Thursday, April 12, 2018

Drawings by Pietro Testa (1612-1650)

Pietro Antonio Pazzi
Posthumous portrait of Pietro Testa
mid-18th century
etching, engraving à la poupée
National Galleries of Scotland

Pietro Testa
Study after the so-called Nike Balustrade (antique relief now in the Uffizi)
commissioned for the Paper Museum of Cassiano dal Pozzo
ca. 1635
drawing
National Galleries of Scotland

Pietro Testa
Diana
before 1650
drawing
National Galleries of Scotland

"Around 1629 Testa moved from his native Tuscany to Rome, and remained there for most of his career.  He first specialised in making copies after classical antiques and was employed in this capacity by Cassiano dal Pozzo and Vincenzo Giustiniani.  He trained briefly under both Domenichino and Pietro da Cortona, and was much influenced by Poussin.  He was a highly skilled draughtsman and one of the greatest etchers of his generation, but as a painter he met with little success.  An ambitious artist with a liking for theory and complex imagery, it was probably his progressive disillusionment at his lack of recognition that drove him to commit suicide by drowning in Rome's River Tiber."

– curator's notes from the National Galleries of Scotland

Pietro Testa
Landscape
before 1650
drawing
National Galleries of Scotland

Pietro Testa
Garden of the Hesperides
before 1650
drawing
National Galleries of Scotland

Pietro Testa
Allegorical figures
before 1650
drawing
National Galleries of Scotland

Pietro Testa
A Sacrifice
before 1650
drawing
National Galleries of Scotland

Pietro Testa
Bacchanal
before 1650
drawing
National Galleries of Scotland

Pietro Testa
Putti playing in front of Herms
before 1650
drawing
National Galleries of Scotland

Pietro Testa
Massacre of the Innocents
before 1650
drawing
National Galleries of Scotland

Pietro Testa
Massacre of the Innocents
before 1650
drawing
National Galleries of Scotland

Pietro Testa
Mourning woman and dead baby
before 1650
drawing
National Galleries of Scotland

Pietro Testa
Adonis
before 1650
drawing
National Galleries of Scotland

Pietro Testa
Venus bringing arms to Aeneas
before 1650
drawing
National Galleries of Scotland