Gherardo Cibo (Genoa 1512-1597 Rocca Contrada)

Works by Cibo were previously attributed to an artist named Messer Ulisse Severino da Cingoli (see J. Bolten, 'Messer Ulisse Severino da Cingoli', Master Drawings, VII, 1969, pp. 123-48). It was not until 1989 that Arnold Nesselrath correctly attributed these drawings to Cibo, a Genoese aristocrat who is known to have travelled to Rome, Bologna and Germany (Gherardo Cibo, alias Ulisse Severino da Cingoli, exh. cat., San Severino Marche, Centro studi Lorenzo e Jacopo Salimbeni per le arte figurative, 1989). Cibo was also a botanist, and the coloring of this landscape is reminiscent of some of his botanical studies (see anonymous sale; Christie's, London, 19 May 1998, lots 1 and 2).