Lot 436: ATTRIBUTED TO PIETRO ANTONIO DE' PIETRI

PREMIA 1663 - 1716 ROME RECTO: HEAD OF AN OLD MAN LOOKING DOWN TO THE RIGHT VERSO: STUDY OF A LOWER LEG AND FOOT AND A SEPARATE STUDY OF DRAPERY Black, red and white chalk within black chalk framing lines (recto); black chalk (verso); bears old attribution in black chalk, lower centre, recto: Guido Reni and bears numbering in black chalk, lower left: 32, bears inscription in black chalk, verso: di Pietro de Pietra 214 by 186 mm

Edward Bouverie (L.325), his sale, London, Christie's, 20 July 1859, lot 135 (as Guido Reni); sale, London, Christie's, 12 April 1983, lot 109a (as Pietro Antonio de Pietri), purchased by Ralph Holland

Ralph Holland's notes compare this with a group of ten head studies at Windsor, exectued in black, red and white chalk.1 This link is slightly tenuous and is perhaps only relevant in the similarity of the same medium. The old attribution to Pietro Antonio de Pietri on the verso should, however, not be dismissed. It is perhaps more difficult to recognise his work in chalk as he more frequently used pen and ink. 1. A. Blunt and H.L. Cooke, The Roman Drawings of the XVII and XVIII Centuries...at Windsor Castle, London 1960, p. 88, nos. 4396-4405, 4398 is reproduced