Abside du Gesu at cour du Palais de Venise

Black pencil drawing, mm 289x414, datable to c. 1869. Bottom right Abside du Gesu at cour du Palais de Venise.

Belongs to a collection of 127 works unearthed from a French antiquarian who, in turn, had acquired them from the heirs of publisher Henri-Désiré Charpentier (La Rochelle 1805 - Vertou 1882); they are all done in black pencil, some have white lead highlighting; they never bear the date and signature of the author, but only a brief caption relating to the subjects depicted. The drawings denote a skilled and expert hand - especially in the delineation of buildings, ruins and architecture - that restores the monuments of Rome from interesting and unusual perspective points. The reference of most of the drawings to some of the tinted lithographs by Felix and Philippe Benoist, published in the three-volume work Rome dans sa grandeur, immediately became clear. The fact that this is a large group of original drawings related to the famous work edited by Henri-Désiré Charpentier is clearly supported by the prestigious provenance; it is a part of Charpentier's heir fund, among which the material of the famous chalcographic workshop had been divided.

Rome dans sa grandeur. Vues, monument ancient et modernes was printed in Paris in 3 volumes, in 1870. The publication, illustrated by 100 lithographs, was preceded by a campaign of preparatory drawings, dating from 1864 until 1869, executed mainly by Félix Benoist and partly by Philippe Benoist. On the eve of the Concilio Ecumenico Vaticano I, on August 11, 1869, Pius IX decreed the creation of a Roman Exhibition of the works of every art executed for Catholic worship, which was inaugurated, on February 17, 1870, in the cloister of the Carthusian monastery of Santa Maria degli Angeli. On that occasion, the three folio volumes Rome dans sa grandeur were presented. The lavishly bound volumes, with the coat of arms of Pius IX stamped in the center in gold, are divided into three sections. The first volume deals with ancient Rome, the second, with Christian Rome, and the third, with the monuments and achievements of modern Rome. A valuable view of papal Rome on the eve of Rome's profound transformation into the capital of united Italy. A document that highlights the remarkable imprint left by Pius IX on the Eternal City. The work represents the French artist's masterpiece, so much so that it places Benoist among the ranks of the greatest artists of interiors and views of his time.

The sheets used for the preliminary studies vary in size (from 170 mm x 240 to 490 x 300 mm), weight and even color gradation (from beige to green).  Many of the drawings undeniably represent different preparatory stages - more or less complete - of some of the dyed lithographs illustrating the magnificent work, others of the silographic vignettes included in the text, while other sketches do not find translation in print. Belonging to this second group are both sketches relating to monuments and views of Rome and its surroundings: ancient Ostia, Grottaferrata, Olevano Romano, Anzio, Nettuno, Velletri and Vicovaro. Far beyond from Rome are drawings relating to Naples and Loreto. The suite was to form part of the entire fund, later dispersed, of preparatory studies from which the hundred intended for lithographic printing were selected.

This splendid drawing does not have an exactly corresponding lithograph in the illustrative apparatus of Rome dans sa grandeur where the courtyard of Palazzo Venezia is indeed depicted but from an opposite perspective: in the lithographic plate Cour du Palais de Venise et Èglise Saint-Marc à Rome (included in the third volume, Rome Moderne) is shown the eastern side of the Palazzo Venezia garden facing the portico on two levels of the Basilica of St. Mark; here, on the other hand, is looked at the western side of the garden from which the apse of the Church of the Gesu is admired. The fountain in the center of the garden, commissioned in 1730 from Carlo Monaldi (c. 1683- 1760) by Ambassador Barbon Morosini, depicts Venice marries the sea.

The Palazzo Venezia is described in the volume Rome Moderne, in the first chapter Monuments civils et moderns, in the section devoted to Via del Corso - la rue plus longue et las plus belle del Tridente, edited by Edmond Lafond, who as a cicerone takes readers on a long and picturesque walk from Piazza del Popolo along the Corso to Piazza Venezia and describes its palaces, villas and squares:“Nous voici enfin,au bout du Corso, sur la place de Venise; elle doit son nom à ce grand palais aux dimensions colossales, qui, avec ses créneaux, ressemble à une forteresse; son style sévère du moyen-âge, contraste avec les monuments qui l'entourent. […] Le pape Pie IV fit donde ce palais à la sérénissime république de Venise, pour servir de résidence à ses ambassadeurs, en échange du palais que cette République donna au nonce apostolique à Venise. Lorsque la cité des doges passa au pouvoir de l'Autriche, le palais de Venise est devenu la propriété de Sa Majesté Apostolique; son ambassadeur y réside et a fait dernièrement magnifiquement restaurer ce vieux monument de l'art florentin. La cour de ce palais est d'une architecture ravissante on peut s'en assurer dans la planche ci-jointe” (Rome dans sa Grandeur, Rome Moderne, c. I, p. 40).