Lot 405: ALESSANDRO CASOLANI

SIENA 1552 - 1606 ST. CATHERINE OF SIENA RECEIVES THE CROWN OF THORNS FROM CHRIST, WHO HOLDS THE CROWN OF WORLDLY GLORY Pen and brown ink and wash over black chalk, heightened with white 189 by 127 mm

Newcastle, 1974, no. 35

Charles Rogers (L.624); Hans van Leeuwen (L.2799a); sale, London, Christie's, 1 July 1969, lot 12, purchased by Ralph Holland

The present drawing appears to be part of a series of preparatory studies for Casolani's painting St. Catherine of Siena Choosing the Crown of Thorns, in S. Girolamo, Siena. Marco Ciampolini, in his extensive discussion of the painting and related studies, presents four preparatory studies which highlight Casolani's progression from rapid sketches to more complete compositions.1 The Holland study would appear to fit into this series before the one now in the Louvre, which is probably the final modello for the commission.2 The poses seen here echo those in the Louvre study, but the present drawing does not include the details of the architectural setting beyond. 1. Drawing in Renaissance and Baroque Siena: 16th and 17th Century Drawings from Sienese Collections, exhib. cat., Athens, Georgia Museum of Art, University of Georgia, et al., 2002-3, pp. 78-83 2. Paris, Musée du Louvre, inv. no. 1030