Lot 23: GIULIO CAMPI

A YOUNG SHEPHERD SEATED ON A TREE TRUNK, THREE DOGS BESIDE HIM, FIGURES BEYOND AND HOUSES IN THE BACKGROUND

13 3/16 by 7 7/16 in; 335 by 188 mm

Black chalk with traces of white heightening, indented for transfer;the verso blackened, and with some figure sketches;bears inscription in pencil, verso: Niccoló dell' Abbate

Professor Giulio Bora was the first to recognize that this is a study by Giulio Campi, a very finished drawing, almost a 'bozzetto', preparatory for the left side of the apse in the church of Santa Margherita, Cremona, painted around 1547, when the church was rebuilt and decorated ex novo. A study representing The Adoration of the Shepherds, now in the British Museum (inv. no. 1951-11-8-14) was identified by Professor Bora as Campi's preparatory study for the central section of the same apse, now very damaged and of which only a fragment survives. (1) The strong stylistic influences of both Correggio and Parmigianino are very evident in both the British Museum drawing and the present sheet. Two other finished studies by Giulio connected with his decoration of the lateral walls of the nave in Santa Margherita are in the Royal Collection, Windsor Castle (inv. nos. 1125, 1126). Although originally catalogued as anonymous Parma School works, the Windsor drawings were recognized as the work of Giulio Campi independently by both Philip Pouncey and Giulio Bora. (2)

The present drawing is a significant addition to this small group of finished compositional studies relating to the decoration of the whole church, an important commission which was entrusted to Giulio Campi. The bishop of Alba, Marco Girolamo Vida, was responsible for the whole project and for the iconographic sequence of the frescoes, which are based on episodes from the life of Christ.

1. See I segni dell' arte, Il Cinquecento da Praga a Cremona, exhib. cat., Cremona, Museo Civico, 1997, pp. 248-9, reproduced.
2. op. cit., nos. 76 and 78.