Neal Auction 2012

W denotes the lot is illustrated at www.nealauction.com 17 37. Francesco Borromini, his Studio, or a Follower (Italian, 1599-1667) , “Section of Spire, for the Church of San Ivo della Sapienza, Rome”, 1642/1720, ink and gray wash on cream-colored laid paper, with reddish sepia paint applied to verso, laid down on old mount; unsigned; 19 5/8 x 8 3/4 in. $1500/2500 Provenance: James R. Lamantia Jr., New Orleans and New York. Note: These very rare drawings are preparatory works for plates XXI ( Drum Elevation ) and XXVIII ( Spire Section ) of the publisher Sebastiano Giannini’s lavish masterwork, printed almost 75 years after the construction of Borromini’s chapel (1642-1660) for the University of Rome: Opera del Caval[iere] Francesco Borromini…cioè La Chiesa…della Sapienza (1st ed., Rome, 1720; enlarged 2nd ed. with the same plates, as Opus Architectonicum, Rome, 1725; folio size of 1720 ed., 533 x 393 mm., or 21 x 15 7/16 in.). Borromini, the most important architect of the Roman Baroque, had himself prepared exactly such large-scale drawings of the Sapienza, and commissioned them to be engraved by Dominique Barrière in 1660 for a publication that was projected but never realized. Giannini purchased Barrière’s copper plates from Borromini’s heirs, and plates II through IX of the 1720 edition of the Sapienza were based directly on those plates of 1660. The remainder came from a variety of sources: from other original drawings by Borromini himself, or by his assistant Francesco Righi, also acquired from the Borromini estate; from Giannini’s eventual expansion and updating of the Barrière plates, long after the fact; or (in rare cases) from the actual appearance of the building itself in 1720. Since these two drawings for plates XXI and XXVIII postdate the core group prepared by Barrière under the personal supervision of Borromini, the only way to be absolutely certain of their date (and thus of their potential status as autographs by one of the three greatest giants—with Bernini and Cortona—of Baroque architecture) would be by the scientific study of the watermarks in their papers: but unfortunately these two sheets bear no such detectable traces. There is therefore no evident way to assign these drawings to the personal hand of Borromini himself, or to Righi as his contemporaneous collaborator; or, alternatively, to Giannini’s 18th-century commissions for the plates (following number IX) to be published in his great folio of 1720. The Spire is mute on these two options; but the tantalizing clues in the Elevation are afforded by its half-dozen incidents of ornament. Their careful comparison with the façade of the church as it was actually built reveals some striking discrepancies: the right-hand twin of the many-pointed stars freestanding above the Chigi monti forward of the drum is added on a separate disk of paper; those same elements, in the full arms of Pope Alexander VII Chigi—who reigned 1655-1667, while the church was being finished—are eliminated, and replaced on the balustrade before the great west window with a simple dedicatory plaque; and most tellingly of all, the sculptured relief of the Agnus Dei (the Lamb of God ) is omitted altogether, while the round-headed tops of each of the drum’s six major windows are abandoned, in favor of the disproportionately tall square-headed apertures now visible on the exterior (even though Borromini indeed designed their interior lintels as curves or cusps). Thus the graphic evidence, while ambiguous, offers at least the possibility that the Elevation may have been drawn c. 1642-1660 by Borromini himself, or by Francesco Righi to Borromini’s express intention; and that the ornaments shown here may represent a preliminary idea for the façade embellishment, not executed in its entirety. References: Martha Pollak, The Mark J. Millard Collection: Vol. IV, Italian and Spanish Books, Washington and New York, 2000, pp. 73-76, no. 22; Anthony Blunt, Borromini, Cambridge, MA, 1979, esp. chap. 5, pp. 111-128, and fig. 79 (S. Ivo façade). 38. Francesco Borromini, his Studio, or a Follower (Italian, 1599-1667) , “Southwest Quadrant of Drum Elevation for the Church of San Ivo della Sapienza, Rome”, 1642/1720, ink and gray wash on cream-colored laid paper, with reddish sepia paint applied to verso, laid down on old mount; unsigned; 13 in. x 15 1/2 in. $1500/2500 Provenance: James R. Lamantia Jr., New Orleans and New York. 38 37