Pier Leone Ghezzi

Pier Leone Ghezzi (ROME 1674 - 1755). Portrait of Monsignor Giorgio Bolognetti, with frame. Oil on canvas. cm98x73. The Bolognetti were an ancient senatorial family that, especially during the 16th century, had assumed a prominent place in political, cultural and literary life in the city of Bologna. The Bolognese branch of the family continued to maintain its prestige throughout the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, and its name is placed side by side, in the sources of the time, with that of painters such as Ludovico and Annibale Carracci and Guido Reni. For the Roman branch, it was the knight Giovan Battista Bolognetti (d. 1627) who played a pivotal role as progenitor of the family in defining the prestige of the lineage in the papal capital. We owe the continuation of this consolidation in the Roman fabric to his eldest son Giorgio, portrayed in the painting under review here. Wealthy and well-connected in the city's curial milieu, Monsignor Giorgio lavished himself in works of charity, but above all he ensured that the Bolognetti family's bond with the papal city was not severed upon his death. Settling permanently in Rome in 1660, he purchased in 1683 a censo on the former Bigazzini palace in "platea S. Marci" (Piazza Venezia), a prestigious residence destined to become the salon of the Roman aristocracy. In this mansion the Bolognettis continued to live until 1807 when Girolamo Cenci-Bolognetti was forced to sell it to the Torlonia family. For the painting under consideration, the autograph to Pier Leone Ghezzi has been confirmed orally by Anna Lo Bianco to the present ownership and constitutes a posthumous portrait depicting the Monsignor holding a missive with a reference to Paris. Bolognetti had been sent to this city between 1634 and 1639 to ask the king for the expulsion of heretics from Pinerolo and the diocese of Saluzzo and in general to monitor the alliance established in recent years between France and the Protestant powers, which could have provoked within the country a revival of the Calvinist movement. Ghezzi was a skilled portraitist, and his work in this field was particularly appreciated for its informal and realistic vein. Indeed, astonishing in the vast repertoire of portrayed effigies is the truly photographic character of the shot, always realistic and synthetic, which accentuates the elements of resemblance for greater adherence of the image to the person portrayed. This highly personal and unusual style comes to him from the practice of caricature to which Ghezzi devoted himself in parallel with painting throughout his career, beginning in his youthful years. In his extensive production of sketches, it is significant to recall three caricatures representing three members of the Bolognetti family, confirming the relationships that existed between the painter and the family: Andrea (1722), Mario (1724) and Giacomo (1744). The Bolognetti family intertwined numerous relationships with the city's most fashionable artists, and in addition to Pier Leone Ghezzi commissioned portraits from Antonio David (1680-1738)-who portrayed Maria Costanza Bolognetti-to Sebastiano Ceccarini (1703-1783)-who portrayed Cardinal Mario Bolognetti-and Giacomo Triga (1674-1746).