(1714–1773) Design for a ceiling painting with allegorical figures and putti, signed G. Guglielmi, pencil, on laid paper, 30 x 20,5 cm, watermark: a small escutcheon with heraldic motifs, black framing lines, mounted, unframed, (Sch)

Provenance: verso an anonymous collector’s mark monogram W (Lugt 2589).

Gregorio Guglielmi was a pupil of Sebastiano Conca and Francesco Trevisani. He belonged to the most important Italian fresco painters of the second half of the 18th century. Only few of his numerous paintings and frescoes in Rome, Turin, St. Petersburg, Augsburg, Berlin and Warsaw have survived; one of the most significant works is the fresco cycle in Schönbrunn castle in Vienna (c. 1754–61) which shows an apotheosis of the monarchy under the reign of Empress Maria Theresa, who is surrounded by personifications of sovereign virtues. The central group is surrounded by allegories of the crown lands with their respective riches and wealth. The present drawing may be a preliminary study for one of the allegories.

Comparative Literature: Klara Garas, “Gregorio Guglielmi (1714–1773)”, in: Acta Historiae Artium 9, 1963, pp. 269–294; Stefanie von Langen, Die Fresken von Gregorio Guglielmi, Munich 1994.