ANDREA DE LEONE (NAPLES 1610-1685)

The drawing has a long and interesting collecting history having been part of an album once in the collection of Don Gaspar Mendez de Haro y Guzmán, Marchese del Carpio. The Marchese, together with Padre Sebastiano Resta, were among the very first buyers and collectors of Neapolitan drawings in Italy and Spain (on this topic see G. Fusconi, S. Prosperi Valenti Rodinò, ‘Un’aggiunta a Sebastiano Resta collezionista. Il Piccolo preliminare al Grande Anfiteatro Pittorico’, Prospettiva, 33/36 (1983-1984), pp. 237-256). The attribution of the sheet to the Neapolitan Andrea de Leone, in spite of the old inscription referring it to the Genoese Giovanni Battista Castiglione, was first suggested by Mary Newcome in an important article about the intricate and enduring relationship between Castiglione and de Leone (Newcome, op.cit., p. 163. For a more recent discussion of this topic see also V. Farina, Andrea de Leone. Some notes on his relation with Castiglione and Falcone, Naples, 2014).