Giovanni Battista Gaulli, called Il Baciccio

Estimate

30,000 - 40,000 USD

bidding is closed

Description

Giovanni Battista Gaulli, called Il Baciccio
christ and the virgin with saint nicholas of Bari
Pen and brown ink and brown and gray wash, over black chalk, lightly quartered and ruled at the vertical edges in black chalk

Provenance

With Emmanuel Moatti, Paris (Dessins Anciens, 1992, no. 28, reproduced);
with Flavia Ormond, London (exhibited in New York, Italian Old Master Drawings, 1994, no.13, reproduced)

Literature

K. Wolfe, in Giovan Battista Gaulli Il Baciccio 1639-1709, exhib. cat., Ariccia, Palazzo Chigi, 1999-2000, p. 179, under no. 39;
Francesco Petrucci, Baciccio, Rome 2009, p. 549, no. C.23.1, reproduced

Catalogue Note

Like lot 539, this is a compositional study related to Gaulli's commission from the Genoese banker Paolo Girolamo Torri for an altarpiece for his chapel in S. Maria Maddalena, Rome (fig. 1). The painting was executed between 1697 and 1698 and is still in its original location.

This is a very energetic drawing, characteristic of Gaulli's draughtsmanship, with a significant pentimento in the head of the Virgin. It differs from the more classicizing final composition in many details and has a wider format, which may explain the chalk guidelines at the edges of the sheet.