Filippo Teodoro di LIAGNO, dit Filippo NAPOLETANO (Rome, 1587-89 - 1629)

Suite of 13 drawings from an unpublished album - Character studies

Pen and brown ink wash, black stone

Dimensions: 60 x 45 to 120 x 77 mm

Provenance: Private collection, Paris

Comparative bibliography: Marco Chiarini, Teodoro Filippo di Liagno detto Filippo Napoletano 1589-1629; Vita e opere, Firenze 2007, pp. 360, 388, 416, 424, 425, 472.
Cf. attached documents.

Born in Rome, Filippo Napoletano moved as a child with his family to Naples, where he began his career (1600-1613). He moved to Rome around 1614 and was influenced by successful Flemish landscape painters in Italy such as Paul Bril , Gottfried Wals and Adam Elsheimer . He became one of Cardinal Del Monte's artistic protégés.
In 1617, Cosimo II de 'Medici summoned him to Florence, where he worked closely with Jacques Callot. He was appointed painter to the Medici court, and was highly regarded for his original works, with their wealth of dramatic and nocturnal scenes. From notebooks, Filippo was known to have produced hundreds of sketches of Tuscan landscapes and towns. After his return to Rome in 1621, he combined easel painting with fresco decorations overlooking the Lazio countryside and ancient Roman ruins. Napoletano's eclectic output recalls the naturalness of Tuscan contemporary Jacopo Ligozzi.
From 1620, he reproduced in engravings part of the collection of animal skeletons belonging to Johann Faber, a Bavarian doctor-naturalist resident in Rome and member of the Accademia dei Lincei . In 1622, Napoletano published twelve etchings of caprices ( capricci ) and military uniforms (which he signed Teodor Filippo de Liagno ).
He is described by Giovanni Baglione as possessing a collection, a Wunderkammer de bellissime bizzarrie ("beautiful bizarre objects"), [1] including among the objects exotic weapons; fossilized plants; tiger, lion and tortoise skulls; oriental porcelain and carved crockery; a vest made of human skin; a harness for dragging whales over ice; a three-legged flea, Persian uniforms and antiques such as Roman coins, bronze lamps and a few statuettes. After Napoletano's death in Rome in 1628, invitations to tender were issued by collectors such as Cardinal Ippolito Aldobrandini (future Clement VIII ) and Cassiano dal Pozzo . [2]
Some of these drawings, depicting lansquenets in the German style, are in fact preparatory to plates in the military uniform series, of which the British Museum holds a few examples. The court dwarf is both a curiosity and a rarity. It illustrates the taste of European courts for these sometimes famous characters.
Notes
1 Baglione, Giovanni (1731 edition, Giovanni Battista Passeri (ed.). Le Vite de 'Pittori, Scultori, Architetti, ed Intagliatori dal Pontificato di Gregorio XII del 1572. fino a' tempi de Papa Urbano VIII. nel 1642. Naples. pp. 220-221.
2 Fletcher, Jennifer (1979). "Filippo Napoletano Museum". Burlington magazine.