Lot 35: Felice Brusasorci (Verona 1539/40-1605)

The Madonna and Child appearing to Saint Sebastian flanked by Saint Roch, Saint Mark and a donor
black chalk, pen and brown ink, brown wash heightened with white on blue-grey prepared paper, squared in black chalk
16 x 10 5/8 in. (405 x 271 mm.)

F. Quiring (L. 1041c, twice).

Two other drawings by Felice Brusasorci similarly drawn with the point of the brush are in the Louvre (H. Sueur, Le Dessin à Vérone au XVIe et XVIIe siècle, exhib. cat., Paris, Louvre, 1993, nos. 63-64), while a third is in the Uffizi (S. Marinelli, Cinque secoli di disegno veronese, exhib. cat., Florence, Uffizi, 2000, no. 32, fig. 42).
Both the present drawing and one of those in the Louvre show Saint Roch and Saint Sebastian, two saints usually invoked against the plague. This could date both drawings to during or just after the great plague that struck Verona in 1575-6. The supplicatory message is reinforced in the arrangement of the Virgin and Child which echoes the miracle working image of the Blessed Virgin of Ghiara painted by Bertone in 1573 after a design by Lelio Orsi (Lelio Orsi, 1511-1587, Dipinti e Disegni, exhib. cat., Reggio Emilia, Teatro Valli, 1987-88, no. 159). We are grateful to Dr David Ekserdjian for suggesting this connection.
Terence Mullaly has kindly confirmed the attribution on the basis of a photograph.