Lot 1062: Attributed to Bernardino Gatti, il Sojaro (Pavia circa 1495-16 Cremona)

Attributed to Bernardino Gatti, il Sojaro (Pavia circa 1495-16 Cremona)
Head of a bearded man looking up to the right
with inscription 'Bernardo Gatti'
red and black chalk, watermark encircled JM surmounted by a trefoil, unframed
7 x 7¼ in. (18 x 18.6 cm.); and seven other drawings from the Italian School, including sheets by or after Domenico Maria Viani, Casolani and Guercino (8)

C. Greenberg; and by descent to the present owner.

In style and subject, the present drawing is remarkably similar to Gatti's studies for his fresco cycle of Apostles in the cupola of Santa Maria della Steccata, Parma, where he worked from 1559. Drawings for this commission, which show markedly similar figures with raised heads, were sold in these Rooms on 8 December 1981, lot 27, and on 3 July 1984, lot 15, the latter as part of the Chatsworth sale. Other similar drawings remain at Chatsworth (inv. 329, 331 and 332) and in the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford (inv. WA1939.86).