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II Mondo novo musicale di Pier Leone Ghezzi. .(Book Review)-

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II Mondo novo musicale di Pier Leone Ghezzi. By Giancarlo Rostirolla. (Arte armonica, Serie IV. Iconografia e cataloghi, 2.) Milano: Skira; Roma: Accademia nazionale di Santa Cecilia, 2001. [495 p. ISBN 8-881-18427-3. [euro]92.96.] Illustrations, bibliography, indexes.

Pier Leone Ghezzi was, mutatis mutandis, Rome's Al Hirschfeld in the first half of the eighteenth century. Most of the rich and famous who passed through Rome between 1700 and 1750 (and who didn't?) were captured on paper with a minimum number of strokes of pen, pencil, or chalk by this unique master, known in his time as it caveliere delle caricature.

But, far from having been a quick-sketch artist, picking up extra change by "doing" tourists (as a popular encyclopedia suggests), Ghezzi was deemed worthy of inclusion by Leone Pascoli among the noteworthy artists of his day in the latter's Vite de' pittori, scultori ed architetti moderni (Rome: Antonio de'Rossi, 1730-36, 2: 206-7). Son of the painter Giuseppe Leone, whose position as secretary of the Accademia di San Luca gave him entree to Rome's elite circles, Pier Leone became in his early years a familiar figure in these same circles. Like his father he became accademico, later secretary to the academy, and, in 1708, was made pittore della camera Apostolica. In this role he apparently supervised whatever decorating, varnishing, gilding, or restoring was ordered of furniture, paintings, or even ships, not to mention the designing of festival decorations. In addition to all these duties, he supervised the mosaic and tapestry factories. Somehow he found time to do etching and engraving, to study anatomy a nd architecture, and to learn to play several musical instruments. Later in life he was...

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