Francesco Brizio
(Italian, ca. 1574–1623)
Wooded River Landscape with Three Peasants Drinking, 1610s
Pen and brown ink, over black chalk
Private collection
For his characteristic mounts, Mariette used paper of a distinctive hue derived from indigo, which gave rise to the description of the color as “Mariette blue.” The collector employed made-to- order paper that came in slightly different shades of blue but later turned to an evenly colored and less expensive variety available in larger quantities. Mariette’s collection was particularly rich in sixteenth-century Bolognese drawings, among which was this landscape attributed to Ludovico Carracci (1555–1619). The drawing is in fact a work of the painter and engraver Brizio, one of Ludovico’s pupils who closely followed his master’s drawing style.