Study Of Heads - Giovanni Luigi Valesio (1583 - 1633)

Pen and brown ink on laid paper. Bolognese school of the early 17th century attributed to Giovanni Luigi Valesio.
Our drawing presents all the technical and stylistic characteristics of the Bolognese painter and engraver. The figures are very similar to those kept in the cabinet of drawings and engravings of the Pinacoteca Nacional de Bologna (photos attached). In a quest for perfection, our artist draws the same face three times with slight variations of lines and a different scale for each of them.

The paper is put under passe-partout and under glass in a gilded Louis XIII style frame. The back of the assembly allows to observe the back of the drawing thanks to a transparent plate (see photo).
Dimensions: 40 x 27 cm drawing.

Biography: Giovanni Luigi Valesio (Bologna c. 1583 - Id 1633) was an Italian painter and printmaker of the early Baroque period. Art historian Carlo Cesare Malvasia claims he was the son of a Spanish soldier stationed in Reggio Calabria. After attending the studio of Ludovico Carracci, Valesio moved to Rome around 1621 under the patronage of Lavinia Albergati, wife of Orazio Ludovisi, brother of Pope Gregory XV. Among the works produced in Bologna, we can cite the Flagellation of Christ for the cathedral, the Annunciation for the Church of the Beggars, or Saint Roch curing the plague-stricken for the oratory of Saint Roch (San Rocco). In Rome, he painted for the monastery attached to Santa Maria sopra Minerva. He also etched several plates of his own drawings and from other masters.

Bibliography:
- Malvasia, Carlo Cesare. Felsina pittrice, vite e ritratti de' pittori Bolognesi. 1678
- Bolognini Amorini, Antonio. Vite de Pittori ed Artifici Bolognesi. Tipografia Governativa alla Volpe, Bologna. 1843
- Baglione, Giovanni. Le Vite de' Pittori, Scultori, Architetti, ed Intagliatori dal Pontificato di Gregorio XII del 1572. fino a' tempi de Papa Urbano VIII. nel 1642 [Lives of the painters, sculptors, architects, and engravers during the papacies of Gregory XII in 1572 to Urban VIII in 1642]. 1733
- Marchese Luigi Malaspina di Sannazaro. Catalogo di una raccolta di stampe antiche, Vol. 2. 1824