Gift Exchange and Art Collecting: Padre Sebastiano Resta's Drawing Albums GenevieveWarwick "The fame of great men ought always to be estimated by the ing of the history of reception, examining issues of audience means they use to acquire it." So wrote Francois, duc de la response by looking through the prism of exchange. Rochefoucauld, in his Reflexions ou sentenceset maximes morales Central to my analysis is a case study that epitomizes the as an economic (1663), reflecting an aristocratic preoccupation with the social characteristics of gift exchange system in modern Padre Sebastiano from methods of achieving reputation. His words elucidate why early Europe. Resta, Milan, but based in Rome between 1665 and his death in 1714, was early modern Europeans perceived all transactions, including one of the most and ambitious collectors of artists' economic ones, as negotiated through a network of social discerning in his amassing some 3,500 sheets collated into relations, and thus as expressions of status. Nowhere was this drawings day, thirty albums ranging from the primi lumi to the late seven- more so than in the elite world of art collecting, where not teenth century. His work as a collector is commemorated in only the size and quality of the collection but also the various portrait drawings by artist friends from his circle of methods of its acquisition were understood to embody social acquaintances. The Artist Carlo Maratta, for example, de- rank. The genteel manner of acquiring a collection was picted Resta before an open album as if discussing a drawing the exchange of gifts with friends and fellow- through with the viewer (Fig. 1).3 He inspired the English architect collectors. Thus, the of art was not a means to an acquisition and agentJohn Talman to describe his work as follows: end but an end in itself. Although a widespread phenomenon throughout the his- I have lately seen a collection of Drawings the finest tory of art patronage, gift exchange nonetheless has been without doubt in Europe, for the method and number of to be in the neglected by art historians.' Scholarly examination of gift- rare designs ... they are books that ought were at first collected the giving economies originates in anthropological literature with Q[uee]n's Library.... They by famous Father a of the of Marcel Mauss's justly celebrated book of 1925, Essai sur le don, Resta, Milanese, oratory Philippo Neri at Rome; a so well known in Rome, and all forme archaique de Under the powerful impact of person l'change.2 over for his skill in that it would be needless Mauss's study, not only anthropologists and sociologists but Italy, drawings, to more of him, than that these collections were also historians have taken up the theory of the gift. By say any made by him. .. 4 contrast, art historians working with economic data on patron- and have confined their to the age collecting largely analysis Thanks to the rich archival sources concerning the forma- of within art statistical. Through examination gift exchange tion of his collection, the case of Resta is particularly informa- collect- patronage, this paper seeks to move the economics of tive on his methods of making acquisitions, providing a rare ing beyond prices and purchases to a consideration of its window onto early modern collecting practices. Resta's exten- social characteristics. The network of human relations through sive notes on the drawings in his collection often detail how which art is exchanged, in any period, has much to tell about he acquired individual sheets, and his correspondence with how audiences perceive and receive art objects. Thus, my collectors up and down the peninsula includes long discus- study of gift giving also reconfigures art historians' understand- sions of acquisitions. His letters reveal that his sources I would like to thank the following for their contributions to this paper: whereabouts of the letter are unknown today, but a manuscript copy exists of Bodleian John Brewer, Salvatore Campereale, Andrew McClellan, Samuel Cohn, Eliza- the first part of the letter in John Talman's letter book, Oxford, he sent to beth Cropper, Charles Dempsey, Pier Massino Farni, Geraldine Johnson, Library, Ms Eng. letters e.34, pp. 95-96. Talman kept copies of letters is briefer and Dany McNutt, Robert Nelson, Patricia Rubin, Nicholas Turner, and Guy England during his Italian sojourn. The copybook letter slightly Walton. different from that published by Popham, though the substance of the 1. The issue has only been touched on; for example, J. Cunnally, "Ancient paragraph cited here is entirely the same, and I have taken the liberty of using Coins as Gifts and Tokens of Friendship during the Renaissance," Journal of the parts of both. and have been Hzstoryof Collectzons,VI, 1994, 129-43. Five albums from Resta's collection survive intact published: 2. Translated as The Gift:Forms and Functions of Exchange in ArchazcSoczetzes by A. E. Popham, "On a Book of Drawings by Ambrogio Figino," Bzbliotheque I. Cunnison, NewYork, 1967. d'Humanzsme et Renaissance: Travaux et documents, xx, 1958, 267-76; S. Resta, 3. Chatsworth no. 584. The inscription in Maratta's hand reads, "Ritratto Correggzozn Roma, ed. A. E. Popham, Rome, 1958; G. Fubini and J. S. Held, dell M.o Reverend.o Padre Sebastiano Resta della Congregatione del Oratorio "Padre Resta's Rubens Drawings after Ancient Sculpture," Master Drawzngs, ii, di San Filippo Neri in Roma, che mostra all Sig. Carlo Maratt[i] il presente no. 2, 1964, 123-41, repr. in A. W. Lowenthal, David Rosand, andJohn Walsh, S. 94-105; libro con le acutissime sue eruditioni, I'ultimo di Marzo 1689." Below, in Jr., eds., Rubens and Hzs Czrcle:Studzes byJulzus Held, Princeton, 1982, Resta's hand, is written, "furto e dono dell' autore." It bears the Resta-Somers G. Fusconi and S.PV. Rodin6, "Un'agglunta a Sebastiano Resta collezionista: Lansdowne mark, k303, where Resta identifies the first inscription as by II Pzccolo Prelzmznareal Grande Anfiteatro Pzttonco," Prospettzva, xxxII--xxxvi,contains an Maratta: "Di mano del Sig Carlo Maratti, cosi il disegno come i caratteri 1983-84, 237-56, which not only publishes Resta's album but also Cento tavole del sotto." The drawing has recently been published by M. Jaffi, The Devonshzre important essay on Resta, his life and times; G. Fubmi, ed., G. I del Collectzonof Italzan Drawzngs: Roman and Neapolitan Schools, London, 1994, 140, CodzceResta, Fontes Ambrosiani, xxix, Milan, 1955; Bora, ed., dzsegnz no. 261. CodzceResta, Fontes Ambrosiani, LVI,Bologna, 1976. A further fourteen albums of Resta's 4. This letter was most recently cited by A. E. Popham, "Sebastiano Resta can be largely reconstructed based on an 18th-century transcription and His Collections," Old Master Drawings, xI, 1936, 4-6. Popham acknowl- notes, Brit. Lib., London, Lansdowne Ms 802. edged that he had collated two extant published versions of this letter. 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I: i : ii~:i : si ' " ii 1.-?F:P: ~:_:: :: ~:1301 r?8 i ::- ~:: ~Sii :? -::-ii--li- i a :?I -4Wa. ;1 ~84'~~55 ~jlY~t~; fCIC - I: t ~~i~p ;t~" ~i", '~k~E"iI/iIt r: i : i ~:?-~ _. ::~I: :: ~?~; : r~:: :::: :;s" -i k``;;4sb~~d~t~ -- 2"a~i:: ;~ i:: :F f _- 1_ I,) r V O1;-3 1;Z i~~b~ _1: 1 Carlo Maratta, SebastianoResta Examining an AlbumofDrawings.