Lot 19: - Francesco Maffei , Vicenza 1605 - 1660 Padua recto : study of a male nude and a small sketch of the virgin annunciate; verso : male nude kneeling Pen and brown ink and wash over black chalk; bears number ( recto ): 440 and old attribution to

Pen and brown ink and wash over black chalk; bears number ( recto ): 440 and old attribution to Tintoretto ( verso )

measurements note 265 by 200 mm

Sale, New York, Sotheby's (Property from a distinguished Private Collection), 26 January 2005, lot 104

These studies are closely comparable to two others of male nudes by Maffei. What Meijerυ wrote about those drawings applies equally to the present one: 'The expressive extremities - particularly the heads with their bizarre, floating hair, and the large, strangely foreshortened hands - as well as the infusion of an irrational élan... create the psychologically troubled quality that is a constant feature of Maffei's art.'υ1 Other drawings by Maffei bear old attributions to Tintoretto, reflecting his contacts with Venice. The figures cannot be directly related to paintings. Maffei painted several versions of The Annunciation, generally derived in composition from Veronese, and one in a private collection in Genoa has some similiarities with the present study.υ2 1. See Bert Meijer, 'Drawings by Francesco Maffei', Master Drawings, vol. XXII, no. 3, 1984, p. 303ff., plates 28, 29
2. See Paolo Rossi, Francesco Maffei, Milan 1991, p. 91, cat. no. 26, reproduced fig. 177