Lot 268: CAMILLO PROCACCINI

BOLOGNA CIRCA 1555 - 1629 MILAN ESTHER BEFORE AHASUERUS Pen and brown ink and wash heightened with white, within brown ink framing lines 151 by 186 mm

Sale, London, Christie's, 7 July 1959, part of lot 25 (as Italian School), purchased by Ralph Holland

This drawing is a finished study for a painting in the Carmine Chapel of Santa Maria del Carmine, Milan,1 where Procaccini began the decoration of the chapel in 1616, completing it by 1619. Nancy Ward Neilson describes the subject as Sheba before Solomon2 but, as suggested by Ralph Holland, its treatment is far more consistent with a depiction of Esther before Ahasuerus. In his portrayal of this subject Procaccini depicts Esther, accompanied by her two ladies-in-waiting, swooning before Ahasuerus, who is seen rising from his throne in alarm. 1. See N.W. Neilson, Camillo Procaccini Paintings and Drawings, New York 1979, pp. 38-39, no. 49 (as Sheba before Solomon), reproduced fig. 224 2. Ibid