Lot 432: GIUSEPPE PASSERI

ROME 1654 - 1714 ST. AGNES STANDING IN A NICHE, ANOTHER FEMALE FIGURE KNEELING BEFORE HER Pen and dark brown ink and wash, over red chalk, heightened with white; on the verso is a red chalk study of a standing figure 222 by 122 mm

Newcastle, 1964, no. 57; Newcastle, 1974, no. 90

William Bates (L.2604); sale, London, Knight, Frank and Rutley, 20 September 1961, lot 4 (as Domenichino), purchased by Ralph Holland

This is clearly related to two Passeri drawings in the Louvre of female figures in niches, one with putti holding papal attributes and the other holding a lamb, as in the present study.1 Another drawing, possibly for the same project, is in Copenhagen (Kobbersticksammlung, Tu 1215). Legrand and d'Ormesson (loc. cit.) suggest that Passeri might have been inspired in his use of the shell niche as a setting for the figures by the example of Rusconi's sculptures of Virtues in Sant'Ignazio (1685-6). 1. C. Legrand and D. d'Ormesson-Peugeot, La Rome baroque de Maratti à Piranèse, exhib. cat., Paris, Musée du Louvre, 1990-91, pp. 86-87, nos. 80a and b