Vincenzo Leonardi (Italian, fl.1621-1646)
Citron, Citrus medica L.: crowned whole and half-fruit
Watercolor and gouache with gum heightening over black chalk
Annotation: [right of whole fruit]: T
ca. 1630
Paper size: 14 x 8 in
Provenance: Cassiano dal Pozzo; Albani; George III, by descent to George V; London Art Market (Mendelson)
Literature: D. Freedberg & E. Baldini, The Paper Museum of Cassiano dal Pozzo: A Catalogue
Raisonne. Part One - Citus Fruit (London, 1997), Plate 78

‘Not reproduced in Ferrari’s Hesperides, this yellow citron has a “crown” of irregular bumps around its apex ending in a very prominent nipple. The half-fruit shows a very thick mesocarp surrounding small segments with a few small seeds. This drawing is known only from a 35 mm colour slide made by the Courtauld Institute in 1967’

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