Plan your visit. 225 Madison Avenue at 36th Street, New York, NY 10016.

Plan your visit. 225 Madison Avenue at 36th Street, New York, NY 10016.

Self-Portrait

Pier Leone Ghezzi
1674-1755

Self-Portrait

10 3/4 x 7 1/8 inches (272 x 181 mm)
Pen and brown ink, over graphite, on laid paper.
1985.86

Gift of Janos Scholz.

Notes
Here Ghezzi portrayed himself in fanciful costume, holding a caricature of himself wearing a cape. This humorous work is a self-portrait within a self-portrait, showing the whimsy of the artist, who is best known for his caricatures of Romans as well as notable visitors to the city. Ghezzi's two depictions of himself seem to stand facing one another, one pointing his finger at the other as if in conversation. -- Exhibition Label, from "Life Lines: Portrait Drawings from Dürer to Picasso."
Watermark: none visible through lining.
Inscriptions/Markings
Inscribed on a piece of paper pasted below drawing, in pen and brown ink, "M. le Cher Ghezzi"; below this on mount, in pen and brown ink, "The draftsman of this collection"; numbered at upper right of mount, in pen and black ink, "31".
Associated names
Goddard, Edward, former owner.
Goldstein, Max A. (Max Aaron), 1870-1941, former owner.
Scholz, János, former owner.
Bibliography
Italian Drawings from the Collection of Janos Scholz. London : Art Council Gallery, 1968, no. 43.
Ryskamp, Charles, ed. Twenty-First Report to the Fellows of the Pierpont Morgan Library, 1984-1986. New York : Pierpont Morgan Library, 1989, p. 342.
Classification
Century Drawings
School
Department