Lot 51: Aureliano Milani , Bologna 1675 - 1749 the stoning of st. stephen Black chalk and gray wash, heightened with white; arched top

Black chalk and gray wash, heightened with white; arched top

measurements note 410 by 260mm

Mimi Cazort and Catherine Johnston, Bolognese Drawings in North American Collections, exhibition catalogue, Ottawa, National Gallery of Canada, 1982, p. 130, under no. 91

With Yvonne Tan Bunzl, London; acquired in 1984

This is a study for the altarpiece painted by Milani for S. Maria della Purificazione, Bologna (circa 1718; destroyed). Except for some small differences in the number of figures and in details of the landscape, the present drawing closely resembles the final composition. The Horvitz sheet, with its typically muscular, energetic nudes, is utterly characteristic of Milani's draughtsmanship, which was much admired by his contemporaries. The present study can be compared with a number of others, such as the Samson Slaying the Philistines, now in the National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa (see Literature).