Ventura Salimbeni

With Colnaghi, New York; acquired in 1990

Gainesville, et al., 1991-93, no. 16

Sold mounted and framed in a modern gilded wood frame. The drawing has been window mounted. There is an old fold one third of the way from the right edge, which has given way to a small tear from the upper edge, neatly repaired on the verso. There is some slight abrasion at the edges of the sheet, and a few very minor spot stains, but overall the condition is good and the image is still strong.
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The iconography of the present drawing suggests a relationship to a group of studies by Salimbeni illustrating the infancy of St. John the Baptist.  Among these are a drawing of the same subject in the Teylers Museum, Haarlem, and several sheets depicting the Annunciation to Zacharias in the Louvre, the Uffizi and elsewhere.¹  This series has been connected to the lost lunette frescoes painted by Salimbeni between 1604 and 1607 for the Oratory of S. Giovanni Battista della Compagnia della Morta, in Siena, and it is possible that the Horvitz drawing may also be connected to this project.

An alternative theory was, however, suggested by Linda Wolk-Simon in her entry on this drawing in the 1991 Horvitz exhibition catalogue.  There she noted that Salimbeni is known to have worked for the Compagnia di S. Giovannino in Pantaneto, in Siena, and conjectured that this sheet could also possibly be related to an unrealized work for this confraternity, considering their particular devotion to the infant saint.

Another version of the drawing, in pen and brown ink over black chalk, is in the City Museum and Art Gallery, Plymouth.  The latter continues the composition to include two angels hovering above the fireplace at the upper right, accompanied by a putto and seraphim.  In addition, the figure peering from behind the fireplace in the present sheet is missing, and in the Plymouth drawing there are not just one, but several figures attending St. Elizabeth in her bed.  The Horvitz drawing is executed in a more finished style, which implies that it was made at a later stage in the development of the composition.

1. See Gainesville, et al., loc. cit.