Lot 262: AVANZINO NUCCI

CITTÀ DI CASTILLO 1551 - 1629 ROME THE MARTYRDOM OF SAINT PAUL, THE PORTA SAN PAOLO BEYOND WITH THE ARMS OF PIUS V (1566-1572) AND THE PYRAMID OF CAIUS CESTIUS IN THE BACKGROUND Pen and brown ink and brown wash over black chalk; squared in black chalk for transfer, upper corners rounded; bears inscription in black chalk, lower centre: Santi di Tito, bears numbering in pen and brown ink, lower right: 88 331 by 278 mm

Leeds, Temple Newsam House, Old Master Drawings from the Collection of Mr. Richard Gatty, May-June 1954, no. 60 (as Santi di Tito); Newcastle, 1964, no. 34 (as Italian School, third quarter of the 16th Century); Newcastle, 1974, no. 31 (as Avanzino Nucci); London, 1975, no. 21 (as ?Avanzino Nucci); Newcastle, 1982, no. 47 (as Roman School c. 1565-75)

R. Holland, 'Letters to the Editors,' Master Drawings, VII, no. 4, 1969, p. 435, pl. 39; Clifford, 1974, p. 354

William F. Webb and his daughter, Lady Cheamside, by descent to Richard Gatty, Pepper Arden, Northallerton, Yorkshire, his sale and others, London, Sotheby's, 18 March 1959, part of lot 75 (as Genovese School, 16th Century), purchased by Ralph Holland

The present attribution to Avanzino Nucci was first proposed by Philip Pouncey in 1963. In Ralph Holland's letter to the editors of Master Drawings he suggested the present drawing might be a variant of Avanzino Nucci's composition, The Beheading of a Male Saint (Milan, Pinacoteca di Brera), which had been discussed in a previous issue of Master Drawings in an article by Jacob Bean.1 We are grateful to Julien Stock for informing us that Philip Pouncey suggested a connection with a painting by Nucci in the Basilica of S. Paolo Fuori Le Mura. The painting is mentioned in Baglione's, Lives of The Painters, Sculptors and Architects: 'In s. Paolo fuori di Roma, nella Cappella maggiore, sotto la volta della Tribuna, fece la decollatione dell'Apostolo...'2 1. J. Bean, Review of Keith Andrews, National Gallery of Scotland. Catalogue of Italian Drawings, Master Drawings, VII, no. 1, 1969, p. 56, reproduced pl. 37 2. Gio. Baglione Romano, Le Vite De' Pittori Scultori et Architetti Dal Pontificato di Gregorio XIII. de 1572. In fino a tempi di Papa Urbano Ottavo nel 1642., ed. E. Calzone, Rome 1935, p. 300