Autograph letter, signed.

Bologna, 1699.. Good. 20 lines of text on 1 leaf watermarked laid paper (267 x 190 mm), addressed to an agent in the sale of two pictures. Slight tears where the paper has disintegrated under ink strokes result in negligible loss.

Marcantonio Franceschini (1648-1729) is considered the quintessential representative of Bolognese classicism of the late 17th century. Schooled in a baroque tradition arching back to the Caracci, the artist gracefully anticipated elements of the subsequent neoclassical style. Among his most important projects was the decoration of a suite of rooms in the Liechtenstein Garden Palace at Rossau-Vienna, commissioned by Johann Adam Andreas, Prince of Liechtenstein (1656-1712). The letter offered here is an elegant register of market pressures and personal anxieties involved in Franceschini's commercial negotiations. It shows the artist eager to prevent his agent from underselling terms Franceschini had established with Prince Johann Adam. Franceschini writes to the agent about the commission of two pictures for an unnamed client in Vienna. The artist implores the agent to price the paintings at sixty ducats each instead of fifty. He reveals that he normally charged Prince Johann Adam a greater sum for simpler pictures, and he fears that the prince might be offended to find out that his paintings were available more cheaply elsewhere.