Paintings Drawings Sculptures 2016 - Jean Luc Baroni

1. Giovanni Domenico Ferretti, Harlequin and Trivelino,
Soubrette and Harlequin, The Ashmolean Museum, Oxford.
2. Giovanni Domenico Ferretti, Arlecchino ghiottone, Cassa di
Risparmio, Florence.
for the Sansedoni family in both Orazio’s Florentine
residence near the Ponte Vecchio, and in the family
palace on the Piazza del Campo in Siena. Sottili further
explains that the series of Harlequinades in the Cassa
di Risparmio was commissioned by Orazio Sansedoni
to decorate his Florentine residence, whereas the
group of pictures in Sarasota were destined for
Giovanni di Ottavio Sansedoni’s new residence, the
villa di Basciano, near Siena.
Until the reappearance of the present sheet, only eight
drawings of Harlequinades were known, of which six
are in the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford 3 , there are also
four engravings by Francesco Bartolozzi. The drawings
all share roughly the same measurements and exactly
the same medium, and two of the sheets in Oxford 4
(fig.1) were used for the paintings of Arlecchino cuoco
(Harlequin cook) and Arlecchino ghiottone (Harlequin
glutton) (fig.2).
In this newly identified drawing, the scene appears to
show the lover character, sometimes called Colombina
or Soubrette with her particular hair arrangement and
dress, being protected from the railings of the Dottore;
this same character appears identically with Pulcinella
in a number of the Ashmolean sheets, as well as in the
paintings. Ferretti’s draughtsmanship in these sheets
is extremely distinctive and as Francesca Baldassari
notes: The drawings are executed with a lightness of
touch and the figures are given lively and characterful
expressions which are much more vivid than those of
the painted versions… 5 .
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