Attributed to Bartolomeo Cesi

Hinged to a mount at the top right and left margin. There are glue stains visible on the verso from previous mounting. There is a small hole to the bottom right of the sheet and another small hole to the lower left of the sheet. Overall it is in very good condition and the chalk is fresh. The chalk appears darker in the catalogue illustration.
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The attribution to Cesi was originally suggested by Nicholas Turner and confirmed by Mario Di Giampaolo.  Although not connected to any surviving work by the artist, this highly finished and squared compositional drawing must have been preparatory for an altarpiece now lost or never executed.  It shows the influence of Correggio and the Carracci in the subtle and soft handling of the red chalk and in the elaborate composition.  The architecture with the crossbeams receding into the background can be found in other works by Cesi, such as the Adoration of the Magi,¹ the central part of the triptych on the high altar in San Domenico, Bologna, unveiled 4 August 1595, for which many drawings have survived.  Stylistically the present study can be compared with the elaborate pen and ink preparatory compositional drawing for that painting.²   Although executed in different media, they share a very similar conception of the grouping of the figures as well as an energetic ductus adapted to the accomodation of many figures in a crowded space, making the attribution very convincing.  Cesi's red chalk single figure studies are well-known, but our knowledge of his style when using red chalk for compositional studies is more limited.  Therefore, this is an important contribution to an understanding of his work.

1. Marzia Faietti and Alessandro Zacchi, Figure, Disegni dal Cinquecento all'Ottocento nella Pinacoteca Nazionale di Bologna, Milan 1998, pp. 116-7, under no. 34, reproduced
2. Ibid., no. 34, reproduced