Lot 57: Francesco Grandi (1831-1891)

A Sainted Bishop Seated on a throne, with separate studies of his head, hand and foot
signed and inscribed in brown ink lower right: F.Grandi/Studi Cuppola Vercelli
black chalk heightened with white
498 x 416mm

Grandi was a student of Tommaso Minardi at the Accademia di San Luca in Rome. He received commissions from many Roman churches, including St Peters, Bambino Gesu, San Giovanni Laterano, Santa Croce and Santa Maria Trastevere, but was as much in demand for secular decoration. He was appointed director of the Istituto Vaticano del Mosaico by Pope Pius IX.
As the artist's inscription lower right indicates, this drawing is a study for one of the major projects of Grandi's late career: the decoration of the chapel of Sant' Eusebio, remodelled in 1882, in the cathedral at Vercelli. Grandi executed a total of 16 frescoes for the new scheme, principally four large scenes in the cupola depicting episodes from the life of Sant'Eusebio and in the pendentives below, the acts of four early bishops of Vercelli: Ss Limenio, Onorato, Emiliano and Flaviano. The present sheet appears to be a preliminary study for the painting of Saint Limenio, described thus by one visitor : S. Limenio, che seduto in cattedra con l'insegne episcopali, colpisce col piede del pastorale una donna scarmigliata giacente a terra, a significare l'annientamento degli ultimi residui dell'eresia ariana (see Giuseppe Parroni, 'Francesco Grandi, pittore romano dell'ottocento', L' Illustrazione Vaticana, 15 September 1932, p. 912).
Only a handful of drawings by Grandi are known. A comparable study of a bearded man, apparently for a painting in the Roman church of San Lorenzo e Damaso, was part of an album of 19th century Italian drawings which appeared on the art market in New York in 1976 (see Roberta J. Olson, Italian 19th century Drawings and Watercolours: An Album, Shepherd Gallery, New York, 1976, no. 100, pl. 33).