Most probably originating from an album, this lively and important double-sided sheet has on the recto two elaborate studies for the large coat-of-arms frescoed by Volterrano in the courtyard of the Palazzo dal Borro in Borgo degli Albizi, Florence, now known as the Palazzo Tanagli (Wiel-Nunes Vais) (fig 1). The fresco was commissioned by Alessandro dal (or del) Borro (1600-1656), the Arezzo-born commander of the Florentine army, and features the arms of his employers. The decoration, still in situ, must have been executed in around 1644¹ when dal Borro, a very successful military commander who was elevated to the rank of Marchese in 1643, became the right-hand man to Prince Mattias de' Medici. This was also the moment of dal Borro's wedding to Penelope Fantoni Ricci, a lady-in-waiting to the Duchess Vittoria della Rovere,² after which the newly married couple embarked on renovating the palace in Borgo degli Albizi, a property owned by the bride's father. The renovations were entrusted to Alfonso Parigi (1606-1656).

The studies on the recto record Voterrano's preliminary ideas for this brilliant and unusual composition, in which the coat of arms, embellished by various military trophies, is set against a large standard with gilded fringes to the lower margin.

When first publishing this drawing, Catherine Monbeig Goguel pointed out (see Literature) that the biographer Filippo Baldinucci gives a precise description of this flamboyant baroque decoration, now rather damaged. He writes: 'In questo tempo ancora colorì a fresco al marchese Alessandro dal Borro, generale delle armi di Toscana, nella facciata del cortile di sua casa in borgo Albizi, un trofeo con alcune targhe, coll'armi de' serenissimi ed imprese, con alcuni putti bellissimi, ed ogni sorta di strumenti militari: e vi è una manopola, che imbraccia lo scudo dell'arme del generale, e tiene una carta col motto: CON QUESTE PER QUESTE.' (At this time [Volterrano] frescoed for the Marquis Alessandro dal Borro, general of the Tuscan army, on the wall of the courtyard of his home, trophies and emblems, with the arms of the Medici, and some handsome putti, with every sort of military trophies: and a scroll around a shield with the commander's arms with the motto: 'CON QUESTE PER QUESTE').³ On the central shield, to the right of the sheet, the coats-of-arms of the Medici and of the della Rovere are a tribute to Ferdinando II Medici and his wife Vittoria della Rovere. The head of the ram on the recto, upper centre, is part of the dal Borro heraldic crest. A portrait of Alessandro dal Borro in military uniform, attributed to Justus Sustermans, is in the Palazzo dei Priori, Arezzo.⁴ Monbeig Goguel also noted the existence of two further chalk studies related to this same fresco decoration, one for a putto to the right below the shields⁵, the other a finished study for the entire composition.⁶

Regarding the two studies of grotesque masks on the verso, Alessandro Grassi (see Literature) has highlighted their importance in relation to the dating of the festoons on the basamento below the main frescoes by Volterrano in the Villa Petraia, Florence. These frescoes were started in 1636-1637, but the studies on the present sheet demonstrate that the décor of the basamenti was conceived and executed rather later, circa 1645. Grassi also associates with the same project the putti on the verso of the present sheet.

This significant and attractive sheet may well originate from a dismembered album of drawings by Volterrano, a portion of which was sold by Sotheby's in 1980.⁷

1. The fresco must have been begun just after Volterrano's decoration of the Grazzi Chapel in the church of the Santissima Annunziata, datable to 1643-1644

2. Monbeig Goguel, op. cit., p. 58

3. F. Baldinucci, Notizie dei professori del disegno da Cimabue in qua, Florence 1681-1728, vol. V, p. 160

4. Monbeig Goguel, op. cit., p. 60, fig. 6

5. Florence, Uffizi, GDSU, inv. no. 3377 S; published by Mina Gregori and Charles McCorquodale as a study for the Orlandini Chapel in the church of Santa Maria Maggiore, Florence (see Monbeig Goguel, op. cit., p. 57; p. 61, notes 3, 4)

6. London, British Museum, inv. no. Pp.5.120; Monbeig Goguel, op. cit., p. 56, fig. 2 and p. 58, fig. 3

7. C. McCorquodale, Catalogue of an important group of Drawings by Baldassarre Franceschini, called Il Volterrano, sale, London, Sotheby's, 3 July 1980