Lot 461: GIACOMO PAVIA

BOLOGNA 1699 - 1750 MADRID THE YOUNG CATO OBSERVING THE CRUELTY OF THE DICTATOR SYLLA Pen and brown ink and wash, over slight traces of black chalk, with touches of white heightening; squared in red chalk and a reduction of the size of the composition indicated in pen and brown ink; signed or inscribed in pen and brown ink: Giacomo Pavia and again: Gia. Pavia Inve 1723 271 by 370 mm

Sale, London, Christie's, 3 July 1990, lot 209, reproduced (as Giacomo Paccia, but with note saying probably by Pavia), purchased by Ralph Holland

Ralph Holland seems to have identified the subject of this drawing. Pavia was a painter, architect and scenographer, a pupil of G.G. dal Sole and Ferdinando Bibiena. A number of his works survive in Bologna. In 1737 he moved to Madrid where he worked at the theatre in the Buen Retiro palace.