GHERARDO CIBO, Rocca Contrada (1512-1597). Travellers approaching a rock formation, a mountainous river landscape beyond. Red Chalk, pen and black ink, watercolor and bodycolor on paper. With numbers "49" & "125". 8 3/8" x 11 1/4" sheet, 17 1/2" x 20 1/2" framed. ------------- In the foreground of this luminous, animated sheet, a solitary traveler descends a winding path, while a second figure stands nearby, both dwarfed by a dramatic outcrop of striated rock that rises across the center of the composition. A wayside cross, planted between two boulders and partly overshadowed by vegetation, marks the path junction in the middle distance, serving both as a devotional landmark and a compositional anchor that guides the eye into the scene. To the right, a slender tree leans away from the rock mass, its canopy rendered with the delicate, stippled brushwork characteristic of Cibos hand. Beyond the crags, the landscape opens into a broad river valley with blue-grey mountains receding in atmospheric perspective, and what appears to be a fortified town or castello can be discerned on the distant hillside to the right. The whole is realized in red chalk underdrawing, reinforced with pen and black ink, and then animated with transparent watercolor washes and bodycolor, a technique that gives Cibos landscapes their distinctive quality of softly suffused natural light. The two inscribed numbers, .49 at the upper right and 125 at the lower right, are consistent with foliation or inventory markings that appear on other sheets from Cibos landscape albums. Cibo is known to have assembled his drawings into bound volumes; a diary entry from 1553 records that a visitor, the cavalier Geronimo Ardoino, came here to Rocca Contrada and asked me if he could borrow my large volume of landscapes in pen and ink, which I lent him, having first removed certain sketches on bits of paper that were inside. Gherardo Cibo was born in Genoa in 1512 into one of the most illustrious families of Renaissance Italy. His paternal great-grandfather was Giovanni Battista Cibo, better known as Pope Innocent VIII, and through his mother, Bianca Vigeri Della Rovere, he was related to the Della Rovere dukes of Urbino. After early years in Genoa, Cibo moved to Rome, where he stayed with his aunt, Caterina Cibo da Varano, Duchess of Camerino, and initially considered an ecclesiastical vocation. War disrupted these plans and led him to Bologna, where he studied botany under the pioneering naturalist Luca Ghini (14901556), one of the founders of the systematic study of plants in Italy. Cibo subsequently traveled widely on behalf of Emperor Charles V, undertaking military and diplomatic missions in Germany, France, and Flanders, and it was during this period that he encountered Northern European landscape art, a tradition that would prove formative for his own drawing practice. In 1540, Cibo withdrew permanently from public life and settled in Rocca Contrada (today known as Arcevia), a small hill town in the Marche, where his mother and sister Hortense may already have been residing. As one scholar has described it, in this secluded haven Cibo passed the remainder of his long life, free to concentrate on his botanical and artistic pursuits: the painting of plants, trees and landscapes; the colouring and decoration of the images in important printed botanical texts; short excursions with friends into the neighbouring countryside on collecting expeditions; and the preparation of medicaments based on herbs. The herbarium that Cibo began assembling in 1532, in which he pressed and dried plant specimens and annotated them with observations on habitat, season, and use, is the oldest surviving example of this method of botanical documentation in Italy and is today preserved in Rome. Cibo subsequently illustrated several printed botanical texts, most notably multiple editions of Pietro Andrea Mattiolis I Discorsi di M. Pietro Andrea Matthioli (The Discourses of M. Pietro Andrea Mattioli), the enormously influential Italian translation and expansion of Dioscorides ancient pharmacopoeia De materia medica (On Medical Material). Copies of the 1548, 1558, and 1573 Venetian editions, as well as the magnificent 1568 Valgrisi folio edition, all survive with Cibos hand-applied watercolor illustrations. In these, Cibo not only colored the printed woodcut engravings of plants but added richly imagined landscape backgrounds of his own invention, peopling the vignettes with botanists, travelers, shepherds, and villagers going about their daily lives, set against crags, rivers, and distant fortified towns of a kind closely comparable to those in the present sheet. Mattioli himself was unstinting in his praise of Cibos work. In a letter of June 24, 1565 addressed to Cibos brother Scipione, he wrote: It really seems to me that they are so alive and natural, that one could not ask for anything better; and most importantly that one can perceive an elegance afforded to them by the decoration with pleasant village landscapes that cannot be felt in the presence of natural images alone. For this reason I tell you that even though I have received coloured drawings of plants from many different places, there is such a difference between these and the former, as one can see between lead and silver or, even better, between lead and gold. Cibos autonomous landscape drawings, of which approximately 360 are known today, were long attributed to a fictitious artist named Messer Ulisse Severino da Cingoli, a name inscribed on one of three albums of his drawings preserved in the Biblioteca Comunale in Jesi. It was only in 1989 that Arnold Nesselrath definitively established the correct attribution to Cibo. As Nesselrath observed, Partly because he was an engaging person, partly because he was intrigued by nature, Gherardo would perhaps never have called himself an artist. The landscapes fall into two broad categories: topographically accurate records of specific sites in the Marche, often inscribed with place names and astrological day-symbols tied to Cibos plant-collecting excursions, and more composite or wholly imaginary compositions built from accumulated observation. The present drawing, with its generalized rocky scenery and staffage figures, belongs to the latter type, though the wayside cross, the winding path, and the distant hilltop fortification are motifs drawn from the lived landscape of the central Apennines. Cibos working method was unusually systematic and self-reflective for an artist of his time and station. He prepared his own pigments using botanical knowledge, and late in life compiled a technical treatise on landscape painting and miniature technique, later incorporated into the Mariani-Cibo treatise, a workshop manual produced for the court of Francesco Maria II della Rovere, Duke of Urbino. Recent scientific analysis of one of his colored landscape drawings using X-ray fluorescence, Raman spectroscopy, and infrared spectroscopy has confirmed a preparatory layer of lead white and a palette of both inorganic and organic pigments, with the characteristic alteration products of lead-based compounds observable in areas of shadow. Cibos landscape drawings are today held in major collections worldwide, including the Kupferstichkabinett in Berlin, the Szépmuvészeti Múzeum in Budapest, the Uffizi in Florence, the Louvre in Paris, the Albertina in Vienna, the National Gallery of Art in Washington, and the Morgan Library and Museum in New York. As a landscape draftsman active in the Marche during the second half of the sixteenth century, Cibo has been recognized as an important forerunner of the regional landscape tradition that culminated in the early work of Federico Barocci (c. 15351612). He died at Rocca Contrada in January 1600, at the age of eighty-eight, having devoted the last six decades of his remarkable life to the patient, joyful study of nature. 1. Gherardo Cibo, handwritten diary, begun 1553 (now lost). Quoted in Stephen Ongpin Fine Art, artist entry for Gherardo Cibo. 2. Lucia Tongiorgi Tomasi, artist entry for Gherardo Cibo. 3. Pietro Andrea Mattioli to Scipione Cibo, letter of 24 June 1565. Siena Municipal Library, cod. miscell. D, vii, 2. Quoted in I Discorsi di P. A. Mattioli (Aboca Museum, 2015), commentary volume. English translation from the Aboca edition. 4. Jaap Bolten, Messer Ulisse Severino da Cingoli, Master Drawings VII (1969): 12348. 5. Arnold Nesselrath, Gherardo Cibo alias Ulisse Severino da Cingoli, exh. cat. (San Severino Marche: Centro Studi Lorenzo e Jacopo Salimbeni per le Arti Figurative, 1989).
Fantastische Landschaft mit kleiner Insel in einer Meerenge. Feder in Braun. 18,9 x 26,3 cm. Oben links bez. "IEON". Charakteristische Zeichnung der bisher nur wenig erforschten Künstlerpersönlichkeit Gherardo Cibo. Die versierte Zeichnung verbindet sein Interesse für Seestücke mit der zerklüfteten Landschaftsdarstellung der Felsen. Kennzeichnend für Cibo ist eine weiträumige, kulissenartige Staffelung der Landschaft. Kleine Staffagefiguren, oder wie hier eine Reihe verschiedener Galeeren und Schiffe, beleben die Szenerie. Auch in der vorliegenden Arbeit manifestiert sich der prägende Einfluss der flämischen Landschaftsauffassung auf Cibos Zeichenstil; im Frühjahr 1540 ist ein Aufenthalt des Künstlers in Flandern belegt. Wie sehr Cibo dem flämischen Formengut verbunden war, geht auch aus der Tatsache hervor, dass viele seiner Zeichnungen in der Vergangenheit an unterschiedlichste Meister wie Roelant Savery, Mathijs Bril, Paolo Fiammingo und Joachim Patinir zugeschrieben wurden. - Literatur: Arnold Nesselrath: Gherardo Cibo, Ausst.Kat. San Severino Marche 1989, S. 134, Nr. 47 mit Abb. - Wir bitten darum, Zustandsberichte zu den Losen zu erfragen, da der Erhaltungszustand nur in Ausnahmefällen im Katalog angegeben ist. - Please ask for condition reports for individual lots, as the condition is usually not mentioned in the catalogue.
"Vue d'une ville au sommet d'une montagne" plume d'encre brune sur papier vergé. Attribué à Gherardo Cibo dit Messer Ulisse Severini da Cingoli. Ecole italienne. Epoque: Ière moitié du XVIème. Voir au dos une étiquette de chez Jean Willems à Bruxelles. (*). Dim.:+/-170x205mm.
Gherardo Cibo (Genoa 1512 - 1600 Rocca Contrada) Four rocks on a shore, to the left travelers on their way to a rural church at the top of the rock to the left Pen and brown ink and brown wash with touches of green and blue gouache and watercolour 180 by 280 mm
Gherardo Cibo Genoa 1512 - 1600 Rocca Contrada Mountainous landscape with a hermit kneeling in front of a cross Pen and brown ink and brown and gray wash heightened with white 195 by 266 mm; 7 ¾ by 10 ½ in.
GHERARDO CIBO (GENOA 1512-1597 ARCEVIA) View of a monastery with figures approaching on a road pen and brown ink, watercolor, the study of a tree, with a fragmentary inscription, on a separate piece of paper, pasted to the upper left corner 5 x 7 3/4 in. (12.5 x 19.5 cm)
Gherardo CIBO (1512-1600) Fortress on an island in the middle of a lake, with many boats Pen, brown ink. Annotated in pen, upper left: "IEON" Gherardo CIBO Fortezza su un'isola in mezzo a un lago con numerose navi Penna, inchiostro marrone 18,5 x 26,7 cm Provenance: Sale New York, January 27, 1999, Sotheby'slot 21 repr. (as G. Cibo) Bibliography: Catalogue of the exhibition Gherardo Cibo, San Severino, Marche, 1989, no. 47, rep. Forteresse sur une ile au milieu d'un lac, avec de nombreux bateaux Plume, encre brune. Annoté à la plume, en haut à gauche : « IEON » Gherardo CIBO Fortezza su un'isola in mezzo a un lago con numerose navi Penna, inchiostro marrone 18,5 x 26,7 cm Provenance : Vente New York, 27 janvier 1999, Sotheby'slot 21 répr. (comme G. Cibo) Bibliographie : Catalogue de l'exposition Gherardo Cibo, San Severino, Marche, 1989, n° 47, rep.
GHERARDO CIBO (Genoa 1512-1600 Arcevia) Houses and trees seen above a wall GHERARDO CIBO (Genoa 1512-1600 Arcevia) Houses and trees seen above a wall pen and brown ink, brown wash, heightened with white on blue paper 7¹⁄₄ x 11¹⁄₄ in. (23 x 28.5 cm)
GHERARDO CIBO (Genoa 1512-1597 Arcevia) Studies of trees GHERARDO CIBO (Genoa 1512-1597 Arcevia) Studies of trees inscribed ‘terra rossa/ marchis. p[er] terminar’ ‘marchisita’ and with number ‘12’ (upper left) pen and brown ink, brush and red ink, brown...
GHERARDO CIBO, Rocca Contrada (1512-1597). Travellers approaching a rock formation, a mountainous river landscape beyond. Red Chalk, pen and black ink, watercolor and bodycolor on paper. With numbers "49" & "125". 8 3/8" x 11 1/4" sheet, 17 1/2" x 20 1/2" framed. Born into an important noble Genoese family, Cibo was initially destined for the priesthood, but decided to abandon an ecclesiastical career to pursue his interests as a musician and botanist. He travelled to Rome, Bologna and Germany as a young man, eventually settling permanently in Arcevia in 1540, where his mother, Viger Bianca Maria Della Rovere, may have already lived with his sister Hortense. Cibo is known to have created one of the earliest herbariums, a collection of dead plants mounted on paper, for the purpose of studying the natural foliage of his native Italy, and for medical use. Cibo began to collect for his herbaria in 1532, and it wasnt until the latter half of the sixteenth century that institutional herbaria were established in Europe. Greatly inspired by the flora he collected, Cibo created graceful drawings and paintings of the natural world. The coloring of this landscape is reminiscent of some of his botanical studies. Works by Cibo were previously attributed to an artist named Messer Ulisse Severino da Cingoli (see J. Bolten, 'Messer Ulisse Severino da Cingoli', Master Drawings, VII, 1969, pp. 123-48). It was not until 1989 that Arnold Nesselrath correctly attributed these drawings to Cibo(Gherardo Cibo, alias Ulisse Severino da Cingoli, exh. cat., San Severino Marche, Centro studi Lorenzoe Jacopo Salimbeni per le arte figurative, 1989). As a landscape painter Cibo is considered among the major sources of the Marche and the early landscapes of Federico Barocci.
GHERARDO CIBO also ULISSE SEVERINO DA CINGOLI (Genoa 1512 - 1600 Arcevia) Landscape with weir and small watercourse. Brown pen. Old numbering lower right in brown pen:42. 14.5 x 21.5 cm. In a carved gold frame. Venice, circa 1700. --------------- GHERARDO CIBO auch ULISSE SEVERINO DA CINGOLI (Genua 1512 - 1600 Arcevia) Landschaft mit Wehr und kleinem Gewässer. Feder in Braun. Unten rechts mit brauner Feder alt nummeriert:42. 14,5 x 21,5 cm. In einem geschnitzen Goldrahmen, Venedig, um 1700.
Gherardo Cibo (Genoa 1512-1597 Rocca Contrada) A rocky arch with figures by a stream, and buildings in a hilly landscape beyond with number ‘87’ lower right black chalk, pen and brown ink and watercolour heightened with white 9 1/8 x 12 7/8 in. (23 x 33 cm)
Gherardo Cibo (Gênes 1512-1597 Arcevia) Paysage montagneux, un village à l'arrière-plan plume et encre brune, lavis brun et gris rehaussé de blanc partiellement oxydé sur papier anciennement bleu 17.5 x 23.3 cm.
Gherardo CIBO (Gênes 1512-1597 Arcevia) >Paysage rocheux, une ville à l'arrière-plan et un arbre sur la droite<br>plume et encre brune >210 x 270 mm. <br>
Pen and brown ink and watercolor, within black ink framing lines;bears inscription, in black chalk, verso: Daniel van Heil nee à Bruxelles 1604,192 by 295 mm; 7 9/16 by 11 5/8 in
GENOA 1512 - 1600 ROCCA CONTRADA A FANTASY VIEW: A ROCKY ISLAND WITH FORTIFIED BUILDINGS, A BOAT IN THE FOREGROUND Pen and brown ink and wash, heightened with white, on blue paper 192 by 285 mm
GENOA 1512 - 1600 ROCCA CONTRADA A LANDSCAPE WITH A RIVER RUNNING THROUGH A FOREST WITH FIGURES, COWS AND A SMALL HOUSE IN THE BACKGROUND Pen and brown ink and wash, heightened with white, on blue paper 261 by 422 mm
Gherardo Cibo (Genoa 1512-1597 Rocca Contrada) A sketchbook with 22 leaves, bound in vellum, containing 24 studies of plants with discourses on their properties and with sketches for decorative elements signed and inscribed 'Questo libretto io l'ho dipinto de tutte le piante ch' ci sono et tutte ricavate di naturale coυn molta fatica mia, haveυndoci disignato i paesi della sorte, ch' tal piante amano, et che vi nascono naturalmente: come lochi sassosi, montuosi, selvosi, acquatici, et maritimi E credo lo principiasse del 1558. overo del .59. laus Deo semp. io Ghirardo Cibo dipinsi:' (Page 2 recto), with type-setting marks and 'Amen' added in red ink) and further extensively inscribed. Further dated '1569' (Page 1, recto) '1566' twice (Pages 21, verso and 22, recto) and '1564' (on Page 22, recto) black chalk, pen and brown ink, watercolour (on 23 of the leaves); black chalk (on thirteen of the leaves); pen and black ink (on four of the leaves); traces of black chalk, pen and brown ink (on one leaf), six leaves (numbered 12, 16, 32, 34, 36 and 41) with fragmentary watermark of a crown surmounted by a star 9 1/8 x 7 in. (23 x 17.8 cm.) (size of sketchbook)
Gherardo Cibo (Genoa 1512-1597 Rocca Contrada) Travellers approaching a rock formation, a mountainous river landscape beyond with numbers '.49' and '125' red chalk, pen and black ink, watercolor, bodycolor 8 3/8 x 11¼ in. (21 x 28.5 cm.)
ENTOURAGE DE GHERARDO CIBO (GENES 1512-1600 ARCEVIA) Un paysage marin avec un îlot rocheux, un bateau au premier plan plume et encre brune, doubles traits d'encadrement à la plume et encre brune et noire 193 x 264 mm.
inscribed in brown ink, lower margin: arbori di pioppi che stanno sotto al molino del m...gb ta [?] gi à can... proprio al prato in forma di... del _22. li. 7. di_7. bre [settembre] 1564 ; and at the upper left: libro del .1564. pen and brown ink and wash
*Gherardo Cibo (1512-1597) a rocky landscape with figures, an arch, a castle and other buildings. Numbered: 87. Pen and brown ink and colored wash. 230 by 322mm. Provenance: Comte Carl Cobenzl (L. 2858b, the mount bears his cartouche with the attribution to Joos the Momper, and number 4783); The Hermitage, St. Petersburg (L.2061), sale, Leipzig, C.G. Boerner, 29 April 1931, lot 163 (as Joos the Momper). This fantastic landscape by Cibo is typical of his work, which was strongly influenced by Northern prints; see for example the pen and ink drawing at Weimar which is based on a print by Hieronymus Cock (Gherardo Cibo, exh. cat., San Severino Marche, 1989, figs. 11, 12). The bright coloring is also entirely characteristic. *Gherardo Cibo (1512-1597) a rocky landscape with figures, an arch, a castle and other buildings. Numbered: 87. Pen and brown ink and colored wash. 230 by 322mm. Provenance: Comte Carl Cobenzl (L. 2858b, the mount bears his cartouche with the attribution to Joos the Momper, and number 4783); The Hermitage, St. Petersburg (L.2061), sale, Leipzig, C.G. Boerner, 29 April 1931, lot 163 (as Joos the Momper). This fantastic landscape by Cibo is typical of his work, which was strongly influenced by Northern prints; see for example the pen and ink drawing at Weimar which is based on a print by Hieronymus Cock (Gherardo Cibo, exh. cat., San Severino Marche, 1989, figs. 11, 12). The bright coloring is also entirely characteristic.
