Domenico Zampieri, called Domenichino

Estimate

15,000 - 20,000 GBP

bidding is closed

Description

Domenico Zampieri, called Domenichino
recto: study of a draped standing female figure; verso: study of the head of a bearded man seen almost in profile
Black chalk heightened with white chalk on blue paper (recto and verso);
bears old attribution and numbering recto in pencil: Domenichino 361, and on the verso in pen and ink: Domenichino N^o26

Catalogue Note

Very characteristic of the chalk studies by Domenichino, this sheet also has a traditional attribution to the artist. It appears not to be connected, but such a standing female figure, influenced by classical antiquity, could have been a study for one of the female allegorical figures all'antica in the central panels on the encasements of the four windows of the chapel of the Abbey of Grottaferrata. They represent the four Cardinal and the three Theological Virtues, with the addition of Fame. The drawings for these figures are mostly in the Royal Collection at Windsor Castle.¹

The head of the bearded man on the verso is also quite reminiscent of some of Domenichino's male heads, see for instance the head of Polieuto in the fresco St. Nilus Curing the Son of Polieuto, in the chapel of the SS. Fondatori in the Abbey of Grottaferrata.²The important fresco cycle at the Greek monastery at Grottaferrata outside Rome was completed in 1610 for Odoardo Farnese.

1. R. Spear, Domenichino, London 1982, vol. I, pp.167-8, nos. 35.XXX - 35.XXXVII, reproduced vol. II, pls. 110-118
2. Ibid., vol. I, p. 162, no. 35.IV, reproduced vol. II, pl. 77