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ENGLISH TRANSLATIONS
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for a slate painting now in the church of Santa Maria
di Castello in Genoa (A.-L. Collomb, Splendeurs
d’Italie. La peinture sur pierre à la Renaissance,
Rennes et Tours, 2012, p. 235 fig. 100) and by his
brother Ottavio (1527-1604) in a fresco in the same
church of the Annunziata. A drawn copy of the
composition is preserved in the Louvre (inv. 9064;
FRANCIABIGIO
F. Mancini, Inventaire général des dessins italiens.
With its red chalk technique, its tight hatching
network, the realism of the figure and its proximity Tome XI. Dessins génois XVIe-XVIIIe siècle, Paris,
2017, no. 14 p. 44).
to the drawings of Andrea del Sarto, whose
collaborator and friend the artist was, this drawing Even more than the painting it prepares, the present
drawing perfectly illustrates the dual influence of
epitomises Franciabigio’s graphic stuyle. It can,
Perino del Vaga (1501-1547) and Giorgio Vasari
for example, be compared with a drawing in the
Uffizi, a Naked Man with Arms in Prayer (S. Regan (1511-1574) on Semino’s work in particular and on
McKillop, Franciabigio, Berkeley, 1976, p. 175 and fig. Genoese painting of the second half of the sixteenth
century in general.
54), which is preparatory to a figure in a painting,
dated 1516, also in the Uffizi, Madonna and Child
with Saints (idem, no. 19 fig. 55) and another sheet Jacopo PALMA, IL GIOVANE
Probably a study for a Conversion of Saint Paul.
now in Berlin (idem, p. 174 and figs. 65 and 66)
Similar figures can be found in several of the artist’s
depicting hands in connection with a painting,
executed circa 1516-17, in the church of Santo Spirito paintings of this subject, such as, for example, a
large painting in the church of San Polo in Venice
in Florence.
produced around 1595-1600 (S. Mason Rinaldi,
The present drawing does not seem to be
Palma Giovane, l’opera completa, Milan, 1984, no.
connected to any known composition, although
the figure is quite similar to a beggar depicted in the 470 fig. 463) or another formerly in the Dayton Art
background of The Story of Bathsheba, one of the Institute (idem, no. 86 fig. 388).
We are grateful to Stefania Mason for confirming the
artist’s masterpieces, dated 1523 and now in the
attribution of this drawing. She considers that the
Gemäldegalerie in Dresden (idem, no. 35 and fig.
inscription on verso is probably in the artist’s hand.
103).
In her monograph on Franciabigio, Susan Regan
McKillop lists only about fifteen drawings by
Cristoforo RONCALLI, IL POMARANCIO
the artist, a very small number, especially when
This very accomplished drawing in black chalk and
compared to the 180 or so surviving sheets
squared is a study for a fresco decorating a ceiling
attributed to Andrea del Sarto
in the ‘piano nobile’ of the Palazzo alle Quattro
Fontane (or Palazzo Albani-Del Drago after its later
Andrea SEMINO
owners) in Rome. The palace was built between
Study for the altarpiece in the chapel of Paride
1587 and 1590 for Muzio Mattei (who died in 1596)
Pantelli in the church of Santissima Annunziata
and is now the headquarters of the British Council
di Portoria in Genoa, painted in 1567 (F. Caraceni
in Italy. The fresco, now framed by an imposing
Polegggi, in La pittura a Genova e in Liguria dagli
nineteenth-century trompe-l’oeil architecture,
inizi al cinquecento, Genoa, 1987, p. 244 fig. 239).
The night scene represents two distinct moments, depicts Apollo - Helios, seen in foreshortened form,
the announcement to the shepherds in the upper seated on a cloud and holding a lighted torch,
left and the adoration itself in the foreground. There matches the composition of the drawing perfectly,
are some minor differences between the drawing except for the god’s crotch, which is neatly covered
by a cloud in the painting.
and the painting: in the foreground, the dog and
basket depicted in the drawing are absent from the The fresco from the Roman palace was first
published by Giulia Fusconi, who attributed it to one
painting; in the background, the ancient building
next to the wooden stable, modest on the present of the Alberti brothers, artists of Florentine origin
who worked with Roncalli in Rome on several
sheet, has been transformed into an ambitious
portico, while two travellers carrying a bundle have occasions (“Un taccuino di disegni di Raymond
been replaced by a child contemplating the scene. Lafage e il palazzo alle Quattro Fontane di Roma“,
in M. Buoncuore and others , Camillo Massimo
The painting must have been quite successful,
collezionista di antichità: onti e documenti, Rome,
since the composition was taken over by Andrea
1996, pp. 50-51, 57). Elisabetta Giffi then rightly
gave it to Pomarancio (“Precisazioni e aggiunte sul
Roncalli decoratore“, Bollettino d’Arte, 2004, vol. 89,
no.130, pp.46-47).
However, it remains difficult to establish with certainty the date of execution of the fresco. There are
no documents attesting to Roncalli’s intervention
in the Palazzo alle Quattro Fontane. Elisabetta Giffi
suggests that this decoration may have been made
at the turn of the seventeenth century, shortly before the decoration of the chapel in Palazzo Mattei
di Giove (1601), whose patron, Asdrubale Mattei,
was Muzio’s cousin.
Maria Giovanna Dona
Giovanni BALDUCCI, IL COSCI
This can be compared to a drawing of the same
subject in the Uffizi, very similar in composition
and technique and of almost identical dimensions
(M.V. Fontana, op. cit., no. D33 p. 275 and ill. p. 276).
The present version, with its more contrasting
luminism, shows a pentimento in the head of
the figure seated in the foreground; the drawing
differs from the one in the Florentine museum
in particular for the presence of steps which, in
addition to reinforcing the ascending perspective of
the composition, articulate the space by separating
the main scene, with Christ seated at the top,
from the seated figures in the foreground. The two
sheets were recently published by Mauro Vincenzo
Fontana as studies for the fresco of Christ among
the Doctors in the Chiostro Grande of Santa Maria
Novella in Florence. Between 1582 and 1586, Cosci
played a leading role in the decoration of the great
cloister of the Florentine church, undoubtedly one
of the most important religious projects undertaken
in the city during the second half of the sixteenth
century.
The present drawing is the first project for this
painted composition. Together with the one in
the Uffizi, it dates back to the first phase of the
development of the subject, hence the remarkable
differences between the two sheets and the final
version. The final stage of the creative process is
documented by another drawing formerly in the
Puech collection and now in the Musée Calvet in
Avignon (inv.996-7-216, 34.7 x 26 cm; S. Béguin,
M. Di Giampaolo, P. Malgouyres, Dessins de la
Donation Marcel Puech au Musée Calvet, Avignon,
exh. cat, Avignon, Musée Calvet, 1998, no. 46 ill. p.
94). This drawing, similar in size to the two previous
drawings, is much closer in composition to the
fresco in Santa Maria Novella. Another study
(Rome, private collection, M.V. Fontana,
op. cit., D28, ill. p. 273), which is smaller and square
in format, was executed very quickly, has elements
in common with the present drawing (and therefore
with the one in the Uffizi) and with the Avignon
sheet, and could therefore have been made in
an intermediate phase of the project. Maurizio
Vincenzo Fontana considers the fresco of Christ
among the Doctors to be one of Balducci’s earliest
interventions in Santa Maria Novella; he therefore
proposes a dating between 1582 and 1584 for the
present sheet, as well as for the one in the Uffizi.
Maria Giovanna Dona
Giovanni Francesco BARBIERI, IL GUERCINO
The Madonna of Loreto
This drawing was engraved in reverse in 1628 by
Giovanni Battista Pasqualini with a dedication both
to his brother Andrea, archpriest of the Collegiata of
S. Biagio in Cento, and to the canons of the Collegiata (P. Bagni, Il Guercino e I suoi Incisori, Rome,
1988, no. 101). The print was paid for by Bartolomeo
Lori, a citizen of Cento from Loreto who, as a penance, had carried on his shoulders a statue of the
Madonna of Loreto from Loreto to the church of the
Augustinian monastery of the nuns of S. Madalena
in Cento. The statue was still described as being on
the main altar of this church in 1853 (G. Addi and F.
Lodi, Storico della città di Cento: da servire anche
per guida al forestiero, Cento, 1853, p. 44).
Pasqualini (1595-1631), also from Cento, devoted
almost all his activity to engraving compositions
by Guercino. Thanks to him, many of Guercino’s
early compositions from about 1618 onwards were
recognised outside the restricted circle of Cento.
Pasqualini died of the plague on 18 March 1631.
Although the print is dated 1628, the present sheet
may have been executed some years earlier, but
after 1623, when Guercino returned from Rome to
Cento. Guercino depicted this statue in its niche
again, the Madonna wearing her long necklaces
and a tiara, in a painting of San Bernardino da Siena
praying in front of the Madonna of Loreto, which he
painted in 1618 for the church of San Pietro also in
Cento. The painting is now in the Pinacoteca Civica
in Cento (N. Turner, The Paintings of Guercino. A
Revised and Expanded Catalogue raisonné, Rome,
2017, no. 54). In this painting, the Madonna, who is
not the focus of the composition, is seen in a sharp
angle and half in the shade.
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