of these drawings can be connected to the artist’s still extant wall decorations and oil paintings.18 Since our collection preserves several sketches for more than one of Masucci’s compositions, the Budapest group provides an excellent opportunity to observe and analyse his creative process. From among the Venetian drawings a large ensemble of sixteen sheets are attributed to Gaspare Diziani (1689–1767), a brilliant draughtsman, and thirteen pieces can be regarded as the works of the noted graphic artists Pietro Antonio Novelli (1729–1804) and his son Francesco Novelli (1764–1836). Thirteen sheets by Giovanni Battista Tiepolo and his son Domenico Tiepolo, counted among the greatest painters and draughtsmen of 18th-century Venice, are held as the proudest possessions of the collection. Another outstanding group is constituted by the fifteen theatre sets by the members of the Bibiena family and their workshop, internationally active as stage designers and theatre architects. A larger unit of Neapolitan works is formed by the eighteen gouache paintings by Alessandro d’Anna (1746–1810); some of them immortalize various attractive views of Naples to the delight of ever growing numbers of tourists (fig. 4),19 while others give an account of actual events through the eye of an accurate chronicler—representing the eruptions of Vesuvius and some local events of the French Revolution, such as the arrival of the French Navy in the Bay of Naples (fig. 5).20 These works also attest to a greater degree of self-awareness among artists at the end of the 18th century, as indicated by the precise signatures and dating of the drawings. Some further Neapolitan drawings stand out as interesting rarities for certain aspects. neapolitan rarities
A drawing by Giuseppe Sanmartino The Budapest collection preserves a remarkable sketch for a sculpture (fig. 6)21 attributable to Giuseppe Sanmartino (Naples, 1720 – Naples, 1793). Although it entered the collection as a work by Lodovico Mazzanti,22 it can unambiguously be linked to Giuseppe Sanmartino’s sculpture of Saint Paul decorating the pediment of the Chiesa dei Gerolamini in Naples (fig. 7). The artist’ terracotta bozzetti23 made in 1775–1776 have also survived, in which the position of the Saint’s head and sword were developed and applied jointly in the final marble sculpture.24 All in all, the Budapest drawing is closer to the supposedly earlier Neapolitan bozzetto, than to the Roman one. The figure’s pose and drapery in the drawing generally correspond to the executed sculpture with only minor differences: the saint’s head is leaning down lower than on the marble, and his gaze is directed downwards rather than straight ahead. The robe in the drawing is simpler than the richly folded drapery of the sculpted work. Some pentimento is visible at the figure’s left foot in the Budapest sheet. A significant difference is that the drawing represents the sculpture in a niche, while the finished work is placed freely on the right of the
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