* Andrea Sacchi Rome (?) circa 1599 - 1661

This very characteristic and important study by Sacchi is related to his Allegory on the Birth of Pope Urban VIII (Maffeo Barberini), which was engraved by Charles Audran (fig. 1).  A drawing formerly in the collection of Mathias Polakovits was published by Ann Sutherland Harris as the preparatory study for the print (see Ann Sutherland Harris, 'New Drawings by Andrea Sacchi: Addenda' in The Burlington Magazine, vol.CXX, no.906, September 1978, p. 601, fig. 82).  It is also in fine red chalk but lightly squared in black chalk, in the same direction as the print and with only a few differences from it.  Ann Sutherland Harris now believes, on stylistic grounds, that the Polakovits drawing might be later and perhaps made with the idea of producing a painting.  On the basis of a transparency, she accepts the attribution of the present drawing to Sacchi, and also its relation to the print. 

This study is revealing of the development of Sacchi's intentions for the composition.  The allegory associated Maffeo with Jupiter, who according to legend was fed on the milk of the goat Amalthaea or on honey.  Sacchi chose to eliminate the goat, which appears prominently in the present drawing, in order to emphasize the role of the bees, a symbol of the Barberini family.  This also permits an association of Maffeo with the famous Theban lyric poet Pindar of whom it was said that when he was a child a swarm of bees settled on his lips and left a honeycomb as an indication of his future poetic abilities.  These two classical associations emphasize Maffeo's papal power and his interest in poetry.  

The engraving has generally been dated around 1630, but Ann Sutherland Harris has suggested a slightly later date around 1634-35, which accords with the sponsorship of Cardinal Antonio Barberini, whose coat of arms appears in one version of the print (see A. Sutherland Harris, Andrea Sacchi, Oxford 1977, pp. 101-102, no. 84, reproduced pl. 167).  We are also grateful to Nicholas Turner for endorsing the attribution to Andrea Sacchi.