Lot 431: COSIMO ULIVELLI

FLORENCE 1625 - 1704 DESIGN FOR A CEILING DECORATION: SCENE FROM THE HISTORY OF THE ORDER OF SANTO STEFANO Pen and brown ink and wash over black chalk, on paper washed beige 278 by 317 mm

Newcastle, 1974, no.77; London, 1975, no. 50

Jonathan Richardson, Junior (L.2170, with his attribution in pen and brown ink on the mount: Cosimo Ulivelli d. il Volterrano. and on the back of the mount: Cosimo Ulivelli, Fiorentino, nato circa 1622. Disc. del Volterrano.); bears unidentified collector's mark (L.1976); sale, London, Christie's, 6 December 1972, lot 8, purchased by Ralph Holland

Richardson's attribution to Ulivelli is reinforced by comparison with a Design for the Decoration of a Vault, now at Christ Church, Oxford, which was attributed to Ulivelli by Philip Pouncey and published as such by Keith Andrews and James Byam Shaw.1 Another drawing from Richardson's collection, with his attribution to Ulivelli, is in Edinburgh.2 The scene represented must be an event in the history of The Order of St. Stephen Pope and Martyr which was founded in 1561 by Cosimo I de' Medici to fight the Turks and pirates active in the Mediterranean. Its badge is a red cross with 8 points. This drawing may be for the decoration of one of the buildings belonging to the Order, whose headquarters were in fact in Pisa. 1. Inv. no. 1345; J. Byam Shaw, Drawings by Old Masters at Christ Church, Oxford, Oxford 1976, vol. I, p. 103, no. 304, reproduced vol. II, pl. 190 2. K. Andrews, 'Two Drawings by Ulivelli', Master Drawings, VI, no. 3, 1968, pp.260-61, pls. 27-29