvator Rosa executed a number of small works on wooden panels using pencil, ink, and white lead which are part drawing and part painting. The present panel, an especially early example of this type of work, depicts the heads and shoulders of two soldiers. Shown in profile at the right, one wears an elaborate classical helmet embellished with voluminous plumage and a grotesque element, while the other, just behind him at the left and facing front, sports modern armor. The soldier in antique attire recalls ancient statuary, but his companion’s garb is closer to the men at arms Rosa included in battle scenes painted during his Neapolitan and early Florentine periods. Rendered with great energy, the figures possess a palpable sense of immediacy, while the partial absorption of the brown ink into the wood creates a strongly shadowy effect. Both in terms of style and subject, Rosa’s training in Naples with the battle painter Aniello Falcone is in evidence. Two drawings by Rosa in the Uffizi in Florence, perhaps preparatory to the present panel or made after it, depict a similar pair of heads. Also related are two paintings showing pairs of soldiers with similar costumes and physiognomies, namely a work recently on the art market depicting soldiers playing dice, signed by Rosa and dated around 1639, and Cincinnatus Called from the Plough (565; fig. 1), now at Althorp House, which belonged to Giancarlo de’ Medici and was executed around 1641. Of particular interest are the fragmentary designs for the profile of a frame on the verso of this panel. ‘Salvator Rosa’ was the name given to a type of frame widely used in the 17th and 18th centuries (fig. 2).
Other small drawings on panel by Rosa are now in the Galleria Palatina in Florence, the Nationalmuseum in Stockholm (fig. 3), and various private collections. Rosa in some cases drew upon their imagery when subsequently producing both paintings and engravings, but initially these works were intended as gifts for close friends. The present work’s provenance suggests that it may have been made for the Pisan professor and playwright Giovan Battista Ricciardi, who owned no fewer than fifteen of Rosa’s drawings on wooden panels. Ricciardi and Rosa maintained a lifelong friendship based on common intellectual interests. Rosa often turned to Ricciardi for advice regarding literature and iconography, which he applied to many of his most erudite, philosophical paintings. Rosa meanwhile kept his mentor abreast of his artistic development by sending him graphic works both on panel and paper, which he called ‘drafts of thoughts’. Some replicated motifs Rosa had already elaborated, while others proposed new ideas to provoke discussion with his friend. Moreover, the burgeoning interest in drawings at the Medici court prompted a new vogue in the trading, selling, and collecting of drawings. Ricciardi would have been aware that Rosa’s drawings possessed not only aesthetic and intellectual but also financial value. Thus, although works like the present ones were presented to friends, the ideas they explored could inspire engravings and finished paintings for the art market, while the graphic nature of the panels made them coveted commodities—it is no coincidence that six of Ricciardi’s drawings on panel swiftly made their way into the Medici collections after his death.❖
Caterina Volpi