Lot 112: Giacomo Cavedone (Sassuolo 1577-1660 Bologna)

Giacomo Cavedone (Sassuolo 1577-1660 Bologna)
An oarsman rowing a boat (recto); Head of a young woman (verso)
black and white chalk on pale blue-grey paper, indistinct watermark
13½ x 10½ in. (35 x 26.7 cm.)

Anonymous sale; Christie's, London, 13 December 1984, lot 39.

As Laura Giles has pointed out, the head on the verso is a study for a figure in The Denial of Saint Peter in the Museo Davia Bargellini in Bologna (E. Negro and N. Roio, Giacomo Cavedone 1577-1660, Modena, 1994, no. 97), a painting variously dated between 1616-18 and 1625-26.

The recto is directly inspired by a figure in Ludovico Carracci's Return from the Flight into Egypt in a private collection, Bologna (A. Brogi, Ludovico Carracci (1555-1619), Bologna, 2001, no. 66). As Cavedone was closely associated with Ludovico's studio and as there are a few differences between the drawing and the painting, one cannot exclude the possibility that Cavedone had been tasked to develop the pose of the oarsman in the painted composition. Ludovico's canvas has been variously dated between 1598-1600 to after 1610.