Costume Study

Pen and brown ink over red chalk
Signed with initials, l.l., B. d. B
355 x 251 mm; 14 x 9 7/8 in

A costume design probably for a participant in one of the Florentine pageants of the 1630s or 40s, in which Baccio was frequently involved.  Various societies were formed in mid-seventeenth century Florence, such as the Accademia degli Immobili, for the production of masques, comic opera and pageants, as well as 'chivalrous exercises', elaborate, choreographed movements of men or horsemen that were staged in theatres and outdoor arenas such as the Boboli gardens, the Medici family being foremost amongst the patrons.  Baccio was established in Florence by the early 1620s having been a pupil of Biliverti and subsequently Giulio Parigi, the latter famous for his elaborate theatre designs.  He worked for the German Emperor Frederick the Great for most of the 1630s returning to Florence until 1650, when he made his final departure for Spain.

The present sheet corresponds with  a study in the Uffizi for a similarly unidentified theatrical project.  Also in the Uffizi is a sheet of elaborate studies for headresses, and a very similar page in the Metropolitan Museum, the latter being signed with initials in the same way as our drawing.  A large group of Baccio's designs for stage sets is in the Houghton Library, Cambridge, Mass.  Thiem mentions one further costume design, to be found in the Martin-von-Wagner Museums, Würzburg.