Part of the Devonshire Collection of Italian Drawings.
The Collection of Old Master Drawings at Chatsworth House, Derbyshire, home of the Dukes of Devonshire, ranks with the Royal Collection at Windsor Castle as the finest privately-owned group of such drawings in Britain, and as one of the great princely collections of Europe. It was formed in the eighteenth century by the 1st, 2nd and 3rd Dukes and contains outstanding sheets by the great masters of every school.
The four volumes devoted to the Italian schools have detailed entries for nearly one thousand drawings from the fifteenth century to the eighteenth, among them numerous reattributions and discoveries. Superbly produced and illustrated, largely in colour, they are the first part of a projected series that will cover all the drawings that have formed part of the historic Devonshire Collection, never previously catalogued in full.
This volume is devoted to drawings of the Roman and Neapolitan Schools and includes works by Raphael, Giulio Romano, Pietro da Cortona and Salvator Rosa among many others. In addition to the catalogue there is an account of the formation of the Collection, an introduction to the schools and artists represented and full scholarly apparatus that enables the catalogue to be used independently of other volumes.
