Lot 31: BALDASSARE FRANCESCHINI, CALLED IL VOLTERRANO

BALDASSARE FRANCESCHINI, CALLED IL VOLTERRANO VOLTERRA 1611 - 1689 FLORENCE STUDY OF A HAND red chalk on paper 5 5/8 by 7 1/8 in 14.4 by 18.1 cm

Sale, Sotheby's, London, Drawings by Baldassare Franceschini, called Il Volterrano, July 3, 1980, lot 15b
Thomas Williams Fine Art, Ltd., London
Acquired from the above, 1994

Charles McCorquodale, in his catalogue of the Sotheby's sale in 1980, identified this, and the other study in that lot, as preparatory studies for the hands of the figure personifying The New Law, to the left of the window above the altar in the Orlandini Chapel, S. Maria Maggiore, Florence. The figure holds the Gospels in her left hand, as in the present study, and pours water from a jug with her right. Other drawings for the commission are in the Louvre, the Uffizi, the National Gallery of Scotland, Edinburgh, and the Metropolitan Museum, but these were the only ones known to McCorquodale for the lunettes above the altar. The decoration of the chapel is dated to 1642.