Lot 39: BALDASSARE FRANCESCHINI, CALLED IL VOLTERRANO

BALDASSARE FRANCESCHINI, CALLED IL VOLTERRANO VOLTERRA 1611 - 1689 FLORENCE RECTO: STUDY OF DRAPED LEGS OF A SEATED FIGURE; VERSO : STUDY OF A WOMAN'S HAND AND ARM Red chalk, the recto heightened with white 397 by 266 mm

Charles McCorquodale, 'Some Unpublished Works by Baldassare Franceschini, il Volterrano,' Paradigma, 5, 1983, p. 66, pl. 45

Sale, London, Sotheby's, Drawings by Baldassare Franceschini, 3 July 1980, lot 83, withdrawn (catalogue by Charles McCorquodale);
with Katrin Bellinger, Munich (Die Zeichnung in Florenz 1500-1650, 1991, no. 35), from whom bought by the present owner

After the Sotheby's sale, Charles McCorquodale was able to associate this drawing with another drapery study by Volterrano in the National Gallery of Scotland which is preparatory for the figure of Chastity in his decorations of the Orlandini Chapel in S. Maria Maggiore, Florence.υ1 The present study does not, however, relate precisely to that commission. Volterrano's studies of drapery are frequently more summary than this, which in its careful recording of the effects of light is reminiscent of drawings by earlier Florentine artists, such as Leonardo, who made studies after models made from cloth soaked in plaster.

The hands on the verso cannot be related to a specific work but appear to be for a female figure holding a book. They are close to studies of hands which were in another lot (87) in the 1980 Sotheby's sale.

1. Inv. no. D5058; C. McCorquodale, op. cit., p. 62