This impressive study by Maratti is for the figure of the nurse in the artist's 1685 painting, The Birth of the Virgin (fig. 1), originally executed for the Roman church of Santa Maria dell'Anima, for centuries in the castle of Bückeburg near Hanover, and now on long term loan from the Cummins family to the Raclin Murphy Museum of Art, University of Notre Dame, Indiana.
The Birth of the Virgin was conceived as part of the decorations with subjects from the life of the Virgin Mary, commissioned for the sacristy of Santa Maria dell'Anima by the members of the congregation, from a number of painters. New documents published by Loredana Lorizzo in 2013 testify that Maratti received his commission in the spring of 16821, a moment when he was at the peak of his career as the pre-eminent artist in Rome, with an international reputation. The altarpiece was completed in 1685, but only briefly remained in its intended location. As Giovanni Pietro Bellori (1613-1696) recounted, the congregation of S. Maria dell'Anima, a place of worship for the German community in Rome, considered the price requested by the painter too high2, so Maratti promptly sold it, for an even higher price, to count Friedrich Christian Schaumburg-Lippe (1655-1728), who took the work to his castle of Bückeburg, where it remained until recent times.
There are a number of preparatory studies for this important painting, especially for the figures in the foreground, such as the pivotal figure of the nurse holding the newly born Virgin Mary, in the right foreground. The present sheet was probably completed quite late in the preparatory process as the study of the head of the nurse is quite close to her painted counterpart, the head in almost the same position and the light falling on her face at the same angle. The subsidiary study of her outstretched left arm is, however, placed at a slightly different angle.
A study for the whole composition, quickly sketched in red chalk, is preserved in the Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando, Madrid3, and further preparatory drawings include a study for the two nurses also in the Academia de San Fernando, Madrid, drawings in Düsseldorf and at Windsor, and a sheet with five studies for the infant Virgin, executed in red chalk on blue paper, formerly with Adolphe Stein and sold in London in July 2000.4
The present drawing was part of the collection owned by Maratti's pupil, the painter, draughtsman and architect Andrea Procaccini (1671-1734), who amassed a large collection of drawings including many works by Maratti. Procaccini spent the latter part of his career in Spain, and in 1775, long after his death, much of this collection was sold by his widow Rosalia O'More to the Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando.
The pen paraph on the drawing has been identified by Manuela Mena Marquès as that of Ignacio Hermosilla Sandoval (1718-1794), who was the secretary of the Real Academia de Bellas Artes San Fernando from 1753 until 1776.5
1.L. Lorizzo, op. cit., pp. 244, 251
2.G.P. Bellori, The lives of the modern painters, sculptors and architects, trans. A. Sedgwick Wohl, New York 2005, p. 415
3.Madrid, RABASF inv. no. D-0644; see Rudolph and Prosperi Valenti Rodinò, op. cit., p. 754 , no. 149.1, reproduced
4.Respectively: Madrid, RABASF, inv. no. D-1266 and D-1266 ; Düsseldorf, KA (FP) 13492; Windsor Castle, Royal Library, RCIN 904135; unknown location, sold London. Christie's 4 July 2000, lot 16. See, respectively, Rudolph and Prosperi Valenti Rodinò, op. cit., nos. 149.2, 149.4, 149.3, 149.4, 149.5 reproduced, 149.7
5.M. Mena Marquès, 'Maratti e la Spagna', Liliana Barroero et al., Atti delle giornate di Studio su Carlo Maratti nel terzo centenario della morte (1713-2013), Rome 2015, pp. 160-162