Lot 508: ATTRIBUTED TO BARTOLOMEO CESI

ATTRIBUTED TO BARTOLOMEO CESI BOLOGNA 1556 - 1629 ADORATION OF THE SHEPHERDS Red and white chalk with stumping, squared in red chalk, on faded blue paper; bears numbering in ink, verso : 645 350 by 242 mm; 13 3/4 by 9 1/2 in

The attribution to Cesi was originally suggested by Nicholas Turner and confirmed by Mario Di Giampaolo. Although not connected to any surviving work by the artist, this highly finished and squared compositional drawing must have been preparatory for an altarpiece now lost or never executed. It shows the influence of Correggio and the Carracci in the subtle and soft handling of the red chalk and in the elaborate composition. The architecture with the crossbeams receding into the background can be found in other works by Cesi, such as the Adoration of the Magi,υ1 the central part of the triptych on the high altar in San Domenico, Bologna, unveiled 4 August 1595, for which many drawings have survived. Stylistically the present study can be compared with the elaborate pen and ink preparatory compositional drawing for that painting.υ2 Although executed in different media, they share a very similar conception of the grouping of the figures as well as an energetic ductus adapted to the accomodation of many figures in a crowded space, making the attribution very convincing. Cesi's red chalk single figure studies are well-known, but our knowledge of his style when using red chalk for compositional studies is more limited. Therefore, this is an important contribution to an understanding of his work.

1. Marzia Faietti and Alessandro Zacchi, Figure, Disegni dal Cinquecento all'Ottocento nella Pinacoteca Nazionale di Bologna, Milan 1998, pp. 116-7, under no. 34, reproduced
2. Ibid., no. 34, reproduced