Marcantonio Franceschini (Bologna 1648-1729)
Study for Saturn next to Mercury

Study for Saturn next to Mercury
c. 1706

Inscribed, recto: in black pencil with 19th-20th century handwriting, under the foot of Saturno: “del Franceschini”; bottom right: “15 (?)”.

Inscribed, verso: pen in black ink, in 18th-century handwriting: “FranceSchino ʓ 250 N 55 (?)”.

This drawing, in our opinion original by Marcantonio Franceschini (Bologna 1648-1729), must be one of the preparatory sketches destined for the final painting for the ceiling of the Garden Gallery of the Liechtenstein Palace, Vienna (Austria).

The prince of the house of Liechtenstein, Johann Adam Andreas (1657-1712), was the patron of much of the works of art treasured there in what was his family palace. A taste for Italian baroque painting and especially Bolognese area, pointed to Franceschini as one of the main artists to decorate part of the ceilings in that architecture, along with other painters such as the Italian quadraturist master Andrea Pozzo (1642-1709) .

Franceschini will create a beautiful set made up of three fresco decorations in the aforementioned Garden Gallery, with the following subjects: Apollo and Juno in the heavens in the company of Ceres, Flora and Bacchus together with the personifications of Rain and Dew, as a motif central; Jupiter and Mercury with Saturn bound, to their left; and lastly, Mars with Venus and Cupid in the presence of Diana, to his right.

The Spanish branch of the lineage of the Prince of Liechtenstein has its reason for being in the fact that Johann Adam Andreas was the son of the great-granddaughter of Doña Margarita Folch de Cardona y Requensens (1534/1549 - 1603), who married Adam de Dietrichstein in 1555, and held the prestigious position of Dame to Empress Maria of Austria (1528-1603), daughter of Emperor Charles I (1500-1558).

The drawing shows the scene that is part of the Jupiter and Mercury with Saturn bound. Indeed, Saturn appears seated on a cloud with his hands tied behind his back, next to the angel who carries the rod with two snakes or caduceus, the main attribute of the god Mercury, another prominent character in the final composition. The design shows two more compositional elements, a foot next to the aforementioned angel that corresponds to Mercury, and some toes of another foot located on the head of Saturn, those of the left foot of one of the three angels that surround another cloud, detail of the angle upper left of the wall painting.

This sketch that concerns us here is a detailed study of Saturn, only one preserved to date, since its compartmentalization with respect to the general subject shows that Franceschini must have raised the characters represented (Jupiter, Mercury, Saturn, on the one hand, and Mars, Venus and Diana, on the other) as individualized issues, this drawing being an example of this.

The Museo Nacional del Prado preserves what could be the definitive drawing for its mural painting, as this model is found in a grid and with recesses in its four corners, as the ceiling of the Austrian palace will show.

The specific elements of the detail with Saturn that make up the Vienna painting correspond to those of the present drawing with minimal variations, which is why it is an initial idea and not a copy of part of the ceiling.

Franceschini's intervention as a painter in the Liechtenstein Palace has been studied by Professor Dwight C. Miller, who also investigated both the preparatory drawings for the paintings of that place, as well as the interesting manuscript correspondence between Prince Johann Adam Andreas and the Italian artist , regarding this specific pictorial intervention. According to these letters, written between November 19, 1706 and January 18, 1707, this drawing can in principle be dated between those years.

Its reverse presents sketches of several angels in flight together with clouds or oval shapes, of different pictorial qualities, which deserve to be studied to support or reject their authorship with respect to the Bolognese artist. If they are originals of his, they could perhaps be related to other works outside of this particular ceiling.

This drawing has been granted and in force its corresponding Export License by Ministerio de Cultura of Spain.

Measurement:

31.5 x 20 cm