Lot 11: ATTRIBUTED TO GIOVANNI BATTISTA RICCI

.RECTO.: A FUNERAL PROCESSION;
.VERSO.: VARIOUS STUDIES FOR AN ANNUNCIATION

10 3/4 by 16 1/2 in; 271 by 420 mm

Pen and brown ink and wash over black chalk (recto and verso);numbered in brown ink, recto: 12

Gustave Soulier (L.1215a, recto and verso)

This drawing is stylistically very similar to The Vision of St. Gregory by Ricci, in the British Musuem (inv. 1979-10-6-87). (1) The latter is executed in the same technique and with the same emphasis given to the contrast between light and shadow, achieved by the abundant and dramatic use of brown wash. The British Museum's drawing bears an old attribution in pen and ink to Andrea d'Ancona (Lilio), but was recognized by Pouncey and Gere as characteristic of Ricci's style. That attribution is confirmed by the connection with a fresco, attributed to Giovanni Battista Ricci by Baglione, in the Salviati Chapel, S. Gregorio al Celio, Rome.

According to Baglione, Ricci came to Rome under the pontificate of Sixtus V (1585-90), and when still young he assisted both Nebbia and Guerra in the vast decorations of the Lateran Palace and the Vatican Library. Like a number of young artists coming to Rome, and of some talent, he took part in the vast decorative projects commissioned by Sixtus V, in which it is often almost impossible to separate the work of the different artists. This funeral procession does not seem to relate to any published work known by the artist, although as there is no sufficient photographic record of many of these frescoes, it is difficult to substantiate new or old attributions.

1. See J.A. Gere and Philip Pouncey, Artists working in Rome c. 1550 - c. 1640, London 1983, no. 244, pl. 223