Lot 41: Matteo Rosselli , Florence 1578 - 1650 a young boy seen from behind, holding a sword and a cap Red chalk; the corners cut; bears numbering in brown ink, upper left: no 15

Red chalk; the corners cut; bears numbering in brown ink, upper left: no 15

measurements note 413 by 233mm

London, Colnaghi, Master Drawings, 1988, no. 23, reproduced;
Gainesville, et al., 1991-93, no. 19

C. Monbeig Goguel, Musée du Louvre. Dessins Toscans XVIe-XVIIe Siècles 1620-1800, vol. II, Paris 2005, p. 355, under cat. no. 510

With Colnaghi, London; acquired 1988

This is a preparatory study for a figure in Rosselli's frescoed lunette in the Chiostro Grande of SS. Annunziata, Florence, which depicts Pope Alexander IV Approving the Rule of the Servite Order. The decorative cycle was painted by a group of artists between 1614 and 1618, and Rosselli executed four of the frescoes. According to the biographer Baldinucci, Pietro da Cortona was particularly impressed by the fresco for which the present drawing is a study. Linda Wolk-Simon noted the existence of a study of the whole composition, in which the figure at the far right is a bearded man, rather than the youth seen in the present drawing and the final fresco.υ1

Both in the choice of red chalk and in the apparent use of a live model, this very charming and naturalistic drawing is entirely characteristic of Rosselli's work. 1. Sold, London, Sotheby's, 7 July 1966, lot 109; Gainesville, et al., loc. cit.