Lot 44: LORENZO DE' FERRARI

GENOA 1680 - 1744 STUDY OF A NAKED YOUTH WITH RAISED ARMS Black chalk heightened with white chalk on grey-blue paper 410 by 558 mm

Santo Varni Collection, his inscription and numbering in pen and brown ink on the mount: N 473 [crossed out] 60. Lorenzo Defferari coll s:Varni; sale, Paris, Christie's, 27 March 2003, lot 17; sale, New York, Christie's, 25 January 2007, lot 35

This impressive and confident drawing depicting a flying nude figure with raised arms is a preliminary study for one of the angels in Lorenzo de' Ferrari's altarpiece, The Glory of the Virgin. The altarpiece was executed between 1726 and 1730 and it is now in Galleria di Palazzo Bianco, Genoa.1 A further preparatory study, illustrating the entire altarpiece, is also in Genoa, in Palazzo Rosso.2 Mary Newcome Schleier confirmed the attribution to Lorenzo de' Ferrari at the time of the Christie's sale in 2007. 1. E. Gavazza, Lorenzo de Ferrari (1680-1744), Milan 1965, p. 110, no. 19 2. Ibid., p. 142, no. 22, reproduced fig. 22