Original ink and ink-wash drawings of 5 triumphal arches and 3 catafalques (elaborate funeral biers), plus an additional line drawing of a 4th catafalque on the back of one leaf, all erected at various locations in the city of Siena in Tuscany: in the cathedral, in the piazza before the cathedral, in Palazzo Piccolomini and at the Porta Santuccio. The drawings are richly decorated with sculptures, bas-reliefs, columns, cartouches, vases, candelabras and decorations, including Christian and classical figures and putti. The five triumphal arches were all erected for the occasion of the entry of Alessandro Zondadari (1670-1745), the new archbishop of Sienna on 11 August 1715. He was the fourth and last son of Ansano Zondadari and Agnese di Mario Chigi. She was a niece of Pope Alexander VII and heir of her brother Cardinal Flavio Chigi, one of the most influential and powerful men in Siena. One catafalque was erected for the funeral of Alessandro Zondadari's older brother Marc' Antonio Zondadari (1658-1722), Grand Master of the Sovereign Military and Hospitaller Order of Knights of St. John of Jerusalem and Malta.
Flavio Chigi went to great lengths to advance the prestige and power of his Zondadari relatives, paying many thousands of scudi to the Grand Duke of Tuscany, Cosimo III de' Medici (1642-1723) for hereditary titles he could pass on. It is therefore no surprise that the Zondadari arches and catafalques are accompanied by catafalques for the Grand Duke himself and his wife Margarita Luisa d'Orléans (1645-1721), daughter of Gaston, Duke of Orléans and brother of King Louis XIII.
Formerly folded down the middle. With a small and faint stain in the first leaf an even smaller one in the second leaf, and an occasional small spot, but still in very good condition. A lovely set of drawings.