Seicento In Carta. 17th-century Italy, in the Musée Condé’s graphic collections

The Musée Condé had already widely published its rich collection of old drawings. Notably remaining were the sheets of the Seicento, which until now had never been shown in their entirety, even if some were already known.

The exhibition therefore aims to make this small but very high-quality collection better known. Only 26 sheets, of which three are not on display (an Ottavio Leoni in very poor condition, and two of uncertain attribution), to which should be added two Spanish drawings. To these works, the curators have added a few rare prints, and drawings borrowed from other museums, notably the Fondation Custodia and the Louvre, in relation to them either by subject or by technique. It is therefore not a question of retracing a history of drawing in Italy in the seventeenth century, nor even of showing a representative selection of this school, but the visitor can delight in very fine sheets, sometimes previously unpublished or benefiting from new attributions.

We will here reproduce only drawings belonging to the Musée Condé, one of the most important welcoming the visitor in the first room. This is a drawing by Federico Barocci (ill. 1) preparatory to a Descent from the Cross preserved in Perugia. The painting is also reproduced in the catalogue: one must indeed praise this publication by Éditions Faton, very pleasant to leaf through, where one finds numerous comparative photographs. While there are no formal entries as such, the text is divided into several small chapters covering one to seven works, the information on each being easy to find.