Giovanni Battista Foggini
Florence 1652 – 1725
Architectural design for a chapel
Pen and brown ink.
On the verso, a semi circle and inscriptions with the pen and brown ink.
Part of a watermark.
207 x 270 mm – 8 1/8 x 10 5/8 in.
Provenance : Sotheby’s New York, January 12 1994, lot 195, where acquired by present owner.
Probably the most important sculptor of his time, Giovanni Battista Foggini was a pupil of the Accademia Fiorentina founded in Rome by Cosimo III de’Medici where his teachers were Ciro Ferri and Ercole Ferrata. Back in Florence, Foggini received a great number of commissions and opened his own studio, developping his personal version of the Roman baroque style, more influenced by Algardi than by Bernini. Appointed first sculptor to Cosimo III de’Medici, then first architect and collection’s curator, he led a very successful career, executing many sculpted portraits, projects of religious or civil architecture – for instance in the Prato area – reliefs, bronzes and works of art. His most impressive works in Florence are the large marble reliefs treating St Andrew’s life for the Corsini Chapel in the Chiesa del Carmine, the Feroni Chapel in the Santissima Annunziata which architecture and decoration he designed, and the main staircase in Palazzo Medici Ricardi. Foggini was a prolific draughtsman; about 400 of his drawings have been preserved, a good number of them being kept in the Uffizi museum in Florence.
This architectural study comes from one of Foggini’s sketchbooks or Giornale, preserved in the Uffizi museum in Florence. It is probably the page 12, which is missing in the sketchbook.
We are grateful to Kira d’Alburquerque for this precious information.