Attributed to Bartolomeo Neroni, called Il Riccio Active in Siena 1532 - 1571

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Description

Bartolomeo Neroni, called Riccio
the adoration of the shepherds
bears attribution in pen and brown ink on the old mount: Badassare Peruzzi di Sienna 1480-1526
pen and brown ink and wash heightened with white over black chalk,
squared in black chalk

Provenance

London, Christie's, 25 June 1968, lot 17, (as Follower of Polidoro da Caravaggio)

Literature

David Ekserdjian, Letter to the Editor, in Master Drawings, vol. XXX, no. 2, 1992, p. 227

Catalogue Note

David Ekserdjian recognized this as being after a lost drawing by Polidoro da Caravaggio, which is known through a copy in the Louvre (see Literature). In his entry on the Louvre drawing, Ravelli suggests the original must have been executed between 1520 and 1523 and that it was quite close to the artist's very beautiful drawing in the Accademia di San Fernando (see Lanfranco Ravelli, Polidoro Caldara da Caravaggio, Bergamo 1978, p. 243, cat. no. 337 and pp. 116-7, cat. no. 47, reproduced). It is interesting to note the old attribution of the present drawing to Peruzzi, as in fact it is definitely the work of a Sienese artist still influenced by Beccafumi. It is therefore quite plausible to suggest the name of Bartolomeo Neroni.