A Monk with a Carrot and a Woman with a Chamber Pot MET SF-1975-1-328

Ghezzi caricature of Clerisseau 1752 British Museum

Pier Leone Ghezzi (28 June 1674 – 6 March 1755) was an Italian

Rococo Rococo (, also ), less commonly Roccoco or Late Baroque, is an exceptionally ornamental and theatrical style of architecture, art and decoration which combines asymmetry, scrolling curves, gilding, white and pastel colours, sculpted moulding, ...

painter and

caricaturist A caricaturist is an artist who specializes in drawing caricatures. List of caricaturists * Abed Abdi (born 1942) * Al Hirschfeld (1903–2003) * Alex Gard (1900–1948) * Alexander Saroukhan (1898–1977) * Alfred Grévin (1827–1892) * Alf ...

active in

Rome , established_title = Founded , established_date = 753 BC , founder = King Romulus (legendary) , image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg , map_caption ...

Biography

Ghezzi was born and died in Rome. He trained under his father,

Giuseppe Ghezzi Giuseppe Ghezzi (November 6, 1634–1721) was an Italian painter of the Baroque period, active mainly in Rome. Biography Born in Comunanza, in the Marche (then part of the Papal States), he was the son of the painter Sebastiano Ghezzi, a painte ...

, who also trained Antonio Amorosi. His father was secretary of the Roman

Accademia di San Luca The Accademia di San Luca (the "Academy of Saint Luke") is an Italian academy of artists in Rome. The establishment of the Accademia de i Pittori e Scultori di Roma was approved by papal brief in 1577, and in 1593 Federico Zuccari became its fir ...

, and Pier Leone joined the Academy in 1705. His essay painting, the ''Allegory of Gratitude'', was donated to the institution for his admission, as was customary. He painted for various churches such as the Cappuccini of Frascati and San Onofrio of Urbino. He was the godson of

Carlo Maratta Carlo Maratta or Maratti (13 May 162515 December 1713) was an Italian painter, active mostly in Rome, and known principally for his classicizing paintings executed in a Late Baroque Classical manner. Although he is part of the classical tradition ...

. Pier Leone is known for his frescoes in the

Villa Falconieri The Villa Falconieri is a villa in Frascati, Italy. History The villa was originally called Villa Rufina, having been was initially built by Monsignor Alessandro Rufini. Later it was enlarged thanks to Pope Paul III, dates back to 1546. In 16 ...

Frascati Frascati () is a city and ''comune'' in the Metropolitan City of Rome Capital in the Lazio region of central Italy. It is located south-east of Rome, on the Alban Hills close to the ancient city of Tusculum. Frascati is closely associated with ...

. As a painter, his style changes quite much through the years, sometimes under the influence of French portraiture. His pen and

gouache Gouache (; ), body color, or opaque watercolor is a water-medium paint consisting of natural pigment, water, a binding agent (usually gum arabic or dextrin), and sometimes additional inert material. Gouache is designed to be opaque. Gouache h ...

caricatures are much freer in emotion than his state portraiture, and were much admired. They often depict named individuals or professions in

satirical Satire is a genre of the visual, literary, and performing arts, usually in the form of fiction and less frequently non-fiction, in which vices, follies, abuses, and shortcomings are held up to ridicule, often with the intent of shaming or e ...

fashion.Memorie intorno i letterati e gli artisti della città di Ascoli nel Picino, by Giacinto Cantalamessa Carboni, (183), page 265. Ghezzi made an extensive and eclectic use of drawings and watercolors. Recent scientific discoveries include watercolors reproducing stones and marbles, which were in 1727 collected in a manuscript named "Studio di molte pietre", i.e. Collection of different stones, currently preserved at the Biblioteca Alessandrina of Rome.

Sources

* Le pietre rivelate. Lo 'Studio di molte pietre' di Pier Leone Ghezzi, manoscritto 322 della Biblioteca Universitaria Alessandrina, a cura di Paolo Coen e Giovan Battista Fidanza, Roma: Istituto Poligrafico e Zecca dello Stato, 2011.

External links

617 objects related to Ghezzi
at the

British Museum The British Museum is a public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is among the largest and most comprehensive in existence. It docum ...

Three works after Ghezzi
at the

National Portrait Gallery, London The National Portrait Gallery (NPG) is an art gallery in London housing a collection of portraits of historically important and famous British people. It was arguably the first national public gallery dedicated to portraits in the world when it ...

Allegory of Gratitude
at the

Accademia Nazionale di San Luca The Accademia di San Luca (the "Academy of Saint Luke") is an Italian academy of artists in Rome. The establishment of the Accademia de i Pittori e Scultori di Roma was approved by papal brief in 1577, and in 1593 Federico Zuccari became its fir ...

1674 births 1755 deaths People from the Province of Ascoli Piceno 17th-century Italian painters Italian male painters 18th-century Italian painters Italian Baroque painters Rococo painters Italian caricaturists 18th-century Italian male artists {{Italy-painter-17thC-stub