sht. 74

A

Giuseppe Valadier, Reliquary of the True Cross, c. 1803, graphite, pen, grey ink, brown, yellow, grey, red and blue wash on paper, 365 x 210 mm.; numbered upper left: “80”.

This drawing is the final design for the reliquary intended to hold the wood of the Cross of Christ commissioned by María Manuela Pignatelli de Aragón y de Gonzaga, Duchess of Villahermosa for the Basilica of Santa Croce in Gerusalemme in 1803. The reliquary holding the wood of the True Cross in the Basilica since ancient times had been confiscated by the French in 1798.

Bibliography: Leone 2019a, p. 89; Leone 2019b, pp. 70, 73.

B

Luigi Valadier, Silver gilt pail with the variants of the profiles and decorations and aspergillum with moustache; in the centre of the pail, a housing for a cardinal’s crest, c. 1768, graphite, pen, grey ink, brown ink, brown and grey wash on paper, 330 x 225 mm.

This item is very close to a pail in the papal set belonging to Cardinal Domenico Orsini d’Aragona made by Luigi Valadier in 1768-9 and now in the Cathedral of San Nicola in Muro Lucano (Agresti 2017; González-Palacios 2018, pp. 337-346, con preceding bibliography).

Bibliography: Leone 2019a, p. 89; Leone 2019b, p. 74.

C

Workshop of Luigi Valadier, Four silver thuribles, c. 1770-5, graphite, pen, brown ink, grey wash on paper, 210 x 270 mm.; inscription in pen bottom centre: “Incensarios”.

Bibliography: Leone 2019a, p. 89.

D

Giuseppe Valadier, Altar candle holder, c. 1800, graphite, pen, grey ink, grey and red wash on paper, 320 x 160 mm.; inscription in pen bottom centre: “Braccio Fiorentino”; it bears the Roman palm scale in the lower margin.

Bibliography: Leone 2019a, p. 89; Mennell 1991-2, p. 99, fig. 6.