Christoforo Roncalli, called Pomerancio, a bust-length portrait in a twelve-sided frame

Art Historical Context

This exquisite etching and engraving by Ottavio Leoni known as Il Padov, captures the bust-length portrait of Christof Roncalli, calledancio, framed within an unusual twelve-sided enclosure. Created in 1623, the intimate plate measures just 5 11/16 x 4 1/2 inches, making it a delicate gem suited for collectors' albums or scholarly study. Leoni, a masterful Italian printmaker active in early 17th-century Rome specialized in precise, lifelike portraits of contemporaries, preserving their features for posterity. The technique blends etching's fluid lines with engraving's sharp detail, allowing Leoni to convey texture—from the subtle folds of Roncalli's attire to the geometric elegance of the dodecagonal frame. Prints like this were revolutionary, enabling affordable dissemination of elite likenesses beyond paintings, which fueled the era's growing interest in artist biographies and cultural memory. Housed in the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Drawings and Prints department, this work from the Bequest of Phyllis Massar offers a window into Baroque portraiture's focus on individuality. Imagine flipping through a 400-year-old volume to encounter Pomerancio's gaze—a testament to printmaking's enduring power to connect us with history's makers.