Ottavio Leoni Autorretrato 1625 British Museum

Ottavio Leoni (1578 – 4 September 1630) was an Italian painter and printmaker of the early-

Baroque The Baroque ( , , ) is a Western Style (visual arts), style of Baroque architecture, architecture, Baroque music, music, Baroque dance, dance, Baroque painting, painting, Baroque sculpture, sculpture, poetry, and other arts that flourished from ...

, active mainly in

Rome Rome (Italian language, Italian and , ) is the capital city and most populated (municipality) of Italy. It is also the administrative centre of the Lazio Regions of Italy, region and of the Metropolitan City of Rome. A special named with 2, ...

Life

Ottavio Leoni (sometimes spelled 'Lioni'), draughtsman and engraver was in his day the most fashionable portraitist in Rome. He is sometimes also referred to as the Cavaliere Ottavio, il Padovano, il Padovanino or Cavaliere Padovano . He was born in Rome, where he first trained with his father, Lodovico Leoni. He painted altarpieces for churches in Rome such as an ''Annunciation'' for Sant'Eustachio and a ''Virgin and child with St. Giacinto'' for Santa Maria della Minerva, and a ''Saints Charles, Francis, & Nicholas'' for Sant’ Urbano. He became a member, and later president, of the Accademia di San Luca and a Cavalieri of the Order of Christ, on which occasion he presented the church of the Academy the ''Martyrdom of St. Martina''. He died in Rome. Ottavio Leoni was also the engraver of a set of portraits of painters. His portrait of

Michelangelo Merisi Caravaggio Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio (also Michele Angelo Merigi or Amerighi da Caravaggio; 29 September 1571 – 18 July 1610), known mononymously as Caravaggio, was an Italian painter active in Rome for most of his artistic life. During the fin ...

is the only documented portrait of the painter by another artist. His work is exhibited in places such as Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco;

Museum of Fine Arts, Boston The Museum of Fine Arts (often abbreviated as MFA Boston or MFA) is an art museum in Boston, Massachusetts. It is the list of largest art museums, 20th-largest art museum in the world, measured by public gallery area. It contains 8,161 painting ...

; National Gallery of Art;

Bowes Museum The Bowes Museum is an art museum, art gallery in the town of Barnard Castle, in County Durham in northern England. It was built to designs by Jules Pellechet and John Edward Watson to house the art collection of John Bowes (art collector), Jo ...

;

Courtauld Institute of Art The Courtauld Institute of Art (), commonly referred to as The Courtauld, is a self-governing college of the University of London specialising in the study of the history of art and conservation. The art collection is known particularly for ...

;

Los Angeles County Museum of Art The Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) is an art museum located on Wilshire Boulevard in the Miracle Mile vicinity of Los Angeles. LACMA is on Museum Row, adjacent to the La Brea Tar Pits (George C. Page Museum). LACMA was founded in 1961 ...

; and Palazzo Ruspoli, Rome, Italy.

References

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External links

89 works by Ottavio Leoni
at the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin (Berlin State Museums)
Works by or attributed to Ottavio Leoni
in the

Fitzwilliam Museum The Fitzwilliam Museum is the art and antiquities University museum, museum of the University of Cambridge. It is located on Trumpington Street opposite Fitzwilliam Street in central Cambridge. It was founded in 1816 under the will of Richard ...

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Volume containing 27 drawings by Leoni
conserved in the Biblioteca Marucelliana in Florence (in Italian) 1578 births 1630 deaths Artists from the Papal States Painters from Rome 16th-century Italian painters Italian male painters 17th-century Italian painters Italian Baroque painters {{Italy-painter-16thC-stub