Lot 10: Giovanni Battista Merano (1632-1698)

The Intercession of St Roch, St Catherine of Siena, St Sebastian and St Francis with Christ
numbered 539 on the recto and inscribed on the verso: Merano Gio Batta
pen and brown ink over black chalk; framed
262 x 189mm

Merano was born in Genoa and studied with G.A. Ferrari and Valerio Castello. His most famous works are his decorations for the church of the Gesu in Genoa in 1661.
Dr. Mary Newcome Schleier kindly pointed out to the present owner that the subject of this drawing derives from Bernardo Strozzi's fresco of the Vision of St. Dominic completed in 1620-21 but destroyed in 1825. The 'bozzetto' is in the Accademia Ligustica, Genoa. The subject is unusual. In Strozzi's painting St. Dominic has a vision in which an angry Christ threatens to hurl three lances against the sins of mankind. But he is placated by the Virgin who offers him two saints, Ss Dominic and Francis, as faithful servants. Merano's sheet derives from an early idea by Strozzi in the Schlossmuseum, Weimar (pen and ink, 153 x 116mm, reproduced in Roberto Cobianchi, 'Iconographic and Visual Sources for Bernardo Strozzi's Vision of St. Dominic' in: Burlington Magazine, October 1998, pl. 22). In Strozzi's drawing, Christ is surrounded by the Virgin, St. Francis and St. John the Baptist while in Merano's drawing it is the Saints who appear in the 'bozzetto' who accompany him. The city depicted below is clearly Genoa, with its characteristic three-tiered lighthouse. Dr. Newcome Schleier has dated our drawing to the 1650s and suggests it is a design for a print.