This highly detailed costume study is one of six drawings in the Morgan's collection created by Ennemond Alexandre Petitot to be engraved for Giambattista Bodoni's richly illustrated volume, "Descrizione delle feste celebrate in Parma", Parma, 1769. The volume was published by Bodoni (1740-1813) the year after his appointment in 1768 as the head of the Stamperia Reale, the ducal printing shop, and produced in celebration of the nuptials of Ferdinand I (1751-1802), duke of Parma, to the archduchess Maria Amalia of Austria (1746-1804). The illustrations depict the various festivities and displays designed by Petitot, who served as chief architect to the Duke of Parma (from 1753 to roughly ca. 1771) and had a hand in designing the tournaments, costume balls, fireworks, and pastoral plays celebrating the wedding, which lasted from July to September 1769. Particular attention is given to the depiction of the costumes of those who participated in the tournaments in honor of the newlyweds. The Morgan's six drawings depict four cavalrymen, a squire, and a herald in their ornamental attire and armor.
Inscribed in pen and brown ink at lower center, "chevalier inconnu".
Watermark: crowned, double-headed eagle (fragment).
Study for (work): Bodoni, Giambattista, 1740-1813. Descrizione delle feste celebrate in Parma.
Olschki, Leo S. (Leo Samuel), 1861-1940, former owner.
Lyon, H. D., 1917-2004, former owner.
Saks, John Andrew, 1913-1983, former owner.
Schab, William H., former owner.
Ryskamp, Charles, ed. Seventeenth Report to the Fellows of the Pierpont Morgan Library, 1972-1974. New York : Pierpont Morgan Library, 1976, p. 175.