Emilian School 16th Century

This impressive and large scale drawing is a finished study for the elaborate decoration of a chapel.  It bears the date of 1545 which seems totally in keeping with the style of the drawing, most surely preparatory for a fresco decoration.  The subject represented in the apse is identified by the inscription on the cartouche as David and Abishag, a story from the Old Testament: 'The girl was very beautiful, she took care of the King and waited on him, but the King had no intimate relations with her'.  This chaste relationship was considered a prefiguring of the Betrothal of the Virgin, which is depicted below.  The artist of this elaborate drawing has not yet been identified, but the style is influenced by the artistic context of both Rome and Bologna around the middle of the century.  The ambitious composition with its complex setting certainly reflects the knowledge and influence of Raphael and his school, and in particular of Perino del Vaga.  The reclining figures above the arch are inconceivable without knowledge of Perino's Prophets above the arch of the Pucci chapel in Trinitá dei Monti, Rome.  The artist seems also to have been familiar with Vasari's work, evident, for instance, in the group of figures standing in the lower corner.  He could easily have come from Emilia and he does seem to share stylistic similarities with the graphic style of Pupini and Prospero Fontana.  Perhaps the most plausible name that has been put foward as a possible candidate for the authorship of this drawing is the Emilian Bartolomeo Ramenghi the Younger, called il Bagnacavallo Junior (1521-1601).  Having worked for Primaticcio at Fontainebleau, he arrived in Rome around 1545 and assisted Vasari on the decoration of the Sala dei Cento Giorni in the Cancelleria (1546).  Drawings by this artist are, however, very rare; for an example of a securely attributed, connected drawing, see Mario di Giampaolo, Disegni emiliani del Rinascimento, Milan 1989, no.92, reproduced.