Lot 23
  • 23

Francesco Morandini, called Il Poppi

Estimate
20,000 - 30,000 GBP
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Description

  • Francesco Morandini, called Il Poppi
  • Saint John the Baptist and a young standing man
  • Black chalk, stumping and red chalk

Provenance

Probably by inheritance to Bastiano Morandini, after the artist's death in 1588;
Private collection, England;
with Jean-Luc Baroni;
from whom acquired by the present owner

Condition

Laid down, a light staining along the top, bottom and right margins. Some slight soiling and very small foxing scattered . Media is strong.
"In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective, qualified opinion. Prospective buyers should also refer to any Important Notices regarding this sale, which are printed in the Sale Catalogue.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS PRINTED IN THE SALE CATALOGUE."

Catalogue Note

This sheet shares its dimensions and distinctive media with a group of twenty-eight drawings by Poppi, now in the Uffizi, all, like this, copies after the monochrome frescoes celebrating the life of St. John the Baptist, painted by Andrea del Sarto in the Chiostro dello Scalzo, Florence (a work completed by the artist in 1526).1 The drawings were surely once part of the same ‘taccuino’ (sketchbook).  All are characterised, like the present sheet, by a very delicate and sophisticated handling of the black chalk, characteristic of Poppi’s graphic style, with the addition of light stumping, and are enlivened by the additional use of red chalk to highlight, very subtly, the details that were originally gilded in the frescoes. 

Whereas most of the Uffizi drawings are straightforward copies of a section of one of the original compositions, here Poppi has extracted his two figures from two different scenes.  The St. John the Baptist to the right of the sheet reproduces the central figure in the fresco, St. John the Baptist preaching to the multitude (1515; fig. 1), while the young male figure undressing is found to the far left of St. John baptising the people (1517; fig. 2).  Within the chapel itself, the sequence of the frescoes starts with the Baptism of Christ, at the right hand end of the far wall, opposite the entrance, followed by the Preaching of the Baptist, and on the next wall the Baptism of the people

Poppi’s series of drawings must have been executed in the late 1560s, as one of the drawings in the Uffizi,2 copying the left-hand figures in the Annunciation to Zacharias, bears on the base of the altar the date of 1569, in Roman numerals.  Alessandra Giovannetti has noted (as did also John Shearman and Anna Petrioli Tofani) that Poppi is known to have been working on a restoration in the Chiostro at about that time, so would have had the opportunity to study the frescoes then.  The evidence for his presence is the fact that his name is inscribed, together with the date of 1568 and a grotesque decoration, fairly high up on a pilaster to the right of The Birth of the Baptist, indicating that he must have been working there, up a scaffold, at that date 

Further evidence that the drawings were originally in a single album has been discovered by Alessandra Giovannetti, who has noted that the artist's will of 1588 states that he wished to bequeath to Bastiano Morandini, his cousin, an album of his drawings after the Chiostro dello Scalzo by Andrea del Sarto: ’un libro de’ disegni fatto di mano di esso testatore, dove è tutto lo scalzo di Andrea del Sarto…’.3  Anna Forlani Tempesti has found more documentation for the group of drawings in the Uffizi, which were sold in 1782, by Giuseppe Salvetti, in a book of about eighty drawings, including these copies after Andrea del Sarto.4

It has been suggested that Poppi used these drawings primarily to study the complexity of del Sarto’s draperies and figure attitudes, in the context of the revivalist tendencies which dominated Florentine art in the second half of the 16th century.  It is easy to imagine the admiration that Poppi would have had for the work of Andrea del Sarto, and while he was restoring and working on the frescoes, he had a unique and invaluable opportunity to study them in depth. 

The delicacy of the execution of the present sheet is at the same time exquisite and moving.  The artist has created a precious memory of one the most important fresco cycles of the Renaissance which, being executed in monochrome, is also particularly close in its artistic expression to the world of drawings.

1. A. Giovannetti, Francesco Morandini detto Il Poppi, Florence 1995, pp. 208-209, D2, reproduced

2. Florence, GDSU, 14464; Giovanetti, op. cit., reproduced p. 223, fig. 115

3. Ibid.,p. 210

4. loc. cit.