2 - Carlo MARATTA (1625–1713)

Carlo MARATTA (1625–1713) Front: Preparatory study for *The Peace of Augustus*, details of the legs, hand, and drapery Verso: Initial sketches for the soldier with the quiver Red chalk and black chalk on beige paper 43 x 27.3 cm Sun-faded, small stains, small tears along the edges, creases, small losses along the lower edge This study is a preparatory drawing for Carlo Maratta’s painting, *The Peace of Augustus*: the emperor orders the doors of the Temple of Janus to be closed and performs a sacrifice to peace, now in the collection of the Musée des Beaux-Arts de Lille (inv. P49). The front of our sheet examines in detail the right leg of the soldier figure removing his quiver of arrows in the lower left corner. There is also a study of drapery and the hand of the young page in a yellow toga holding a casket to the left of Augustus. The study of the leg in black chalk on the right side of our sheet, meanwhile, is a preparatory study for the leg of the soldier on the left, whose head is encircled by olive branches. Eight preparatory drawings for *La Paix d’Auguste* are listed in Maratta’s catalog raisonné (see S. Rudolph, S. Prosperi Valenti Rodinò, *Carlo Maratti (1625–1713): Between the Splendor of the Baroque and the Dream of Arcadia. Paintings and Drawings. Critical Edition, 2 vols., Ugo Bozzi Editore, Rome 2024, pp. 372–373), including a study for a portrait of a woman held at the Lille Museum (see opus supra 22.1), a study for the heads of the young men and Augustus’s arm, held in Madrid (see opus supra 22.5), and six other studies held in the Düsseldorf collections (see opus supra 22.2–4 and 22.6–8). Provenance Formerly in the George Usslaub Collection; bears his stamp on the reverse (L.1221) Private collection, Monaco