Connoisseurship beyond Geography: Some Puzzling Genoese Drawings from Filippo Baldinucci’s (1624–1696) Personal Collection

This essay explores Filippo Baldinucci’s conception of the notion of a school of art through analysis of his Genoese drawings. He owned 25 Genoese sheets among 1017 pieces that he organised into four volumes. Baron Dominique-Vivant Denon bought Baldinucci’s collection for the Musée Napoléon in 1806, and all the graphic works were soon removed from the volumes. Until now, only Baldinucci’s Florentine drawings have been carefully studied. Through close study of the digital reconstruction of the original position of the drawings inside the albums, I clarify many puzzling attributions concerning the Genoese sheets and offer new insight into Baldinucci’s goals in shaping his collection.