Vincenzo Leonardi (Italian, fl.1621-1646)
Gourd-shaped citron, Citrus medica L.: whole fruit & half fruit
Preparatory drawings for “Malum citreum cucurbitinum vulgare” in Giovanni Battista Ferrari’s Hesperides, p.67.
Watercolor and gouache over black chalk
Annotation: 58 & 59
ca. 1630
Paper size: 16 x 8 1/2 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 2  & 3. References: Bimbi, Villa Med. C. 612; Volkamer Nurnberg. Hesp. II, p. 42, pls. 41, 43-4’ Micheli Enumeratio, p. 104 Engravings: Ferrari 1646, p. 67

Curiously enough, Ferrari seems to give no description of this citron in his text. The drawings show the whole fruit and the longitudinal half of two large gourd-shaped citrons. The albedo, under their tin, smooth, yellow peel, is remarkably thick. The seeds are aborted. The two drawings must originally have been on the same drawing sheet, later separated, and then in the 18th century mounted together after entering the collection of George III. They are known only from a 35mm color slide, made by the Courtauld Institute in 1967. The only known measurement is that of the two drawing sheets together.

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