Lot 8: Bernardino Campi , Cremona 1522 - 1591 Reggio Emilia the nativity Pen and brown ink and wash over traces of black chalk, heightened with white, squared in red chalk, with several pentimenti on separate pieces of paper pasted to the main sheet; arched

Pen and brown ink and wash over traces of black chalk, heightened with white, squared in red chalk, with several pentimenti on separate pieces of paper pasted to the main sheet; arched top; bears old attribution in grey ink, verso : Bernardin da ... and at the bottom: Del BagnaCavallivechio 75. ; bears inscription in brown ink, verso : S?eroni

measurements note 320 by 163 mm

Cremona, Palazzo Comunale, I Campi, 1985, p. 295, no. 2.10.3, reproduced

N. Lanier (L.2886);
P. & D. Colnaghi & Co., London

This very interesting drawing by Bernardino is preparatory for the central section of the signed and dated triptych that he painted in 1568 for the church of San Michele in Cremona (fig.1). As pointed out in the exhibition catalogue of 1985, the format of the drawing is, however, more elongated than that of the painting. From the several cut out pentimenti in the drawing we can see that Bernardino was trying to reduce both the height and the width of the composition while still leaving in evidence the architectural setting, which is reduced in the final painted version.