Il Mondo novo musicale di Pier Leone Ghezzi (review)

Pier Leone Ghezzi was, mutatis mutandis, Rome's Al Hirschfeld in the first half of the eighteenth century. Most of the rich and famous who passed through Rome between 1700 and 1750 (and who didn't?) were captured on paper with a minimum number of strokes of pen, pencil, or chalk by this unique master, known in his time as il cavaliere delle caricature.

But, far from having been a quick-sketch artist, picking up extra change by "doing" tourists (as a popular encyclopedia suggests), Ghezzi was deemed worthy of inclusion by Leone Pascoli among the noteworthy artists of his day in the latter's Vite de' pittori, scultori ed architetti moderni (Rome: Antonio de'Rossi, 1730-36, 2: 206-7). Son of the painter Giuseppe Leone, whose position as secretary of the Accademia di San Luca gave him entrée to Rome's elite circles, Pier Leone became in his early years a familiar figure in these same circles. Like his father he became accademico, later secretary to the academy, and, in 1708, was made pittore della Camera Apostolica. In this role he apparently supervised whatever decorating, varnishing, gilding, or restoring was ordered of furniture, paintings, or even ships, not to mention the designing of festival decorations. In addition to all these duties, he supervised the mosaic and tapestry factories. Somehow he found time to do etching and engraving, to study anatomy and architecture, and to learn to play several musical instruments. Later in life he was involved with musical academies, which seem to have been most popular in these august circles. In his free time he busied himself with the collecting of antiques. Among his special patrons were members of the Albani family, in particular Pope Clement XI (1700-1721) and the cardinals Annibale and Alessandro. Other cardinals and dignitaries, both Italian and foreign, were also among his sponsors.

At the height of his fame, great virtuosi such as the castrato Gaetano Berenstadt would beg for the honor of being the subject of a caricatura and of acquiring Ghezzi's works for their private gabinetti (see Berenstadt's letter to Ghezzi of 17 February 1729, quoted on page 14a) and monarchs such as August III, King of Saxony, sent etchers to Rome to bring back albums by the master. There seem to be some 3,580 extant portrait graphics, of which about 370 can be identified as representations of men and women associated with some aspect of music. These include a great many dilettanti, but just about every major professional singer, instrumentalist, and composer (and many minor ones as well), when in Rome, had a "snapshot" taken by the indefatigable Ghezzi. Thus, Rostirolla, the author of this sumptuous, meticulously annotated catalog, can rightly claim that "without a shadow of a doubt the graphic output of Ghezzi [is] the most important visual document of eighteenth-century musical Europe" (p. 13b).

This concentration on the artist's drawings, and even more in the area of his musical and theatrical interests, might leave the nonspecialist with a skewed and limited understanding of the range of Ghezzi's creative output, for aside from his work as draftsman, Ghezzi was a respected painter of historical and religious subjects, large-scale frescoes, and elegant portraits. In the latter works, which it is said anticipate an early rococo manner, he was apparently influenced by French portrait painters then residing in Rome. The range of his work as draftsman can be fathomed only imperfectly through this collection of musicians, since the narrowly prescribed subject matter limited his stylistic freedom. We see little (though some) of the portraiture made in the preparation of medallions, or of his naturalistic, bucolic, and domestic scenes. Likewise, few of his youthful satirical works find space in this collection, which comprises predominantly works accomplished in...