Live Auction 13246Old Master Drawings
BALDASSARE FRANCESCHINI, IL VOLTERRANO (VOLTERRA 1611-1690 FLORENCE)
Lot 44 Property of a Swiss Family

BALDASSARE FRANCESCHINI, IL VOLTERRANO (VOLTERRA 1611-1690 FLORENCE)

A sheet of studies: the Coronation of the Virgin, Judith with the Head of Holofernes, and God the Father, with two further studies of God the Father for the Coronation attached to the upper right border

Closed24 January 2017

Price Realised

USD 17,500

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BALDASSARE FRANCESCHINI, IL VOLTERRANO (VOLTERRA 1611-1690 FLORENCE)
A sheet of studies: the Coronation of the Virgin, Judith with the Head of Holofernes, and God the Father, with two further studies of God the Father for the Coronation attached to the upper right border
inscribed 'iudit', 'Deto princ. dispo [...] .arcrad de 12 P,/ qui sorto' and with number '64/. 4'
red chalk, pen and brown ink
10 5/8 x 15 5/8 in. (27 x 39.6 cm.)

Anonymous sale; Sotheby's, London, 3 July 1980, lot 24 (cat. by C. McCorquordale).
Duke Roberto Ferretti, Toronto; Christie's, London, 2 July 1996, lot 19.

Specialist note

Volterrano’s energetic sheet of studies relates to one of his most important late commissions, the monumental Assumption of the Virgin frescoed in the dome of the Santissima Annunziata, Florence, between 1680 and 1683. The sheet records a significant early idea for the ambitious decorative program, which was further developed in a second sheet in the Albertina, Vienna (inv. 23997), of similar size and done in the same media. The present sheet can be precisely dated, as according to the artist’s biographer Filippo Baldinucci, Volterrano started the first sketches for the dome of the Annunziata on the night of 12 January 1676 (‘la sera de’ 12 di Gennajo 1676 cominciò egli a fare il primo disegno e invenzione’. F. Baldinucci, Notizie de' Professori del Disegno, XIII, Florence 1812, p. 138). The sheet contains several autograph annotations written by the artist: the one at top left (‘iudit’) identifies the sketch right below as a study for Judith, a figure that appears in the Assumption.