Lot 49: BALDASSARE FRANCESCHINI, CALLED IL VOLTERRANO (1611-1689) ST. JOHN THE BAPTIST.

Red chalk heightened with white chalk. 380 by 235 mm. A preparatory study for the figure of St. John the Baptist kneeling on clouds in Volterrano's fresco of The Coronation of the Virgin, in the cupola of SS. Annunziata, Florence. The commission was received by Volterrano in 1676; he began the work in 1680 and completed it three years later. Several drawings connected with this project have survived, including two other studies for the figure of St. John, now in the Uffizi (see Florence, Gabinetto di Disegni e Stampe degli Uffizi, Disegni Italiani della Collezione Santarelli, 1957, nos.73, 74, illus.).