Lot N. 353
Luigi Maria Pitti (1698 - 1767)
Self-portrait
(1698-1767)
oil on canvas, framed, few defects
cm 74x57
With inscription: Pitti Pittore effigiò se stesso
The following technical sheet of the work was created by Professor Sandro Bellesi as part of the inventory of the paintings of the Fattoria Franceschini.
The excellent state of conservation highlights the refined quality of the work in which a young painter is depicted, up to the height of the hips, in the act of pointing a hand in front of himself and turning his gaze outside, that is towards one or more ideal bystanders. On the basis of an inscription in the lower part of the canvas, it is possible to recognize in the painting the self-portrait of Luigi Maria Pitti, knight of Santo Stefano, a noble amateur of painting. Son of Lorenzo Pitti and Lisabetta Pieri, the latter, baptized with the names of Luigi Maria Gaspero, was born in the people of Santa Felicita in Florence in 1698. Although destined by the family for a military career, Pitti showed a good propensity for painting from childhood. so much so as to induce his parents to entrust him to the artistic care of Ottaviano Dandini, son of the more famous Pietro, the last member of a renowned dynasty of Florentine painters. If within the Dandinian atelier, Luigi Maria had to be directed to the use of the brush with the passage of time, the same devoted himself, according to a widespread fashion during the eighteenth century, to the execution of pastel portraits, some of which , now preserved in the Uffizi collections, they were much appreciated by the Grand Duke Gian Gastone de 'Medici and by the local patricians. Luigi Maria Pitti's death occurred in his hometown in 1767.
The work, the artist's only known pictorial document so far, represents a document of the highest historical interest for the reconstruction of the critical and artistic profile of this character, still awaiting an exhaustive monographic study. Probably datable to the beginning of the third decade of the eighteenth century, when Pitti must have been just over twenty years old, the painting shows a language rich in refined erudition in which there are very evident debts from the portraiture of the master Ottaviano Dandini and contacts with some of the most young Florentine painters. promising, such as Giovan Domenico Ferretti and Vincenzo Meucci.
The work will be published by Sandro Bellesi in his next studio.
The following technical sheet of the work was created by Professor Sandro Bellesi as part of the inventory of the paintings of the Fattoria Franceschini.
The excellent state of conservation highlights the refined quality of the work in which a young painter is depicted, up to the height of the hips, in the act of pointing a hand in front of himself and turning his gaze outside, that is towards one or more ideal bystanders. On the basis of an inscription in the lower part of the canvas, it is possible to recognize in the painting the self-portrait of Luigi Maria Pitti, knight of Santo Stefano, a noble amateur of painting. Son of Lorenzo Pitti and Lisabetta Pieri, the latter, baptized with the names of Luigi Maria Gaspero, was born in the people of Santa Felicita in Florence in 1698. Although destined by the family for a military career, Pitti showed a good propensity for painting from childhood. so much so as to induce his parents to entrust him to the artistic care of Ottaviano Dandini, son of the more famous Pietro, the last member of a renowned dynasty of Florentine painters. If within the Dandinian atelier, Luigi Maria had to be directed to the use of the brush with the passage of time, the same devoted himself, according to a widespread fashion during the eighteenth century, to the execution of pastel portraits, some of which , now preserved in the Uffizi collections, they were much appreciated by the Grand Duke Gian Gastone de 'Medici and by the local patricians. Luigi Maria Pitti's death occurred in his hometown in 1767.
The work, the artist's only known pictorial document so far, represents a document of the highest historical interest for the reconstruction of the critical and artistic profile of this character, still awaiting an exhaustive monographic study. Probably datable to the beginning of the third decade of the eighteenth century, when Pitti must have been just over twenty years old, the painting shows a language rich in refined erudition in which there are very evident debts from the portraiture of the master Ottaviano Dandini and contacts with some of the most young Florentine painters. promising, such as Giovan Domenico Ferretti and Vincenzo Meucci.
The work will be published by Sandro Bellesi in his next studio.