Lot 28: BALDASSARE FRANCESCHINI, CALLED IL VOLTERRANO

BALDASSARE FRANCESCHINI, CALLED IL VOLTERRANO VOLTERRA 1611 - 1689 FLORENCE THE REST ON THE FLIGHT INTO EGYPT Black chalk; bears number in pen and brown ink, top right: 69 296 by 218 mm

Toronto, Art Gallery of Ontario et al., Italian Drawings from the Collection of Duke Roberto Ferretti, 1985-86, p. 96, no. 43, reproduced

Sale, London, Sotheby's, Drawings by Baldassare Franceschini, 3 July 1980, lot 49 (catalogue by Charles McCorquodale), bought by Duke Roberto Ferretti,
his sale, London, Christie's, 2 July 1996, lot 18;
with Flavia Ormond, London (Italian Old Master Drawings, 1500-1850, 1997, no. 8), from whom bought by the present owner

This is a preparatory study for a painting which was commissioned from Volterrano by Cardinal Gian Carlo de' Medici (fig.1). It then passed to Marchese Carlo Gerini who commissioned a pendant from Volterrano of The Way to Calvary. The pair are considered among Volterrano's most important easel paintings and representative of two aspects of the artist's style, the Rest on the Flight reflecting the influence of Pietro da Cortona, and the Calvary a later, more sober mood.υ1

Composition studies are rare in Volterrano's rather extensive surviving corpus of drawings, and this is one of the most important. It differs in details only slightly from the painting, although a stronger and more effective diagonal is created by the addition of a larger angel bearing lilies at the right.

There are other drawings relating to the Calvary in the Albertina and the Uffizi, and modelli for both compositions are in the Corsini collection.

1. Gli Ultimi Medici, Il tardo barocco a Firenze, 1670-1743, exhib. cat., Detroit Institute of Arts, Detroit, et al., 1974, p. 318, nos. 188a and b