Marco Pino, called Marco da Siena

Sale, Paris, Hôtel Drouot, 10-11 October 1983, lot 79 bis, reproduced (as Attributed to Trometta);
with Annamaria Edelstein, London; acquired 1985

Gainesville, et al., 1991-93, no. 9

Burlington Magazine, London Calender, April 1985, reproduced fig. 115;
P. Leone de Castris, 'Marco Pino: il ventennio oscuro', Bollettino d' Arte, LXXIX, 1994, pp. 84-85, p.85, note 33;
A. Zezza, 'Tra Perino del Vaga e Daniele da Volterra: alcune proposte  e qualche conferma per Marco Pino a Roma', Prospettiva, 73-74, 1994, pp. 152, 155, note 12;
K. Oberhuber, in Fiamminghi a Roma 1508-1608,  exhibition catalogue, Brussels, Palais des Beaux-Arts and Rome, Palazzo delle Esposizioni, 1995, p. 342, note 1;
B.W. Meijer, in Fiamminghi a Roma 1508-1608, reproduced p. 35, p. 36, p. 435, note 32; 
A. Zezza, 'Precisazioni su Marco Pino al Gesù Vecchio', Dialoghi di Storia dell' Arte, 1, 1995, pp.104-125;
P. Leone de Castris, Pittura del Cinquecento a Napoli, 1540-1573 Fasto e devozione, Naples 1996, p. 198;
A. Zezza, Marco Pino, L'opera completa, Naples 2003, p. 315, no. C.3, reproduced p. 152, pl. 24

Laid down on board. A few losses around the edges, and a bigger loss at the top on the left margin, after the third columns. Some old creases towards the centre of the sheet. Some abrasions, but overall in reasonable condition, the ink and wash quite fresh, the paper blue-green. Sold mounted and in a modern silver colour frame.
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.
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Mentioned by Giovanni  Baglione in his life of Marco Pino,¹ the altarpiece for which this finished drawing is preparatory was commissioned on 31 August 1568 by Giovanni Battista Capogalli for his own chapel, dedicated to St. John the Evangelist, in the Roman church of the SS. Apostoli.  The altarpiece, which shows St John the Evangelist thrown into a cauldron of boiling oil on the orders of the Emperor Domitian, was to be part of a decorative scheme which also included five frescoes.  According to a surviving contract, the work was to have been completed the following year at the time of the feast of the Nativity.²  The painting disappeared at the beginning of the 18th century when the church was torn down and rebuilt to designs by Francesco Fontana.  Linda Wolk-Simon, in the Horvitz exhibition catalogue, pointed out that given the precise correspondence with both the contract of 1568 and Baglione's description there can be no doubt that this is a study for the lost altarpiece and is therefore an important visual record as well as a significant addition to the corpus of Marco Pino's drawings. 

It is very interesting to observe how close Marco Pino is stylistically to Taddeo Zuccaro, who had died two years earlier, but whose influence continued to be strongly felt in Rome for much of the second half of the century. Linda Wolk-Simon points out several close connections, such as that between the dramatic angel in this drawing and the figure of  Christ in Taddeo's Conversion of St Paul in the Frangipani Chapel, San Marcello al Corso, Rome.  There is also a notable similarity of subect, style and media with Taddeo's Angels in Flight: Study for Angels appearing to Saint Joseph, formerly in the Krautheimer collection.³  In view of this inheritance from Taddeo, it is not surprising that when this drawing was offered for sale at the Hôtel Drouot, it was attributed to Niccolò Martinelli called Trometta, a close follower of Taddeo's.  Other influences on Marco Pino are also evident: the figure types of Pellegrino Tibaldi with whom he collaborated in Rome and affinities with Barocci, to whom the drawing was also once attributed.

1. Giovanni Baglione, Le Vite de' Pittori Scultori et Architetti, 1642, p. 31

2. Gainesville, et al., p. 37

3. See J.A. Gere, Taddeo Zuccaro. His Development Studied in his Drawings, London 1969, no. 145, reproduced pl. 81