Mattia Jona, Master Drawings and Prints, Japanese Prints - Piazzetta Guastalla 5, 20122 Milan, Italy, tel (+39) 02 8053315

GIUSEPPE PASSERI (Rome 1654 - 1714) SKETCH OF A MEDALLION WITH A BISHOP SAINT
Pen and brown ink, inscribed in pen and brown ink 'Signor Giuseppe Passari per..'. 89 x 58 mm. PROVENANCE: Giuseppe Vallardi (1784-1863), Lugt 1223, his mark on the recto, on the verso his code in red chalk 'O.45'.

Giuseppe was nephew of the biographer and painter Giovanni Battista Passeri, from whom he received his early training. He subsequently entered the workshop of Carlo Maratti and became one of his master's favourite pupils. Passeri was employed by several prominent Roman families, and numerous official commissions followed upon his appointment by Pope Clement IX as 'Pittore della Camera Apostolica' in 1700. Few works by Passeri outside of Rome survive, though he is thought to have sent many easel paintings to Naples, Sicily, England and Scotland. Besides painting numerous altarpieces, mostly for Roman churches, some portraits, such as 'Livinus Poli' in the Kunsthalle, Bremen (1688), and palace decorations, Passeri was also a prolific draughtsman.The largest group of his drawings is in the Kunstmuseum, Düsseldorf.