{"meta":{"version":"2.1","_links":{"self":{"href":"https://api.vam.ac.uk/v2/object/O613798"},"collection_page":{"href":"https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O613798/"}},"images":{"_primary_thumbnail":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2017KJ8143/full/!100,100/0/default.jpg","_iiif_image":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2017KJ8143/","_alt_iiif_image":[],"imageResolution":"high","_images_meta":[{"assetRef":"2017KJ8143","copyright":"©Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2018KY2258","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false}]},"see_also":{"_iiif_pres":"https://iiif.vam.ac.uk/collections/O613798/manifest.json","_alt_iiif_pres":[]}},"record":{"systemNumber":"O613798","accessionNumber":"D.1112-1887","objectType":"Drawing","titles":[],"summaryDescription":"","physicalDescription":"","artistMakerPerson":[],"artistMakerOrganisations":[],"artistMakerPeople":[],"materials":[],"techniques":[],"materialsAndTechniques":"","categories":[],"styles":[],"collectionCode":{"text":"PDP","id":"THES48595"},"images":["2017KJ8143","2018KY2258"],"imageResolution":"high","galleryLocations":[{"current":{"text":"LVLH (VA)","id":"THES49654"},"free":"","case":"PD","shelf":"271","box":""}],"partTypes":[[{"text":"drawing","id":""}]],"contentWarnings":[{"apprise":"","note":""}],"placesOfOrigin":[],"productionDates":[{"date":{"text":"1713-1715","earliest":"1713-01-01","latest":"1715-12-31"},"association":{"text":"made","id":"x28654"},"note":""}],"associatedObjects":[],"creditLine":"","dimensions":[],"dimensionsNote":"","marksAndInscriptions":[],"objectHistory":"","historicalContext":"","briefDescription":"Design for a monument, attributed to Giovanni Battista Foggini, Italian, 1713-15.","bibliographicReferences":[{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"Ward-Jackson, Peter, <u> Italian Drawings, Volume Two: 17th-18th Century </u>, London, 1979, p. 47, cat. n. 693, illus.\r\n\r\nThe following is the full text of the entry:\r\n\r\n\r\nFOGGINI, GIOVANNI BATTISTA \r\n(1652-1725) \r\n693 \r\nDesign for a monument showing a seated warrior and a kneeling woman displaying a portrait of a lady \r\nInscribed '3' in the top right corner \r\nPen and ink and wash over black chalk \r\n\t9 1/2 x 6 (242 X 152) \tD.1112-1887 \r\nPROVENANCE Bought 1887 \r\n\r\nLITERATURE K. Lankheit, 'Il giornale del Foggini' in Rivista d'Arte, 34, 1959, pp. 55 If and pl. 3; the same, Florentinische Barockplastik, Munich, 1962, pp. 51-3, pl. 208 \r\n\r\nFormerly attributed to Baccio Bandinelli. But Lankheit has shown that this sheet and nos. 694-7 were formerly part of a book of designs for sculpture in the Uffizi entitled 'Giornale del Foggini'. It is not known who removed the pages or when. They were bought from a dealer in 1887 and their earlier history is not recorded. The number 3 inscribed on this particular sheet shows that it was page 3 in the book. Pages 1 and 2 contain two other similar designs for the same monument, one of them standing in the sea. The small human figures standing on the base of the monument in our drawing show that it was intended to be on a colossal scale. Lankheit suggests that the project was a monument to the Grand Prince Ferdinand, eldest son of Cosimo III and heir to the throne of Tuscany, who died in 1713 at the age of fifty; and he appears to believe that the head in the medallion is a portrait of Ferdinand. But Ferdinand is hardly likely to have been represented by Foggini wearing a necklace and a decollete dress. The sitter is undoubtedly a woman. She may perhaps be Anna Maria Ludovica, the Electress Palatine, Ferdinand's sister, as Peter Cannon-Brooke has suggested to me. There is some historical justification for this identification. Ferdinand having died without leaving an heir, the Medici family was in danger of dying out and the throne of Tuscany was already exciting the greed and rivalry of foreign powers. To prevent an unwanted foreigner from being placed on the throne, the Florentine Senate passed a decree ruling that Anna Maria should succeed on the death of her brother Gian Gastone, the last male Medici. At the same time military preparations were made to repel any foreign invasion. Considered in this context, the sculpture may be interpreted as an allegory of Tuscan loyalty to Anna Maria, the spirit of the country being personified in the young warrior, who displays the portrait of his future ruler as a warning to foreign pretenders. The artist may have situated the monument in the sea to show that Tuscany defied invasion from that quarter too, for England, Holland and France, with their powerful navies, were parties to the Treaty of London (1718) which, without consulting the government in Florence, provided that Don Carlos of Spain should be placed on the throne of Tuscany on Gian Gastone's death. \r\n\r\nLankheit suggests that two other drawings by Foggini in our collection are for the same monument (nos. 694 and 695). They may indeed be projects for a monument to the Grand Prince Ferdinand, in so far as the principal figure in each is a prince or commander. But they are not for the same monument as the drawings that show a woman's head in a medallion. \r\n\r\n"}],"production":"","productionType":{"text":"","id":""},"contentDescription":"","contentPlaces":[],"associatedPlaces":[],"contentPerson":[],"associatedPerson":[],"contentOrganisations":[],"associatedOrganisations":[],"contentPeople":[],"associatedPeople":[],"contentEvents":[],"associatedEvents":[],"contentOthers":[],"contentConcepts":[],"contentLiteraryRefs":[],"galleryLabels":[],"partNumbers":["D.1112-1887"],"accessionNumberNum":"1112","accessionNumberPrefix":"D","accessionYear":1887,"otherNumbers":[],"copyNumber":"","aspects":["WHOLE"],"assets":[],"recordModificationDate":"2025-04-23","recordCreationDate":"2009-06-30","availableToBook":false}}