Lot 23: Sisto Badalocchio (Parma 1585-1632)

The dying Clorinda (recto); Study of a fawn, a hand and three faces (verso)
black chalk, heightened with white (recto), black chalk (verso), on grey-blue paper
9 5/8 x 14 1/4 in. (244 x 362 mm.)

Property of a Charitable Trust from the Collection of Jak Katalan

Drawn in preparation for Badalocchio's painting of Tancred baptizing the dying Clorinda, which in known in two versions, one in the Galleria Estense, Modena and the other in the collection of the Duke of Northumberland at Alnwick Castle (M. Pirondini, Sisto Badalocchio (1585-1621/22), Manerba, 2004, nos. 17 and 21). The pose of Clorinda in the present drawing is closer to the Modena painting, especially in the position of her arms, the direction of her face, and even the larger study of the hand on the right side of the sheet which is similar to her left hand in the painting (minus the thumb). However, Carel van Tuyll suggests that the drawing is closer to the Northumberland painting, done a few years after the Modena version which is dated to the first decade of the seventeenth century, due to the handling of the sfumato. The studies on the verso do not appear to be associated with any known painted works by Badalocchio. A compositional sketch associated with the Northumberland painting is at the Kunstmuseum, Dusseldorf (M. Pirondini, op. cit., 2004, no. 21a).