Pier Leone Ghezzi disegnatore di antiche lire un excursus tra antiquaria, organologia, musicolografia e mito. ROSTIROLLA, Giancarlo

RESUMEN: Pier Leone Ghezzi (1674-1755) was mainly active as a visual artist in Rome, where he was in contact with many artists, writers and scholars, and especially with the contemporary world of patronage of which he left memories in his vast graphic production of thousands of portraits and caricatures. Among this oeuvre prevail the protagonists of musical life with more than three hundred items. This dominance is a reflection of the artist's passion for vocal and instrumental music and especially for the opera. However, Ghezzi also cultivated other interests closely related to medicine, scholarship, history, and archeology. In addition he was a collector of artifacts (rings, cameos, and engraved stones) during a period in which Rome, on the one hand, promoted major excavations on Via Appia and when, on the other hand, the important aristocratic families vied for collecting all the prestigious items that came to light in their palaces and gardens as a result of purposeful excavations or of random discoveries. Ghezzi arranged numerous albums with drawings of antiquities. One of these albums invites to connect archeology and music, with their historical scholarly examination. Although some of the drawings in this album that represent lyres and harps, have already been investigated in some specialized studies, the present paper consider them in a systematic manner.This analysis stimulates thoughts on organological and music-iconographic issues but also reveal the knowledge that the eighteenth century had about ancient music and about multifaceted world of symbols and myths in which the art of sounds and its instruments were often the protagonists.