Lot 66: Attributed to Bernadino Gatti, called Il Sojaro , Pavia 1495/1500 - 1576 Cremona drapery study for the lower half of a seated figure Red chalk heightened with white; bears old attribution in brown ink, lower right: Primatitzo

Red chalk heightened with white; bears old attribution in brown ink, lower right: Primatitzo

measurements note 116 by 127 mm; the upper left corner cut

Gatti was already a well-established painter before he was called to Parma in the late 1550s to complete the unfinished frescoes by Anselmi in the church of La Madonna della Steccata. Even before his arrival in Parma, Correggio had been highly influential on his work, although his graphic style is often confused with that of Correggio's pupil, Giorgio Gandini. The present sheet displays the clearly defined hatching and deep shading, in combination with touches of white heightening, which are typical of Gatti's graphic style, and separate his drawings from the softer, more rounded work of Correggio. For further information on Gatti, see D. DeGrazia, Correggio and his Legacy, Sixteenth Century Emilian Drawings, exhibition catalogue, Washington, National Gallery of Art and Parma, Galleria Nazionale, 1984, pp. 233, 271-9.