Memorials of Galileo Galilei, 1564-1642 : Portraits and paintings, medals and medallions, busts and statues, monuments and mural inscriptions / by J.J. Fahie ; with 20 portraits and 42 other illustrations.

  • Fahie, J. J. (John Joseph), 1846-1934.
Date:
1929
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Memorials of Galileo Galilei, 1564-1642 : Portraits and paintings, medals and medallions, busts and statues, monuments and mural inscriptions / by J.J. Fahie ; with 20 portraits and 42 other illustrations. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    volume of 32 plates. He certainly engraved many, if not all, but he does not appear to have completed his full design, for we can find no trace of publication in a collected form. Fortunately, we have a near approach to it in a collection of 27 crayon drawings, which, apparently, belonged to Leoni himself; and which is now preserved in the Biblioteca Marucelliana in Florence. In this precious volume there are portraits of fourteen painters, Leoni himself heading the list; of three sculptors, of which his father’s is the second; of two mathematicians, of which Galileo’s comes first; and of eight poets. Plate V is a reproduction of Leoni’s engraving after his Galileo portrait. Like all his other work, the technique is peculiar; the hair, beard, and drapery are done in single strokes, which, in the case of hair and beard, are, perhaps, too suggestive of bristles; the face is delicately done with dots; and the back¬ ground is dotted for the lighter part, with cross strokes for the part in shadow. The drawing in the Biblioteca Marucelliana, from which, presumably, this engraving was done, is a more pleasing performance. The Misses Horner, who had the rare privilege of inspecting the volume, refer to it in their “Walks in Florence,” London, 1873. Omitting a few inaccuracies into which they have fallen, they say in effect :•—“ One of the most interesting volumes here contains upwards of twenty portraits drawn in crayon by II Padovanino. The most remarkable are Annibale and Agostino Caracci, Michel Angelo da Caravaggio, Guercino, Cesare d’Arpino, Simon Vouet, and Galileo, which last seems to convey 1 I infer this from an autograph note at the end of the List of Contents as follows;—‘ Ottavio Leoni, Romano, detto il Padovanino, della mi mano sono questi rittrati [sic] di Virtuosi illustri del suo tempo.” I have had no oppor¬ tunity of seeing this collection, but the few facts I give concerning it I owe, mainly, to the courtesy of sig. Cav. Antonio Bruschi, Director of the Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale, Florence.