Master Paintings Part II

View full screen - View 1 of Lot 604. Pope Paul V, seated, with his nephew Scipione Borghese, standing, both full-length in an interior.

Property from the Estate of Alexis Gregory, sold to benefit the Alexis Gregory Foundation

Ottavio Maria Leoni

Pope Paul V, seated, with his nephew Scipione Borghese, standing, both full-length in an interior

Lot Closed

January 30, 04:42 PM GMT

Estimate

30,000 - 50,000 USD

Lot Details

Description

Property from the Estate of Alexis Gregory, sold to benefit the Alexis Gregory Foundation

Ottavio Maria Leoni

Rome 1587 - 1630

Pope Paul V, seated, with his nephew Scipione Borghese, standing, both full-length in an interior

oil on slate

slate: 9 by 5 7/8 in.; 22.8 by 14.7 cm.

framed: 13 1/2 by 10 in.; 34.3 by 25.4 cm.

With Alessandra di Castro, Rome;
There acquired.

Y. Primarosa, Ottavia Leoni (1578-1630). Eccellente miniator di ritratti. Catalogo ragionato dei disegni e dei dipinti, Rome 2017, p. 690, cat. no. 36.

This refined double portrait has been dated by Primarosa (see Literature) to 1610-15. Camillo Borghese was elected to the papacy in 1605 and became Pope Paul V; shortly thereafter he conferred a cardinalship on his nephew Scipione. A powerful and enthusiastic art collector, Cardinal Borghese benefited greatly from his uncle's papacy and established one of the greatest collections of Renaissance and Baroque art, much of which is today housed in the Villa Borghese in Rome.

Both a painter and a draftsman, Ottavio Leoni is known today for his portraits on paper of some of the most important artists and patrons in Rome, including his iconic drawing of Caravaggio (now in the Biblioteca Marucelliana, Florence). This delicate painting on slate can be stylistically compared to the painting by Leoni now in the Metropolitan Museum of Art depicting a Cardinal's procession.¹

1. https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/442183