Search results

Start typing

Marco Ricci (Belluno 1676-Venice 1730)

Farinelli in walking dress c. 1729-30

Pen and brown ink over black lead | 31.8 x 11.8 cm (sheet of paper) | RCIN 907293

Your share link is...

  Close

  • A pen and ink drawing of a tall man standing in profile to the left, looking down and smiling; his right hand, with his cane hanging from it, raised to his throat; with his left hand on his sword; wearing a tricorn hat, a short wig, and a long-skirted coat. Inscribed, verso, lower right corner: JS.

    This is a caricature of the Italian castrato singer Carlo Maria Michelangelo Nicola Broschi (1705-82), known as 'Farinelli'. He trained in Naples, where he was funded by two rich lawyers, the Farina brothers (possibly the source for his stage name), and he was soon in great demand across Europe, performing in Rome, Vienna, Bologna and Munich in the 1720s. A copy or tracing of the present drawing is in the Algarotti-Gellman album, and a similar drawing of the singer, annotated 'Farinello in abito da Galla' [Farinello in walking dress] is in the Zanetti album in the Fondazione Cini.

    The drawing belongs to an album of operatic caricatures mainly by Marco Ricci and Anton Maria Zanetti the Elder, an intact album from the library of Joseph Smith. Zanetti and another Venetian collector, Francesco Algarotti, owned similar albums, with many of the caricatures copied or traced, with identifying inscriptions. Zanetti's album is now in the Fondazione Giorgio Cini, Venice, and Algarotti's belongs to Albert Gellman and is in the Israel Museum, Jerusalem. Opera was an important part of Venetian society and culture, and such caricatures were circulated among friends and collectors for light-hearted amusement.

    There is a version of this drawing in the Algarotti-Gellman Album: Croft-Murray no. 13. Consul Joseph Smith's album, in the Royal Collection, includes several caricatures of Farinelli: RCIN 812375, 907291-907293, 907297. Farinelli is also represented in Anton Maria Zanetti's album of caricatures in the Fondazione Cini, Venice: inv. 36452.
    Provenance

    From the collection of Consul Joseph Smith; acquired by George III in 1762

  • Medium and techniques

    Pen and brown ink over black lead

    Measurements

    31.8 x 11.8 cm (sheet of paper)

  • Other number(s)
    Alternative title(s)

    Carlo Broschi

    Carlo Broschi, known as Farinelli


The income from your ticket contributes directly to The Royal Collection Trust, a registered charity. The aims of The Royal Collection Trust are the care and conservation of the Royal Collection, and the promotion of access and enjoyment through exhibitions, publications, loans and educational activities.