Gherardo Cibo (Genoa 1512-1597 Rocca Contrada)

Gherardo Cibo was a member of a highly influential Genoese family (among his forebears was Pope Innocent VIII) who became an exceptionally gifted draughtsman and botanist after abandoning his military and diplomatic career. In 1540 he left Rome for Rocca Contrada (nowadays Arcevia) where he produced a great number of drawings from nature. The present sheet is one of twelve which come from a dismembered sketchbook inscribed ‘Libro 24’ and offered by Colnaghi in 1971 (see Provenance). As is the case with this sheet, many of Cibo’s landscape drawings are carefully inscribed by the artist with location and date. He often used astrological signs to indicate the day of the week; in this case a sign of Venus for Friday. Many of Cibo’s drawings were given to a variety of Northern artists and later called Messer Ulisse Severino da Cingoli until they were correctly given to Cibo by Arnold Nesselrath in 1989 (Gherardo Cibo alias Ulisse Severino da Cingoli, exhib. cat., San Severino Marche, Centro Studi Salimbeni per le Arti Figurative, 1989, pp. 5-35).