Marcello Provenzali

This engraving is a portrait of the mosaicist, Marcello Provenzali, wearing a contemporary doublet and jacket, and facing the viewer. It is by draftsman and engraver - as well as painter -Ottavio Mario Leoni (1578-1630). Leoni was active in Rome for his entire life, and was known as "Il Padovano" because his father, a medallist and sculptor, was from Padua. Leoni became the principal of the Accademia di S. Luca in Rome in 1614. His principal patron was Cardinal Scipione Borghese, who assembled a collection of Leoni's numerous characteristic drawings of Roman families, artists, and citizens. In addition to portrait drawings, Leoni also executed many frescoes and portrait prints. He was the father of Ippolito Leoni, also a portraitist.

Leoni's contemporary reputation is evident in a quotation from Giovanni Baglione: 'In all Rome there was no one who had not his portrait by Ottavio - whether prince, princess, gentlemen, or persons of private rank - and not a house in which some portrait from the hand of the Cavaliere was not to be seen.' (Giovanni Baglione, <em>Lives of the artists</em>, 1642).  The engraving was later republished in the series <em>Serie degli Uomini i più illustri nella pittura, scultura e architettura</em> (A series of the most illustrious men in painting, sculpture and architecture), published 150 years later by Giovanni Battista Betti in 1769-75.

The sitter, Marcello Provenzali (or Provenzale) (1575-1639) was born at Cento. He was a pupil of the fellow painter from Cento, Paolo Rossetti, but is chiefly distinguished for his talents as a mosaicist. Baglione describes several of his works at Rome, executed under the direction of Pope Paul V, among which is the portrait of that pontiff. In conjunction with Rossetti, he executed several mosaics in the Capella Clementina, in St. Peter's basilica, from the cartoons of Cristofano Roncalli and for Cardinal Scipione Borghese.

See:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marcello_Provenzale

http://www.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk/calendar/whatson/galileo-and-his-contemporaries-portraits-ottavio-leoni-1578-1630

Dr Mark Stocker      Curator, Historical International Art    June 2017