Lot 509: GIULIO CAMPI

GIULIO CAMPI CREMONA CIRCA 1505 - 1572 MADONNA AND CHILD Red chalk with touches of black chalk over stylus; squared with a stylus 115 by 76 mm; 4 5/8 by 29 7/8 in

London, Lorna Lowe, Old Master Drawings, 1976, no. 5, reproduced pl. 2

Mario Di Giampaolo, 'Giulio Campi, ancora due disegni per San Sigismondo', Prospettiva, 1977, pp. 54-56, fig. 1;
Cristiana Garofalo, Mario Di Giampaolo, Scritti sul disegno italiano 1971-2008, Florence 2010, fig. 1

Sale, Milan, Finarte, 21-22 April 1975, lot 59, reproduced pl. XVII;
with Lorna Lowe, London;
Private Collection, Germany

First published by Mario Di Giampaolo in his article in Prospettiva (see Literature), this is the preparatory study for the Madonna and Child in Campi's altarpiece, signed and dated 1539, for the church of San Sigismondo, Cremona. As suggested by Di Giampaolo, it is a first idea for the group, exquisitely drawn in red chalk over stylus. Three further studies are known which relate to the upper part of the painting, focusing on the Madonna and Child.υ1 The present sheet is closest in composition to the black chalk modello, squared for transfer, once in the collection of John Gere. Di Giampaolo illustrates and discusses the two other known studies, in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London (inv. E 4017-1919) and in the École supérieure des Beaux-Arts, Paris (inv. 404). Both these are executed in pen and ink, and that in the Victoria and Albert contains three separate studies for the same group and sketches of flying putti which are more elaborately studied in the Paris sheet. Di Giampaolo points out the strong influence of artists such as Titian, Pordenone and Romanino, as well as Parmigianino, on the formation of the style of Giulio Campi. The lessons of last three artists are clearly reflected in the elegance and vivacity of this sheet.

1. See Mario Di Giampaolo, op.cit., figs. 2-4