Lot 13: u - *Baldassare Franceschini, called Il Volterrano1611-1690

Red chalk heightened with white chalk. This lot contains 1 item(s). This is a preparatory study, with differences, for the soldier in the left foreground of the scene representing Cosimo de'Medici giving the Granducato to his son Ferdinando de' Medici, (figure 1), part of the decoration of the courtyard at the Villa Petraia, near Florence. Volterrano, commissioned by Don Lorenzo de' Medici, painted these two groups of frescoes beneath the twin loggias of the internal courtyard of the Villa between 1636 and 1648. The many drawings related to the commission demonstrate that he prepared every scene with great care (see C. McCorquodale, Drawings by Baldassare Franceschini called Il Volterrano, sale catalogue, London, Sotheby's, 3 July 1980, p.15). Each figure was first studied from the nude and then clothed, and in many cases details were redrawn showing different solutions, and the rethinking of even small decorative embellishments.