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| Pier Leone Ghezzi Self-portrait ca. 1700-1710 drawing Morgan Library, New York |
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| Pier Leone Ghezzi Caricature of Joseph Henry of Straffan, County Kildare studying the antiquities of Rome ca. 1744-51 drawing- Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York |
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| Pier Leone Ghezzi Caricatures of the Marquis de Vandières, Abbé Jean-Bernard Le Blanc, Germain Soufflot and Charles-Nicolas Cochin the Younger touring Rome ca. 1750 drawing Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York |
"Ghezzi was the first professional caricaturist actually paid by his subjects. Based in Rome, he drew local patrons and tourists. This work [directly above] makes fun of four influential French visitors. At left stands the twenty-two year old Abel-François Poisson, marquis de Vandières. Through the influence of his sister, Madame de Pompadour, Louis XV's mistress, the marquis had been appointed the next Director Général des Bâtiments du Roi (Superintendent of the King's Buildings). To prepare, the young man made a study tour of Italy and is shown discussing a drawing of a church with the architect Soufflot. Cochin, an artist-engraver, who made such drawings on the trip, stands at right, while the art critic Le Blanc appears in front. Ghezzi exaggerated his subjects' physical quirks without cruelty and gave the young Vandières a fish-like profile, perhaps punning on his family name Poisson."
– from curator's notes at the Metropolitan Museum
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| Pier Leone Ghezzi Caricature of artist Giovanni Battista Piranesi ca. 1750-55 drawing National Gallery of Art, Washington DC |
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| Pier Leone Ghezzi Portrait of Giuseppe Ghezzi (the artist's father) 1721 drawing Royal Collection, Great Britain |
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| Pier Leone Ghezzi Physician with an Enema Syringe 1753 drawing Philadelphia Museum of Art |
"Ghezzi's early biographer, Nicola Pio, tells us that Pier Leone's father, the artist Giuseppe Ghezzi, forced him to draw from the model with pen and ink only, a medium that allows for no corrections. This early discipline might account for Ghezzi's unerring facility with the pen and the fact that he chose that medium for his caricatures, the ink usually being very dark. The inscription that Ghezzi himself wrote beneath this drawing [directly above] tells us that the genial physician who has just wandered into our field of vision is the nephew of Dr. Romanelli and had arrived in Rome just over a week ago (his hat is still under his arm) to practice medicine with his uncle at an abbey belonging to the Albani family. Ghezzi saw him there and drew from memory. It is not known whether the artist, then seventy-eight years old, visited the doctor in the capacity of patient, but if he did, and whatever his ailment, administration by enema of any pharmaceutical a doctor favored, or had invented, was the cure of choice in the eighteenth century. This common aspect of medical practice gave rise to a host of caricatures ranging from the scurrilous to the ridiculous."
– from curator's notes at the Philadelphia Museum of Art
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| Pier Leone Ghezzi The Famous Castrato Il Farinelli 1724 drawing Morgan Library, New York |
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| Pier Leone Ghezzi Portrait of Sebastiano Resta 1738 etching Art Institute of Chicago |
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| Pier Leone Ghezzi God the Father before 1755 drawing Royal Collection, Great Britain |
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| Pier Leone Ghezzi Christ's charge to Peter before 1755 etching Philadelphia Museum of Art |
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| Pier Leone Ghezzi Design for Frame supported by Angels before 1755 drawing Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York |
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| Pier Leone Ghezzi Ornamental Seashell Motif 1726 drawing British Museum |
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| Pier Leone Ghezzi Antique Capital with Bacchic Heads, Ram Heads, and Acanthus 1726 drawing British Museum |
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| Pier Leone Ghezzi Antique Capital with two Harpies facing each other 1726 drawing British Museum |
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| Pier Leone Ghezzi Three Clerics ca. 1715-20 drawing National Gallery of Canada |